This study seeks to add to the knowledge of the formation of social positions and power of individuals and their effects on the role of accounting in the development of management control systems (MCSs).
Drawing on institutional and the mobilization of power frameworks, the case analysis explores the development of the role of accounting in the MCS.
The results show that loose coupling between management control routines and formal accounting leaves room for individuals whose roles are important in the development of the MCS. These individuals with central social positions are the glue which enables loose coupling to persist through changes. The organizational culture of a family‐led firm may facilitate the individuals to mobilize power, so that they with central social positions mediate the encoding of institutions into rules and routines as well as the reproduction of the formal rules and informal routines and the relationship between them. Similarly, their own social positions may reproduce.
The paper is of value in showing how the power of an individual over (and in) accounting can be constructed in the MCS. In addition, the discussion is linked to operating in certain transitional economies.
