Reaching for the Cloud(s) - An exploratory case study on the changes to the role of management accountants following the introduction of a cloud-based ERP system

Sammanfattning: This thesis explores the changes to the role of management accountants in a large public organization following the implementation of a cloud-based ERP system. The technology power loop by Newman and Westrup (2005) was further developed by incorporating literature on cloud technology and applied as a tool for analyzing the impact of cloud-based ERP systems on the role of management accountants. We contribute to existing literature by showing that the prominent view of management accountants as a homogenous group is ignoring the possibility of incongruent role developments within organizations. This heterogenous role development is argued to emanate from both the willingness of management accountants to expand their role and the limited upfront customization and outsourcing that cloud technology entails. Furthermore, we argue that the dominant notion of management accountants transforming from "bean counters" to "business partners" is too naïve and this transition can be reversed in a cloud-based environment. This also adds to the discussion on the binary view of management accountants since a more nuanced typology was found. Moreover, we found that a new form of hybridization emerged, which we label de-hybridization, resulting from the system no longer being stored in-house.