The globalisation of a profession: comparative management accounting in emerging and developed countries

We analyse and compare management accounting practices in a matched sample of firms in Brazil and Germany and contribute to the existing literature in three ways: first, we build on the established frameworks of contingency theory and institutional isomorphism; second, we introduce a novel embedded multiple case study design with qualitative and quantitative elements of content analysis into comparative management accounting research; third, we contribute to the understanding of the management accounting role in different national settings, with a focus on Latin America, on which the literature is scarce. Surprisingly, we find similar practices in both countries, but we also identify differences related to national culture, the economic situation, the information used and the embedding of strategic aspects in management accounting. Furthermore, we show that differences between industries surpass cross-country heterogeneity and we present institutional isomorphism as a suitable theoretical framework to explain our findings against the backdrop of globalisation.