Marc Wouters

2012

Practitioners and researcher agree that there has been an increase in volatility not only in the financial industry but in general in the business context. So far discussions about the impact of this increased volatility lack a clear definition on the term volatility itself and a systematic approach to its influence on Management Accounting practices.
This thesis uses a literature review and interviews with managers and management accountants to specify volatility and the challenges companies face in a volatile environment. The concepts of resilience and changeability are discussed as suitable management concepts to face volatility and used to derive requirements for Management Accounting practices in a volatile environment. Using these requirements hypotheses on necessary functions of strategic and operative Management Accounting are formulated and suitable instruments for Management Accounting in a volatile environment are discussed.
The next step for future research is to adjust and verify the formulated hypotheses through empirical research.