Many scholars have claimed that management accounting research has lost its pragmatic relevancy and interventionist research has been proposed as one way to produce theories with increased practical implications. In interventionist research, active participation in the field is regarded as an asset rather than a liability. Despite the methodological debate on interventionist research, there is lack of empirical studies on how interventionist research actually helps to produce theories with such pragmatic relevance. The lack of empirical studies has, perhaps, resulted in a too narrow connotation to the research approach. This book attempts to shed light on the various nuances of interventionist research and the positions a researcher can occupy when trying to produce contributions associated with both theoretical and pragmatic relevance. This book is based on various research projects focusing on different aspects of management accounting during the past ten years. To spice up the academic debate, the book also provides managerial perspectives on interventionist management accounting research with interesting new insights. In addition to management accounting, the ideas of interventionist research can also be applied in other management fields.

It has been claimed that management accounting research has failed to produce theories with practical relevance. Interventionist research has been proposed as one means to overcome this problem of relevance. Interventionist research has many links to qualitative research genres. However, interventionist research should be viewed as one distinctive form of case study, in which the researcher is profoundly and actively involved with the object of study. In interventionist research, active participation in the field is regarded as an asset rather than a liability. In other words, access to an empirical setting through active participation is seen as more valuable than the risk of compromising objectivity. Despite the methodological debate about interventionist research, there is lack of empirical evidence on how interventionist research actually helps to produce theories with such pragmatic relevance. This book sheds light on the various nuances of interventionist research and the positions a researcher can occupy when applying interventionist research. It focuses on different aspects of management accounting during the past ten years with interventionist elements in them.In addition, to help scholars increase collaboration with industry, interviews with the key managers involved in these interventionist research projects in order to gather their views on such research approach are included, also motivating managers to engage in such collaboration.

Interventionist research has been proposed as one way of increasing societal impact of management accounting (MA) research. However, there are no guidelines regarding what sort of phenomena would be the most suitable ones to be studied using research interventions. This book builds on top of the methodological literature of interventionist management accounting research, as well as the published studies applying it. Through selected case studies, Interventionist Management Accounting Research shows how societal impact of MA research can be increased by not only applying IVR approach, but also looking into how MA is used in the borderlines between MA and other organizational functions. In many cases, MA research can provide tools and concepts helping to understand contemporary trends within the business environment, thereby naturally providing potential for increasing the societal impact of scholarly work. In particular, this book discusses how to position empirical research endeavours with interventionist elements in a way to ensure important theory contributions with outcomes interesting also outside the MA academia, whether that means MA practitioners, managers in general or scholars in other fields of management. Aimed at primarily researchers, academics and students in the fields of research methodology, management accounting and interventionist research, this book provides methodological guidance on how to execute research projects with interventionist elements, aiming at strong theory contribution with broader societal impacts. Focusing on research in accounting and management, this book also provides interesting insights to scholars and doctoral students in other fields of management research.