INTRODUCTION
The field of management accounting research is dynamic and constantly evolving. Therefore
it is beneficial to step back at times and observe the key themes and patterns that are emerging.
This paper seeks to do that. The aim is to provide a review of some of the recent literature
in the field of management accounting. In order to do this, we examined 116 articles on
management accounting taken from three leading journals in order to analyse key issues and
themes in contemporary management accounting research. The articles were published
between 2008 and 2010 and appeared in Management Accounting Research (MAR), the
Journal of Management Accounting Research (JMAR), and Accounting, Organizations and
Society (AOS). While previous studies have reviewed the management accounting literature
(Hesford et al., 2007; Berry et al., 2009; Lindquist and Smith, 2009), this paper covers a more
concentrated time span and therefore better represents contemporary thinking in the management
accounting field.
This paper contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it provides a focused analysis of
management accounting research published in recent years, allowing researchers to gain a
better understanding of the direction of the contemporary management accounting research.
Second, it highlights the emergence of intellectual resource management as a major area of
management accounting research. Finally, it highlights key emerging research themes in the
literature including trust, leadership, and organisational justice.
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. In the following section, the method of
the review is set out and a taxonomy presented. Next, the findings of the review are presented.
In the discussion and analysis section, analysis of macro trends is followed by general analysis.
The final section summarises the paper and outlines limitations and suggestions for future
research.