ترجمه کوتاه و بلند : محاسبات حسابداری مدیریت و مدیریت نوآوری

Management accounting calculations relate innovation to the firm through translations where both can change. Based on examples of the management of innovation from three firms the study shows how management accounting calculations rather than describe the properties of innovation add perspective to them mediating between innovation concerns and firm-wide concerns. This mediation happens through short and long translations. In short translations, management accounting calculations extend or reduce innovation activities via a single calculation. In long translations innovation activities are problematised via multiple calculations. When calculations challenge each other in long translations they problematise not only what innovation should be, but also where it should be located in time and space. In the three examples, calculations mobilised alternative propositions about the relevance of technical artefacts and linked this to innovation strategy and sourcing strategy in the firm’s inter-organisational relations. Tensions between calculations associated with technological, organisational and environmental entities framed considerations about the value of innovation to the firm strategically differently. All this happens because management accounting calculations are partial rather than total calculations of firms’ affairs and value.

Management accounting calculations relate innovation activity to the firm through two types of translations; a short translation which helps extend or reduce innovation activities in view of an actual or a possible performance variance; or a long translation which develops competing contexts for innovation and impacts firms’ innovation strategies and sourcing arrangements. This conclusion, which will be developed and justified later, adds weight to theories of management accounting calculations which see them as inscriptions that produce knowledge (Robson, 1992), create visibility (Cooper, 1992), mediate between complementary resources (Miller & O’Leary, 2007), and identify objects and objectives to be managed (Chua, 1995, Hoskin and Macve, 1986, Miller, 2001, Preston et al., 1992 and Vaivio, 1999). Management accounting calculations are related to organisational practices either in relation to individual managers’ localised, embedded decision making (e.g., Boland and Pondy, 1983, Ahrens and Chapman, 2004 and Ahrens and Chapman, 2007), or in relation to change programs that reach deep into the organisation to manage the labour force and transform the firm (e.g., Ezzamel et al., 2004, Ezzamel et al., 2008 and Miller and O’Leary, 1994). We follow these ideas but add one nuance suggesting that management accounting calculations are not only mobilised by others – they also mobilise others. In this study, this means that accounting calculations create contexts for something, and in this research this something is innovation. The research question is: how do management accounting calculations mobilise innovation activities? The central finding, which is based on the empirical study of relations between management accounting calculations and innovation in three firms, is that management accounting calculations link innovation activities to firm-wide concerns rather than describe and represent innovation activities. The visibility, insight and knowledge produced by management accounting calculations rarely concern the details of innovation practices. It rarely creates deeper knowledge about the intricacies of innovation activities; it typically creates insight about links between innovation and wider organisational concerns which are mediated via short or long translations, where length reflects the number of elements taken into account. In short translations innovation activities are mobilised by a single calculation and related to a variance from a standard or budget which will reduce or increase innovation activities depending on whether the deviation is positive or negative. Short translations mediate between innovation activity and the costs and revenues of the firm. Long translations have multiple calculations that create tensions about the role of innovation. Here, calculations challenge each other and develop organisational tensions and dialogues beyond innovation activities. Long translations develop new possible versions not only of preferred types of innovation activities, but also about their location in time and space. They develop competing propositions about the relevance of technical artefacts and link them to innovation strategy and sourcing strategy in the firm’s inter-organisational relations. The tensions within long translations mobilise technological, organisational and environmental entities by framing considerations about the value of innovation to the firm strategically differently. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: first we analyse central discussions about the role of accounting calculations in innovation. Here, accounting calculations are typically not accorded a constructive role, but an emerging literature suggests a positive link between management accounting calculations and innovation finding that management accounting calculations are abundant in innovative contexts. Yet, the literature is silent on how the calculation influences elements of innovation. Then the research strategy and methods are presented; drawing on aspects of actor-network theory we trace relations between proposed management accounting calculations and innovation activities. The empirical section presents three examples of translations between management accounting calculations and innovation management. Then the findings are discussed and finally conclusions are provided.

A management accounting calculation does not describe or represent innovation and sourcing activities in any detail, but it adds perspective to them and relates them to the firm. In effect the management accounting calculation is part of a relationship between economy, innovation and environment. The management accounting calculation speaks for the firm and puts pressure on innovation to account for its contribution in this respect. Based on examples from three firms, management accounting calculations – sales performance, contribution margin, and ABC margin – are mobilised in relation to innovation and in turn, surprisingly, in relation to sourcing and strategy. The management accounting calculation works by extending or reducing the number of entities that innovation can take into account, less by describing the dimensions of innovation and inter-organisational design and more by adding perspective to them. This mechanism is stronger when a calculation is challenged by another one. This is when there is maximum pressure on innovation activities to show their strategic significance. The tensions between calculations bend organisational activities such as innovation to considerations such as growth, productivity, profitability, and liquidity. Management accounting calculations mediate and mobilise innovation through short and long translations. Short translations exist when management accounting calculations encourage extension or reduction of innovation activities when it proposes performance to be adequate or inadequate. Long translations mobilise at least two calculations to problematise the role of innovation for corporate purposes differently. Management accounting calculations challenge each other and develop organisational struggles not only about the role of innovation, but also about its location in time and space technologically, organisationally and environmentally. The process of developing relations is, paradoxically, dependent on the management accounting calculation being partial because then it presents tensions. The calculation can never be total. Management accounting calculations can motivate very long sequences of translation as they are associated with strategic propositions about technology and the boundaries of the firm. One of the possible effects of such translations is that the firm’s strategy for managing innovation can undergo drastic reformulation. Another effect of translation is that management accounting calculations may create surprising effects very far from their presumed outcomes. When new calculations come into existence they reach into new situations that, in turn, influence the role of the calculation. Generally, the management accounting calculation holds certain characteristics of innovation in place by showing their broader justification. Sometimes the management accounting calculation shows this as a short translation where the calculation is tightly coupled to decisions regulating the innovation activity. In other situations, however, the management accounting calculation entertains a long translation though interaction with other calculations where many new elements from whole systems of innovation are taken into account. Challenging a certain innovation system, opponents mobilise other management accounting calculations that draw other consequences of innovation. Innovation is thus not developed merely because of good innovative ideas; innovation has to pass the test of management accounting calculations before it can be heard, and the challenge is a whole system of innovation and sourcing that is given corporate relevance through the management accounting calculations. Management accounting calculations problematise the firm, its innovation and technologies, and its boundaries.