IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jfr/afr111/v8y2019i2p189.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Focus on ‘Control’: Reconciling Contemporary Transaction Cost Economics with Behavioural Contingency Accounting Perspectives

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah A. Hinchliffe

Abstract

Transaction cost economics and contingency research in managerial accounting currently are approached largely as two formally distinct fields of study. This brief review paper aims to reconcile the literature on both subjects in so far as possible, by examining broadly their underlying assumptions and reported conclusions with the view towards identifying differences and similarities. An important integration is achieved by showing that transaction cost economics and the ‘decision influencing’ role of management accounting concentrate essentially on different aspects to a shared concern with organisational control. However, it additionally is revealed that transaction cost economics does not account adequately for the existence of management accounting’s ‘decision facilitating’ function, and that in comparison to the former the latter’s relatively stronger empirical focus is more suited towards finding potential solutions to the actual control problems which confront real organisations. The paper concludes by observing that both paradigms presently to a large extent do not pay attention to a particular principal-agent situation in which control may need to be exercised.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah A. Hinchliffe, 2019. "A Focus on ‘Control’: Reconciling Contemporary Transaction Cost Economics with Behavioural Contingency Accounting Perspectives," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 8(2), pages 189-189, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:jfr:afr111:v:8:y:2019:i:2:p:189
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/afr/article/download/15434/9581
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/afr/article/view/15434
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1995. "Complementarities and fit strategy, structure, and organizational change in manufacturing," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 179-208, April.
    2. Burchell, Stuart & Clubb, Colin & Hopwood, Anthony & Hughes, John & Nahapiet, Janine, 1980. "The roles of accounting in organizations and society," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 5-27, January.
    3. Govindarajan, V. & Gupta, Anil K., 1985. "Linking control systems to business unit strategy: impact on performance," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 51-66, January.
    4. Johnson, H. Thomas, 1983. "The search for gain in markets and firms: A review of the historical emergence of management accounting systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 8(2-3), pages 139-146, May.
    5. Brownell, P, 1985. "Budgetary Systems And The Control Of Functionally Differentiated Organizational Activities," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 502-512.
    6. Chaim Fershtman, 1987. "Cooperation Through Delegation," Discussion Papers 731, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    7. Abernethy, Margaret A. & Stoelwinder, Johannes U., 1995. "The role of professional control in the management of complex organizations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-17, January.
    8. Abernethy, Margaret A. & Brownell, Peter, 1997. "Management control systems in research and development organizations: The role of accounting, behavior and personnel controls," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(3-4), pages 233-248.
    9. Henry Ogden Armour & David J. Teece, 1978. "Organizational Structure and Economic Performance: A Test of the Multidivisional Hypothesis," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(1), pages 106-122, Spring.
    10. Miller, Peter & O'Leary, Ted, 1987. "Accounting and the construction of the governable person," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 235-265, April.
    11. Cooper, David J. & Sherer, Michael J., 1984. "The value of corporate accounting reports: Arguments for a political economy of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 9(3-4), pages 207-232, October.
    12. Rubin, Paul H, 1978. "The Theory of the Firm and the Structure of the Franchise Contract," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 223-233, April.
    13. Baiman, Stanley, 1990. "Agency research in managerial accounting: A second look," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 341-371.
    14. Govindarajan, V., 1984. "Appropriateness of accounting data in performance evaluation: An empirical examination of environmental uncertainty as an intervening variable," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 125-135, June.
    15. Demski, Js & Kreps, Dm, 1982. "Models In Managerial Accounting," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20, pages 117-148.
    16. Hopwood, Anthony G., 1987. "The archeology of accounting systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 207-234, April.
    17. Martin L. Weitzman, 1976. "The New Soviet Incentive Model," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(1), pages 251-257, Spring.
    18. Campbell, Donald J. & Gingrich, Karl F., 1986. "The interactive effects of task complexity and participation on task performance: A field experiment," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 162-180, October.
