An important assumption in the mainstream accounting literature is that accounting information is essential to the functioning of modern organisations and societies. However, our knowledge of how individuals use that kind of information in day-to-day activities is still limited. For example, we still know relatively little about why accounting information tends to be important in some contexts and not in others, or how such information is interwoven with other sources of information over time when individuals try to make sense of the past, present, and future.

The aim of the proposed research project is to generate such practice-oriented knowledge. Through ethnographically inspired studies, based on direct observations and in-depth interviews, we will track how managers actively create, interpret and mobilise accounting information in various contexts and how such mobilisation affects how they think of and talk about their daily operations.

Such in-depth studies of how an ‘accounting-based way of thinking’ is developed and transformed over time will not only further our understanding of how accounting information affects daily sensemaking, but also of why such a ‘mindset’ has become more and more important for how individuals and organizations think and act in the modern society