Perceptions about the sociomateriality of management accounting practices

ABSTRACT Our research, conducted in the context of organizational management in Brazil, aimed at deepening the knowledge in the Managerial Accounting field. The purpose was to propose a construct that contributes to understanding managers’ perceptions of the sociomateriality of management accounting practices (práticas de contabilidade gerencial, MAP) based on the ceremonial (rites-based) versus instrumental (problem solving) institutional logic, drawing on New Institutional Sociology and on Bush’s digressions (1983, 1987). Through a survey of 102 large non-financial organizations operating in Brazil, we identified that depending on the arrangement between isomorphic forces and diffusion to which the PCGs are subjected, they assume ceremonial (5%), instrumental (61%), or mixed (26%) behavioral characteristics. We infer that in these organizations, PCGs are primarily being used as problem solving techniques and contribute to changing the context in which they are applied.