"Then I thought, let's just embrace it": An explorative case study of change recipients' reactions towards management accounting change

Abstract: Management accounting change - in other words, the implementation of new accounting practices - is increasingly on the agenda of top management. For successful implementation of these practices, scholarly research indicates the importance of investigating the reactions of change recipients - that is, those who have to change their daily work routines while implementing the change. Thus, this study places the change recipients center-stage and investigates the following research question: How can change recipients' reactions towards management accounting change be explained To find explanations, this study employs an explorative case study, conducting 24 interviews with change agents and recipients at a Swedish multinational corporation that is implementing a management accounting change project. By utilizing frameworks from organizational change literature, this study suggests that change recipients go through three different stages while implementing management accounting change, thereby displaying different thoughts and reactions at each stage. Our study stresses that, when change is announced, change recipients mostly perceive emotional and attitudinal issues and are prone to react with denial and/or resistance. While the change is being carried out, change recipients mostly attend to process and outcome issues. If these are positively perceived, change recipients can respond with exploration. After the implementation, outcome issues appear to be most important to change recipients and influence the formation of commitment. Overall, we are providing future research and practitioners with an initial framework for understanding the different stages change recipients traverse while management accounting change unfolds and how they relate to different thoughts and reactions towards the change, which influences successful implementation.