Forms of contingency fit in management accounting research—a critical review

Realising the richness of psychology theory in contingency-based management accounting research

“…These studies typically examine organizational performance as the dependent variable (Gerdin and Greve, 2004). This is not surprising as the role of psychology theory in organisational-level contingency based research is to provide a theoretical explanation for why certain combinations of context and management accounting would affect organizational performance via their influence on the actions of individuals.…”

“…Whilst its shortcomings have been the subject of considerable debate (e.g., Otley, 1980;Chapman, 1997;Hartmann and Moers, 1999;Gerdin and Greve, 2004); it remains an important and central field of inquiry in management accounting research. For example, Chenhall's (2003) review of contingency research in management accounting and control still remains one of the most downloaded articles in Accounting, Organizations and Society, 13 years after its initial publication.…”

“…This analysis is important because although psychology theory has been employed extensively in contingency-based management accounting research, there has been little consideration of how it could be utilised more fruitfully. A focus on the use of psychology theory also complements studies examining the use of specific theories and ways of theorising in contingency research in management accounting more broadly (e.g., Chapman, 1997;Hartmann, 2000;Gerdin and Greve, 2004).…”

Do comprehensive performance measurement systems help or hinder managers’ mental model development?

“…perform a t-test on the difference in regression coefficients on the comprehensive PMS-mental model building path between the two subsamples (Hartmann and Moers, 1999;Gerdin and Greve, 2004;2008). Results show that the magnitude of the 13 Statistical significance is determined using the reported original PLS estimates and bootstrapped standard errors.…”

Impact of IS Strategy and Technological Innovation Strategic Alignment on FirmPerformance

“…The most common measures that IS researchers use to assess strategic IT alignment are the matching, moderation, and profile deviation [112], however, their underlying conceptual assumptions of what constitutes fit and operationalization differ [113] leading to different and perhaps even contradictory findings [114]. In this study, the direct approach of self-typing to measure business-IT strategic alignment [115] was used to determine the alignment between technological innovation and IT strategy.…”