Legitimacy and Identity in Germanic Management Accounting Research

Abstract

The notion of 'Controlling', as it is commonly used in German-speaking countries, may be regarded as an equivalent term for management accounting. At the same time, there have been considerable efforts to establish Controlling as a discipline on its own, rather than to regard it simply as the German synonym of management accounting. This is reflected in many writings on Controlling which have tried to identify a possible 'core' or 'essence' of the subject. In this paper, we argue that this identity discourse may be interpreted as a strategy of Controlling researchers to achieve cognitive and sociopolitical legitimacy of their discipline. Drawing on interview material as well as publication and citation analyses, we show how various institutional pressures and constraints not only influenced the institutionalization of Controlling as an academic discipline but also impacted the form and substance of Controlling research. This raises some important questions for our understanding of academic disciplines more generally, some of which we address in this paper

Controllership Functions: an analysis in the Brazilian scenario<br>DOI: 10.7819/rbgn.v15i47.1185

“…Such approaches are the beginning of the discourse of identity, and the coordination subsequently became the dominant topic of research (MESSNER et al, 2008). As for the functions, the controllership is responsible for the coordination of planning, control and information system (HORVÁTH, 2006;KÜPPER, 2005;MESSNER et al, 2008;WEBER, 2004).…”

“…As for the functions, the controllership is responsible for the coordination of planning, control and information system (HORVÁTH, 2006;KÜPPER, 2005;MESSNER et al, 2008;WEBER, 2004).…”

“…This means that the body of knowledge produced by the discipline is accepted by the scientific community as part of the superior education and research system. To attain such legitimacy, it is supposed the possibility of identifying an idiosyncratic set of themes and functions, or cognitive styles, that supposedly are special in relation to some aspect and, that thus should be different from other disciplines (LUNKES et al, 2012;MESSNER et al, 2008).…”

“…This is associated to historical causes, since the first controllers came or were recruited by American companies, in addition to the domination of American literature and magazines in the world of academic publications. On the other hand, publications of authors of German language institutions are rare in high impact accountancy magazines (MESSNER et al, 2008).…”

“…Even in the companies of the new economy, controllership should prioritize the planning in relation to the control (GRANLUND; TAIPALEENMÄKI, 2005). Different, for instance, of the constitution in German language countries (Germany, Austria and part of Switzerland), in which, in principle, there was a clear division of positions and their functions (HORVÁTH, 2006;KÜPPER, 2005;MESSNER et al, 2008;WEBER, 2004).…”