Guest-editors:
Klaus Möller, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland,
Utz Schäffer, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany,
Paula van Veen-Dirks, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and
Frank Verbeeten, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
In recent years, we have seen an emerging stream of literature on the digitalization of management
accounting and control (see e.g. Fähndrich, 2022; Agostino et al., 2022; Knudsen, 2020; Moll &
Yigitbasioglu, 2019; and Rikhardsson & Yigitbasioglu, 2018 for reviews). Recent literature has
investigated how new digital technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA; Plattfaut &
Borghoff, 2022) and process mining (Jans et al., 2022) affect management accounting activities and
practices, including budgeting and forecasting (Bergmann et al., 2020). Other papers have
investigated the impact of digital technologies on management accountant roles (Andreassen, 2020)
and competencies (Oesterreich et al., 2019). Finally, given the potential impact of digital technologies
on management accounting and control, some authors have called for a reconsideration of research
methods in this area given the growth of analysable data, both structured and unstructured (Bhimani,
2020) and pointed to the research potential of new, technology-induced data sources (Mahlendorf et
al 2023). Despite this stream of literature, the effects of the digital revolution on management
accounting and control are unlikely to ‘deliver the dream of perfect information and rational decision-making’
(Quattrone 2016). This special issue of the Journal of Management Control, following up on
the special issue of 2020, aims to shed light on how the various aspects of what is called digital
technology might be used, and how it impacts management accounting practice and theory.
Deadline: February 28, 2024
