Towards Increasing Business Orientation: Finnish Management Accountants in a Changing Cultural Context

Abstract

The key elements of this study consist of management accounting, communication cultures, and people pursuing management accounting in companies. Based on our evidence, we argue that management accounting practice in Finland is tied to the national culture surrounding it, i.e., Finnishness, and that the Finnish management accounting culture is currently in a significant transition. The most prominent sign of such transformation is the emergence of the controller accountant as an important player in organisational decision-making. The background for this transition can be traced, among other things, to intense internationalisation of Finnish companies in recent years.

JEL Classification: M40, M46