This paper aims to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted upon the management accounting business partner (MABP) role and decision-making influence. This paper bases its reasoning on two contradictory theories (threat-rigidity and adaptive change) concerning how emergency situations impact organizational change.
This paper developed a survey in Brazil during the pandemic and obtained a valid sample of 107 respondents. This paper applied the multivariate technique of structural equation modeling estimated by partial least squares (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses.
The results demonstrate the impact of a crisis event (i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic) on the development of the MABP role and management accountants’ decision-making influence. This paper finds that rather than restricting decision-making to only top executives in times of crisis (as predicted by threat-rigidity theory), management accountants’ influence on strategic decision-making increased in organizations that were most affected by the pandemic. This paper provides support for an adaptive change argument, finding that at the extreme ends of the COVID-19 impact – whether highly positive or highly negative (U-shaped relationship) – the indirect effect of the pandemic on MA decision-making influence increased, through an increase in the MABP role.
This paper contributes to the existing literature by addressing its contradictory findings and providing support for adaptive change theory within the unique context of an emerging economy – Brazil. In addition, this paper expands the accounting literature on crisis contexts by identifying and empirically demonstrating the role of business partnering as a mediator – revealing not only how crisis events impact accountants’ influence, but also why this occurs (due to an increase in the business partnering role).