    19. Hopwood, Ag, 1972. "Empirical Study Of Role Of Accounting Data In Performance Evaluation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10, pages 156-182.
    20. Simons, Robert, 1987. "Accounting control systems and business strategy: An empirical analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 357-374, June.
    21. Otley, David T., 1980. "The contingency theory of management accounting: Achievement and prognosis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 413-428, October.
    22. Raviv, Artur, 1985. "Management compensation and the managerial labor market an overview," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1-3), pages 239-245, April.
    23. Brownell, P, 1982. "The Role Of Accounting Data In Performance Evaluation, Budgetary Participation, And Organizational-Effectiveness," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 12-27.
    24. Hopwood, Ag, 1972. "Empirical Study Of Role Of Accounting Data In Performance Evaluation - Reply," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10, pages 189-193.
    25. Otley, Dt, 1978. "Budget Use And Managerial Performance," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 122-149.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luft, Joan & Shields, Michael D., 2003. "Mapping management accounting: graphics and guidelines for theory-consistent empirical research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 169-249.
    2. Chenhall, Robert H., 2003. "Management control systems design within its organizational context: findings from contingency-based research and directions for the future," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 127-168.
    3. Hartmann, Frank G. H., 2000. "The appropriateness of RAPM: toward the further development of theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 25(4-5), pages 451-482, May.
    4. Chapman, Christopher S., 1997. "Reflections on a contingent view of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 189-205, February.
    5. Brown, Lawrence D., 1996. "Influential accounting articles, individuals, Ph.D. granting institutions and faculties: A citational analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 21(7-8), pages 723-754.
    6. Pascal Langevin & Gérald Naro, 2003. "Controle Et Comportements : Une Revue De La Litterature Anglo-Saxonne," Post-Print halshs-00582794, HAL.
    7. Hartmann, Frank G. H. & Moers, Frank, 1999. "Testing contingency hypotheses in budgetary research: an evaluation of the use of moderated regression analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 291-315, May.
    8. Cooper, Christine, 2015. "Entrepreneurs of the self: The development of management control since 1976," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 14-24.
    9. Klaus Derfuss, 2015. "Relating Context Variables to Participative Budgeting and Evaluative Use of Performance Measures: A Meta-analysis," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 51(2), pages 238-278, June.
    10. Fasshauer, Ingrid, 2012. "Les interactions entre contrôle et stratégie : redéfinition du rôle des cadres intermédiaires et du levier interactif de contrôle," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/11150 edited by Berland, Nicolas.
    11. R. Murray Lindsay, 1994. "Publication System Biases Associated with the Statistical Testing Paradigm," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1), pages 33-57, June.
    12. Vagneur, K. & Peiperl, M., 2000. "Reconsidering performance evaluative style," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 25(4-5), pages 511-525, May.
    13. Otley, David & Fakiolas, Alexander, 2000. "Reliance on accounting performance measures: dead end or new beginning?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 25(4-5), pages 497-510, May.
    14. Van der Stede, Wim A. & Young, S. Mark & Chen, Clara Xiaoling, 2005. "Assessing the quality of evidence in empirical management accounting research: The case of survey studies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(7-8), pages 655-684.
    15. Chong Lau & Christen Buckland, 2000. "Budget emphasis, participation, task difficulty and performance: the effect of diversity within culture," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 37-55.
    16. Löning, Hélène & Besson, M. & Mendoza, Carla, 2008. "Dual use of budgeting in uncertainty contexts: Explorative study of senior sales and marketing managers," HEC Research Papers Series 897, HEC Paris.
    17. Chenhall, Robert H. & Moers, Frank, 2015. "The role of innovation in the evolution of management accounting and its integration into management control," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-13.
    18. Bhimani, Alnoor & Sivabalan, Prabhu & Soonawalla, Kazbi, 2018. "A study of the linkages between rolling budget forms, uncertainty and strategy," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 306-323.
    19. Bisbe, Josep & Batista-Foguet, Joan-Manuel & Chenhall, Robert, 2007. "Defining management accounting constructs: A methodological note on the risks of conceptual misspecification," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(7-8), pages 789-820.
    20. Jan Noeverman & Bas A.S. Koene & Roger Williams, 2005. "Construct measurement of evaluative style: a review and proposal," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 2(1), pages 77-107, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jfr:afr111:v:8:y:2019:i:2:p:189. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sciedu Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.