The paper is structured as follows. As a starting point, Section 2 examines the
nature of rules, routines and institutions in OIE. Next, Section 3 outlines the
institutional framework, beginning with a discussion of the relationship between
actions and institutions, and then moving on to describe the process of institutionalization.
Section 4 then explores how the institutional framework can be used to study
management accounting and a brief discussion of two case studies illustrates the use
of the model. Then, in Section 5 concepts of institutional change drawn from OIE
are outlined, and their implications for researching management accounting change
are explored. Finally, the paper concludes with Section 6, which summarizes the key
features of the institutional framework, and makes recommendations for management
accounting research.