The “economic paradigm” in management accounting

Purpose - This paper seeks to examine the profile of artifacts with superior returns in order to identify the usage of management accounting in a Brazilian context. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is part of an empirical research project based on a probabilistic sample (119 entities) from medium and large Brazilian companies, selected according to economic sector and revenues. The management accounting artifacts were identified according to the five stages ofInternational Management Accounting Practice 1(IMAP 1, International Federation of Accountants (IFA), 1998). Logistic regression was applied to identify the artifacts most adherent to companies with the outstanding profile. Findings - In the analysis of the five stages ofIMAP 1, only the fifth stage, value management, provided the significance level to accept the hypothesis. In this stage, the artifacts that were accepted with a significance level of 90 percent were return on equity and balanced scorecard. Research limitations/implications - The field research was applied only in the Brazilian market. Practical implications - Especially for researchers, this paper raises some important questions, and aims to stimulate future studies in management accounting. Originality/value - This paper contributes by presenting research from outside the Anglo‐Saxon world, and by analyzing the artifacts' profile with approaches balanced between positive and qualitative accounting.