A broad field of management control

Excerpt

This issue of JoMaC contains three articles illustrating the broad field of management control and the diversity of research methods. The topics addressed in this issue cover management control systems from three perspectives, ranging from rules and routines in management accounting over empirical findings about asymmetric cost behavior to control systems in innovative companies. The study by Bertz and Quinn explores the role of rules in rules/routines interactions. Based on semi-structured interviews conducted at two Irish local authorities that introduced a new cost accounting system, the authors shed light on the question how accounting rules are interpreted and how management accounting routines develop. The interviews reveal the relations between formal and informal rules, human cognition and management accounting routines. …