This paper seeks to enhance the eminent work of Burns and Scapens (2000) by introducing broader conceptualisations on organisational routines and rules in to management accounting. Design/methodology/approach The paper sets out with the Burns and Scapens (2000) framework. The paper is primarily conceptual in nature and with the addition of some more recent literature on organisational routines serves to bolster the underpinnings of the Burns and Scapens (2000) framework. Drawing especially on the work of Feldman and Pentland (2003), the nature of management accounting routines in particular is explored in some detail. By association, rules are also explored. Findings This paper proposes that an ostensive-performative distinction of routines augments our conceptualisation of how management accounting routines can represent both a source of stability and of change (simultaneously). Also, by showing how routines can represent both structure and action simultaneously, some light is shed on the ongoing interrelationship between routines and rules as highlighted in the Burns and Scapens (2000) framework and some concerns in recent literature addressed. In particular, a refined view of both routines and rules not only bolsters the work of Burns and Scapens (2000), but potentially increases its applicability as a theoretical lens to empirical studies in less formal organisations. Practical implications The proposed refinements to the Burns and Scapens (2000) framework, which aim to clarify the nature of rules and routines in a management accounting context, may be particularly useful for researchers studying less formalised (or, less rules-based) organisations. The findings emphasise the potentially more important role of the less formal concept of routines in most organisations. Originality/value The paper supports and complements the Burns and Scapens (2000) framework by integrating more recent conceptual developments on organisational routines and offering some potential definitional clarity on rules and routines in management accounting.

Stability and change in management accounting practices over time-a century or so of evidence from Guinness.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Irish Government mobilised accounting concepts to assist in implementing domestic water billing. While such is commonplace in other jurisdictions and is generally accepted as necessary to sustain a water supply, previous attempts were unsuccessful and a political hot potato. Design/methodology/approach The authors use an actor-network theory inspired approach. Specifically, the concepts of calculative spaces and their “otherness” to non-calculative spaces are used to analyse how accounting concepts were mobilised and the effects they had in the introduction of domestic water billing. The authors utilise publically available documents such as legislation, programmes for government, regulator publications, media reports and parliamentary records in the analysis over the period from 1983 to late 2014. Findings The analysis highlights how the implementation of domestic water billing involved the assembling of many divergent actors including the mobilisation of accounting concepts. Specifically the concept of “cost” became a contested entity. The government mobilised it in a conventional way to represent the resourcing of the water supply. Countering this, domestic water users associated “cost” with a direct impact on their own resources and lives. Thus, an entity usually associated with the economic realm was embroiled in political processes, with much of what they were supposed to represent becoming invisible. Thus the authors observed accounting concepts being mobilised to support the gaining of a specific political ends, the implementation of domestic billing, rather than as part of the means to implement a sustainable water supply within Ireland. Research limitations/implications This research has some limitations, one being the authors draw on secondary data. However, the research does provide a detailed base from which to continue to study a new water utility over time. Originality/value This study demonstrates the complications that can occur when accounting concepts are associated with gaining of a political ends rather than as a means in the process of trying to achieve a sustainable water supply. Further, the process saw the creation of a new utility, which is a rare occurrence in the developed world, and a water utility even more so; this study demonstrates the role accounting concepts can have in this creation.

Contemporary studies on the role of Chief Financial Officers (CFO) create a picture that a radical change in the 1960s created such a role. Predecessor-positions were more focused on transaction-processing aspects of accounting. While historical accounting publications shed some doubt on this assumption, they lack detail on the roles and tasks of such predecessors in the early parts of the twentieth century. Here, we provide a more in-depth analysis of a chief accountant in the period from 1920 to 1940 at Arthur Guinness, Son & Company Ltd. Informed by concepts from Old Institutional Economics, our evidence suggests that the Chief Accountant at Guinness has much in common with a modern-day role. In contrast, we find that even in the first half of the twentieth century before any substantial company law or regulation of accounting, the Chief Accountant was not only doing accounting, but also significantly advising top management, managing risks and interacting with external financiers. This analysis suggests a more gradual development of the role and tasks of internal accountants than that suggested by some contemporary literature.