Digitalization and Resistance Management within Management Accounting - The impact of national culture differences on resistance to organizational change

Abstract: Despite being considered by the majority as a positive change, digitalization has changed the fundamental roles of management accountants and this has led to resistance to organizational change within management accounting due to the cannibalization costs associated with digital changes. In dealing with such resistance, MNEs use their domestic rooted organizational culture as a tool to manage resistance to digitalization. However, while this approach can be relevant in MNEs’ domestic countries, it might be less relevant in other countries especially when resistance has roots from the cultures of the host countries. Based on Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions, this study seeks to provide empirical findings on the impact of national culture differences on resistance to changes associated with digitalization, thus offering hints about how MNEs can adapt their organizational cultures to the national cultural values in their host countries. The study is built on an interview based comparative research including ten management accountants employed in eight different multinational enterprises which operate in ten different countries within the automotive and logistics industries. However, as we mostly had one respondent per company in each operating country, the recommendations of this study may not be applicable to an entire population on a country level.