The contingency theory of management accounting: Achievement and prognosis

Contingency theories of management accounting have become a current vogue but have produced few significant new results. By surveying the development and content of these theories it is argued that they have been based on an inadequate and insufficiently articulated model. An improved model, based on ideas of organisational control and effectiveness, is put forward which suggests appropriate directions for future work that will be both perceptive and cumulative.