Above all else: an innovative entrepreneur - A study of management accountants' occupational identity within a healthcare provider

Abstract: Through a single case study, this paper explores the construction of management accountants' occupational identity within a hybrid healthcare provider, pseudonymized as DigiCare. 15 interviews were conducted at DigiCare, covering employees from the finance function, medical operations, and senior management. The interviews were complemented with official company documents and the perspectives of two external strategic consultants. Based on the framework by Alvesson and Willmott (2002), occupational identity was analyzed through the concepts of identity regulation, identity work, and self-identity. The findings suggest that the management accountants view themselves as innovative entrepreneurs, regardless of the tasks they perform. This resonates with the organizational discourse describing the identity of DigiCare. In contrast, the values and ideas of the medical domain are not suggested to influence the construction of management accountants' occupational identity. These contributions build upon prior research, reinforcing the notion that the identity work of management accountants is dependent on the organizational context (e.g., Ahrens & Chapman, 2000). It further questions the relevance of analyzing jurisdictional claims, when studying occupational inter-relationships within a firm characterized by a robust organizational identity narrative (Abbott, 1988; Jacobs, 2005).