Continuity and change; management accounting during processes of transition

Abstract This study examines how the interpretation of (new) concepts and ideas affects management accounting in a Hungarian, previously government-owned company. Through a case study it is analysed how the concepts `market' and `market economy' are brought into the company and affect priorities and the logic related to management accounting just as they change the relations between economy and production. There is especially focus on how `economic matters' and management accounting are constituted between `cargoes-of-thoughts' and a new `reality of everyday life'. With Berger and Luckmann (1966) as the primary frame of reference the article will focus on institutionalization and practices in selected parts of management accounting in the case company. It is shown that calculation practice (surprisingly) technically is almost unchanged in the new `reality of everyday life' despite a new purpose, whereas cash management is a quite new discipline; the market economy appears as an alternation but with recognizable inscriptions. In conclusion, the analyses will reveal that post-rationalizations and alternations have attributed to rationality—in a struggle against former `cargoes-of-thoughts'.

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