PurposeDespite the growing pressure to encourage new ways of thinking about research methodology, only recently have interview methodologists begun to realize that “we cannot lift the results of interviewing out of the contexts in which they were gathered and claim them as objective data with no strings attached”. The purpose of this paper is to provide additional insight based on a critical reflection of the interview as a research method drawing upon Alvesson's discussion from the neopositivist, romanticist and localist interview perspectives. Specifically, the authors focus on critical reflections of three broad categories of a continuum of interview methods: structured, semi‐structured and unstructured interviews.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopt a critical and reflexive approach to understanding the literature on interviews to develop alternative insights about the use of interviews as a qualitative research method.FindingsAfter examining the neopositivist (interview as a “tool”) and romanticist (interview as “human encounter”) perspectives on the use of the research interview, the authors adopt a localist perspective towards interviews and argue that the localist approach opens up alternative understanding of the interview process and the accounts produced provide additional insights. The insights are used to outline the skills researchers need to develop in applying the localist perspective to interviews.Originality/valueThe paper provides an alternative perspective on the practice of conducting interviews, recognizing interviews as complex social and organizational phenomena rather than just a research method.

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We explore how the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), as a management accounting technique, was developed and marketed as a general management practice. Drawing on actor network theory (ANT), we analyze interviews with key actors associated with the BSC, insights gained from attending BSC training workshops, and other documentary evidence to construct a history of the BSC. Our historical analysis offers theoretical tools to understand how the various features of the accounting technique were translated and transformed, that is, shaped and solidified. This translation entailed processes of modification, labelling, framing, and specification of abstract categories and cause-effect relations. We also examine the networks and associations that both shape the form of the BSC and mobilize the interests of various constituencies around it to produce what can be regarded as a global management technology. Finally, we highlight the strategies and actions used to maintain control of this technique through its continuous reinvention, and, by doing so, we emphasize the idea of strategic agency. Propagation d'une id ee issue de la comptabilit e de gestion : le cas du tableau de bord R ESUM E Les auteurs s'interrogent sur la fac ßon dont le tableau de bord, a titre de technique de comptabilit e de gestion, a et e elabor e et mis en march e a titre de m ethode de gestion r epandue. En s'appuyant sur la th eorie du r eseau d'acteurs, les auteurs analysent des entrevues avec des acteurs cl es associ es au tableau de bord, des indications recueillies dans le cadre d'ateliers de formation a l'utilisation du tableau de bord ainsi que des informations provenant d'autres sources documentaires pour bâtir l'histoire du tableau de bord. Leur analyse historique leur procure des outils th eoriques permettant de comprendre comment les diverses caract eristiques de la technique comptable ont et e adapt ees et transform ees, c'est-a-dire fac ßonn ees et consolid ees. Cette adaptation a donn e naissance a des processus de modification, d' etiquetage, d'encadrement et de sp ecification de cat egories abstraites et de relations de cause a effet. Les auteurs etudient egalement les r eseaux et les associations qui fac ßonnent la forme du tableau de bord en même temps qu'ils mobilisent l'int erêt de divers groupes pour produire ce qui peutêtre consid er e comme une technologie de gestion globale. Enfin, les auteurs mettent en lumi ere les strat egies et les mesures utilis ees pour maintenir le contrôle de cette technique grâce a sa r einvention incessante et, ce faisant, font ressortir l'id ee de m ediation strat egique.

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PurposeThis paper aims to focus on the role of graphics in the propagation of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) through the persuasive capacity of graphism to “scientize” management ideas. Scientization, through professionalization of knowledge, rationalization of management and the empowerment of human actorhood, is widely seen as an important element in embedding new management concepts and techniques; a determination based on some version of the positivist belief that science offers a privileged access to reality.Design/methodology/approachBased on an analysis of popular literature of the BSC in core business media during 1992 and 2010, the paper focuses on the publications authored by Kaplan and Norton, the creators and authority on this topic.FindingsThe paper argues that the use of graphics has played an important role in promoting the claims made by proponents of the BSC by portraying the technique as both scientific and as descended from a venerable tradition of knowledge. Specifically, it argues that graphics are mobilized to: enable the technique to be portrayed as developing cumulatively towards the present vantage, from flawed measurement to management break‐through; promoters of the BSC to defensibly extend claims about the BSC (i.e. rationalize management through the visual representation of causality and strategic focus); and open up multiple interpretations and iterations of concepts which enable the empowerment of human actorhood (i.e. management).Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the accounting literature relating to diffusion of management innovations, and research examining the generative mechanisms and the processes through which management innovations come about.

This paper describes a useful addition to behavioral researchers' set of research methods, supplementing and extending what can be learned from interviews, surveys, and experiments. The experiential questionnaire (EQ) is designed to study the context within which experts behave, guided by theory about that context and by extensive pre-testing with representatives of the target population of respondents. An EQ is built around expert respondents' experience of their context, the world in which they function, as represented by cases they have experienced and can describe in detail. The value of the data is supplemented by having the respondents choose the cases and do much of the categorization and coding of their own responses. The EQ's questions are worded in matter-of-fact terms familiar to the respondents, to encourage respondents to report their experienced contexts dispassionately. This paper describes the EQ method, with examples from the mostly auditing published studies and suggestions about extensions into other areas of accounting research. The value of studying experts' context is addressed, as are matching of respondents and theory, designing and testing an EQ, and some threats to validity of the data resulting from an EQ. References to related research literatures are included.

This paper extends the literature on professional and organisational commitment through an online survey of professional accountants that examines the influence of several contextual features; namely, workplace diversification, occupational stress, professional involvement and culture. The survey was carried out around the end of 2002 with Canadian chartered accountants (CAs) from four Canadian provincial institutes. Three of these provincial institutes are located in English‐speaking provinces (Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia), while the fourth CA association is in Quebec, a predominantly French‐speaking province. In contrast to prior research carried out more than two decades ago, our results indicate that respondents in public practice do not differ from respondents in non‐public accounting settings in their level of professional commitment and in their level of organisational commitment. Our results also suggest that occupational stress and professional involvement are both significantly related to professional commitment. Finally, our survey data indicate that accountants working in Quebec had a lower professional commitment than their peers working in English‐speaking provinces, thereby suggesting that culture exerts significant influence on professional commitment.