CEROC's mission

Overall objective

The research performed in CEROC proceeds from the common belief that management control is crucial to the functioning of modern organizations. However, to more fully understand the roles and development of contemporary management control practices in today’s organizations, we argue that they should be studied within the context in which they are situated. The overall objective for CEROC is therefore to establish an international presence in research into the organizational, social, ethical and economic aspects of management control practices. Within this overall theme, fellows of the research centre are working on a number of topics clustered around the following two themes:

• Use, consequences and change of different kinds of administrative controls, with a particular focus on accounting-based systems and practices.
• Use, consequences and change of different socio-ideological controls such as codes of conduct, and organizational and professional identities.

Multiplicity: a cornerstone

It is our strong belief that by addressing different elements of management control systems, we will more fully understand their workings as individual parts and as a control package. We also believe that knowledge from multiple disciplines and research methods is required to more fully understand the complex problems associated with management control in modern organizations. Therefore, CEROC encourages research based on a broad range of disciplines (e.g. organization theory, sociology, critical theory and economic theory), and methods (e.g. longitudinal case and field studies and cross-sectional surveys).

Practical relevance

CEROC strive to combine high-quality and rigorous research with practical relevance. We also actively seek to contribute to a dialogue with professional communities by arranging and attending conferences, and by reporting our research findings in national and international practitioner-oriented journals, such as Affärsvärlden, Balans, Cost Management, KvalitetsMagasinet, Management Acccounting and Teknikföretagen.

International research agenda

CEROC actively seeks to build on and contribute to the international research agenda. We therefore publish our results in highly recognized research journals such as Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Organization Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, European Accounting Review, Organization, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, International Journal of Production Economics, Journal of Cleaner Production, Management Accounting Research, Financial Accountability and Management, and Journal of Economic Issues.

Our international efforts also include presentations of papers at guest lectures and conferences, and research exchange with yet other highly regarded business schools across Europe, including, Exeter Business School, HEC School of Management, London School of Economics (LSE), Manchester Business School, Rotterdam School of Management, and Warwick Business School.