Constructing and co-authoring controller’s practice through cloud technologies: the case of IKEA Italy

Lino Cinquini, Antonio Leotta, Carmela Rizza, Daniela Ruggeri, Andrea Tenucci and Mariastella Messina

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 2024, vol. 22, issue 2, 199-224

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore how the controller’s practice is constructed through the use of cloud technologies. Thus, the authors explore the possibilities that cloud technologies offer and how, through these technologies, actors can co-author a process that leads them to relate themselves to the world. Design/methodology/approach - The authors adopt pragmatic constructivism to investigate the construction of the controller’s practice through cloud technologies. Drilling down to a single case study, they chose two IKEA stores in Italy to ascertain, through interviews, how the controller’s practice has changed since switching to a cloud-based information management platform. Findings - This case evidence sheds light on how cloud technologies help to construct the controller’s practice. Managers' interactions are now partly governed and partly supported by information in the cloud. Workers can collect and share data, promoting knowledge production at a range of organisational levels. Originality/value - This paper contributes to studies on the hybrid nature of management control practice. The authors underline how using cloud technologies helps to construct controller’s practice. More specifically, using cloud technologies allows the controller to orchestrate a co-authoring process through which managers integrate facts, possibilities, values and communication to form a functioning construct causality. Overall, the result is better support for decision-making.

Keywords: Digitalisation; Cloud technologies; Management control practice; Pragmatic constructivism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:qrampp:qram-12-2023-0251

DOI: 10.1108/QRAM-12-2023-0251

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