Management Accounting in a-centred organizations. A case study on mergers and acquisitions

Most of the studies on Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) have focused on the causes of their success or failure, but little is known about what really goes on in the life of organizations after a M&A. This study looks at management accounting in the aftermaths of M&A operations, with the aim of gaining new knowledge on the role it plays in shaping a new entity, by balancing old and new perspectives about the organizational reality and its envisaged future. Based on the concepts of Ôorganizational driftingÕ and of Ôa-centred organizationÕ proposed by Quattrone and Hopper (2001), this paper will develop a framework to understand the contextual features of newly formed groups in the aftermath of M&A operations. Subsequently, we will use the framework to understand the role of management accounting on it by making use of data collected during a fieldwork. This paper makes a double contribution. On one hand it deepens our understanding of M&A by emphasizing the a-centreness of newly formed entities and the organizational drifting they experience. On the other hand the paper contributes to extend our knowledge on the role of management accounting in an a-centred organization and in the process of organizational drifting, by uncovering its constitutive power in M&A operations, which has been very rarely addressed.