Abstract
Based on a case study from developing new business domain, this paper aims to clarify the role of management accounting in strategizing. Traditionally the role of management accounting in relation to strategy is recognized as evaluation of economic advantage among alternatives in formulating strategy and help for effective and efficient implementation of formulated strategies. In this view, management accounting is passive for strategy. However, some recent researches suggest that management accounting may have an active role for strategy. We found the active role of management accounting in “strategizing” in this paper : management accounting formed the context for strategizing by the mediating between external environment change and organizational members’ conscious, and guided and provided the framework for the process of the development of strategy formulation. In this way, management accounting has an active role in the process of strategy in practice. Moreover, we found that the concept of “enabling control” (Adler and Borys, 1996) provides a relevant viewpoint in researching the relationship between management accounting and strategizing.
