The Role of Behavioral Research in Management Accounting Education in the 21st Century

Behavioral accounting research (BAR) has a long history in management accounting. It has not had as significant a presence in the management accounting courses. It has tended to be relegated to the responsibility accounting chapter in textbooks. Thus, the extent to which behavioral materials appeared in a course depended on the interests of the instructor. It can safely be described as a matter of taste. In this paper the history of management accounting dating back to the end of World War II is divided into three periods. In each period, the extent of behavioral materials in the management accounting curriculum is reviewed. These periods, called the “cost accounting,” “modern management accounting,” and “postmodern management accounting” periods, reflect increasing emphasis on behavioral materials in the management accounting courses. The paper focuses on the reasons why the demand for behavioral material in the management accounting curriculum is likely to increase and offers conjectures about what form those materials will take. It is, implicitly, also a call for research on the issues discussed here.