Purpose -The paper aims to provide an overview of the rationale for qualitative research in management accounting. It discusses how qualitative research could serve the development of theory, and provides guiding principles for qualitative investigation. It also seeks to identify common problems in qualitative studies and lays out avenues for further qualitative inquiry. Design/methodology/approach -The paper relies on critical reflection and deductive logic in its discussion, drawing on a wide range of theoretical pronouncements and methodological literature, as well as on some illustrative field studies in management accounting. Findings -The paper opens a broad panorama: it emphasizes field research as a necessary counterweight to textbook appreciations of management accounting, to idealized economic models and to consultancy-oriented agenda. It identifies how field research serves theory development in different ways, providing a set of practical principles which assist qualitative efforts. The paper also specifies pitfalls in qualitative studies and shows areas where the future potential of qualitative investigations can be focused. Practical implications -This is a paper that motivates the "qualitative" management accounting scholar. But it also assists in a pragmatic way the qualitatively oriented management accounting scholar -especially someone with little prior experience in empirical fieldwork and in the theoretical interpretation of qualitative data. Originality/value -The paper provides a source of inspiration, an instructive reflection and a practical guide for the qualitatively oriented, but still somewhat hesitant, management accounting scholar.

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Knowledge and organizational learning are central concerns of contemporary organizations. Local knowledge is stored in the detailed operational practices, professional routines and grassroot ways of thinking in specific situations, which different agents employ in their organizational segments and niches. These sources of field insight are relevant in producing new competitive initiatives and in the creation of new strategy. This empirically grounded paper illustrates how focused non-financial management accounting measurement brings the controller closer to operational detail, stimulates horizontal debate, and leads to expert resistance. It suggests that non-financial measurement, as an intrusive and controversial management accounting technology, can be perceived as being ‘provocative’. Organizational actors react strongly to this focused measurement. However, ‘provocative’ non-financial measurement assists the articulation of intriguing local knowledge in organizational discourse, providing new possibilities for the controller in locally situated processes of learning.