Institutions, Rationality and Agency in Management Accounting : Rethinking and Extending the Burns and Scapens Framework

Over the past decade institutional theory, and particularly the Burns and Scapens framework has been used for many studies of management accounting change [Burns, J., Scapens, R.W., (2000). Conceptualizing management accounting change: an institutional framework. Management Accounting Research, 11(1) 3-25]. This paper rethinks and extends the Burns and Scapens framework and explores changes which are needed in light of more recent work in institutional theory, both in institutional sociology where the emphasis is now on practice variations and institutional logics, and in old institutional economics where there has been debate about the relationship between institutions and actions. An extended framework is developed which recognises both external and internal institutions, the role of deliberation and human agency, and the power of specific individuals and/or groups to impose new rules. By incorporating deliberation within the framework, the importance of logics is emphasised. However, a distinction is made between institutional logics and situated logics. The latter recognise that in any specific situation there will be multiple logics which arise from the mix of internal and external institutions. Furthermore, different groups within a given organisation may have different situated logics, and contradictions in these logics can be a source of institutional change within the organisation. As the paper was stimulated by a puzzling difference in the performance measurement systems used in the Accounting and Finance Groups in the Universities of Groningen and Manchester, performance measurement in the two universities is used to illustrate the extended framework