Marc Wouters

intern

Progress in information technology is creating new opportunities for management accounting—that is not a new development as such, but the speed with which things are happening today is remarkable. More data is being generated, is available more quickly after events happened, and is more diverse. Technology offers new possibilities for analyzing and distributing data. There is much literature about what is technically possible. However, we know far less about what’s actually being done. What experiences do companies have with implementing new technologies and changing their management accounting? What is working well and what is disappointing? What are some leading practices with the newest IT in companies?

The objective of this thesis is to collect information about current practices. You will investigate this topic in the form of cases studies. You identify companies that are likely to have much experience with this topic and you negotiate visiting them to conduct interviews and gather other kinds of information for one in-depth case study or for a series of small case studies. You describe in detail actual applications of big data in management accounting, analyze the actual experiences (positive and negative) with those application, and compare those with ideas in the literature about the potential for big data in management accounting.

Please note that it will be your responsibility to identify interesting companies and to negotiate access for conducting interviews and gathering data in other ways.