This paper presents a systematic literature review of 109 empirical articles published between 1977 and 2017 in English and French on management accounting (MA) in Africa. Our main results are synthesized into seven larger themes and an evidence-based explanatory framework regarding MA in Africa. This framework suggests that MA in Africa is subject to various antecedents, some of which are specific to African countries and contexts. In addition, we find that current MA practices and systems may have mainly hampered, rather than fostered, performance and development in many African countries and enterprises. However, our review also shows overall that such critical views on MA in Africa are rather found in internationally ranked English-language journals, than in less esteemed English-language and Francophone journals. According to our analyses, the more critical findings can largely be explained by the overriding paradigm of neopatrimonialism, while the less critical and more positivist findings rather adhere to contingency thinking. Finally, the present review highlights a need for more research about MA in the informal African economy, the connection between MA and development-related sustainability issues, such as civil wars and environmental management, and the impact of the increased presence of China on MA in Africa.

Purpose-It is difficult to develop an overall picture of the practice of management accounting in farms and farm enterprises because little research has been published on the topic, and these studies are mostly discrete and unconnected to the others. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the available research, develop an explanatory framework for management accounting practices in farming entities and identify some major avenues for future research on the topic. Design/methodology/approach-This paper employs systematic literature review methods. After an extensive database search and an examination of references/citations, 41 empirical 1 Acknowledgements: This paper is based on the second author's master's thesis submitted at the University of Siegen. A previous version of this paper has been presented at the 15 th Annual Conference for Management Accounting Research (ACMAR) in Vallendar, Germany. The authors would like to thank the ACMAR participants and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments which have helped to improve the paper.