Privatisation and Management Accounting Change: The Drivers of Changes in a Brazilian Electricity Distribution Company

Abstract

The main of this study is to explain the main drivers of the process of management accounting change in a privatised Brazilian electricity distribution company (Electra) by discussing the main factors that affected the management accounting practices of the case study company. This study adopts an interpretive case study as research method to analyse the changes in management accounting that occurred in the case company in a period of 8 years, that is, from 2000 (the privatisation year) to 2007. The drivers of change after the process of privatisation normally come from different sources from inside and outside the organisation. However, in this case study, the pressure from the inside the organisation played an insignificant role as a driver of management accounting change in Electra, as the process of management accounting change was driven by massive pressure from outside the company. The drivers of change in Electra were identified as being: (a) the new regulation; (b) the managerial pressure introduced by the new private owner, that is, the change in the ownership of Electra; (c) the pressure from the electricity sector associations and other distribution companies; and (d) public opinion. Keywords: Management Accounting, Change, Drivers, Privatisation. RESUMO O objetivo desse estudo é explicar os principais drivers para o processo de mudança na contabilidade gerencial de uma empresa Brasileira privatizada de distribuição de energia (Electra), discutindo os fatores intra e inter organizacionais que afetaram as práticas de