Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

13 May 2006

CIMA – the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants – is underscoring its reputation for thought leadership in financial management, by funding three major research projects, designed to advance awareness and understanding of how the finance area can introduce ideas and practices to manage organisations more effectively.

The latest research proposals follow the launch of CIMA’s 2005 research initiative - The Origination and Adoption of Management Ideas, Tools and Practices – the objective of which is to consider the origins of management ideas and practices, motives for their adoption, longevity, process of legitimacy, recognition, and success. Following the robust review of a selection of high quality submissions by CIMA’s initiative review panel – Professor Michael Bromwich (chair); Professor David Otley; Professor Bill Nixon; Mike Jeans and Brian Peel, CIMA is pleased to announce that it will fund the following three research proposals:

Management accounting innovations and fads – can we understand them better? Professors: John Burns (Dundee University), Robert Scapens (Manchester University), Hanne Nørreklit – (Arhus University, Denmark), and Dr Gudrun Baldvinsdottir (Dundee University)

The aim of the project is to better understand the adoption of ‘new’ management accounting innovations. This may help practitioners to be more circumspect and discriminating when considering the steady stream of software packages that bundle ‘new’ and ‘improved’ techniques together to support real or perceived problems and challenges. The main research objective is to improve understanding of new management accounting innovations or fads in their broader contexts, including the process of evolution and diffusion.

Don’t Blame the Tools! The Effective Assimilation of Managerial Innovations Prof. Elizabeth Daniel (Open University Business School)

This research seeks to explore the effective assimilation of managerial innovations by organisations.  It will concentrate on organisation-wide innovations because they are growing in number and likely to require a greater degree of assimilation. Also research suggests that managers find them the most difficult to implement. The research will seek to provide guidance and understanding on how organisations can effectively assimilate innovations and improve their performance.

Creating and Popularising a Global Management Accounting Idea: the Case of the Balanced Scorecard Prof. David Cooper (University of Alberta) and Prof. Mahmoud Ezzamel (Cardiff Business School)

This research addresses an important question in the adoption and diffusion of new management ideas and tools: how can the idea of a management accounting innovation be made real and meaningful to managers. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is an example of a modern management accounting idea that has been turned into a detailed and meaningful set of techniques that managers can use. The research will trace the origin of the idea of the BSC and then illustrate how it became a recognised organisational practice.

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For further information, please contact:
Lottie Muir
Press & PR Manager, CIMA
+44 (0) 20 8849 2407
lottie.muir@cimaglobal.com

Notes to editors

1. CIMA (the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) is the only international accountancy body with a sole focus on business.  It is a world leading professional institute that offers an internationally recognised qualification in management accountancy, focusing on accounting in business, in both the private and public sectors. CIMA is the voice of over 155,000 members and students in 158 countries and is responsible for the education and training of management accountants who work in industry, commerce and not-for-profit and has more members in the public sector than any other UK based body.  CIMA prides itself on the commercial relevance of its syllabus, which is in tune with the activities of high performance organisations, and evolves continually to reflect the latest developments in global business.  It is committed to upholding the highest ethical and professional standards of members and students, and to maintaining public confidence in management accountancy.  For more information about CIMA, please visit our website

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