Business intelligence & analytics in management accounting research: Status and future focus

Executives see technology, data and analytics as a transforming force in business. Many organizations are therefore implementing business intelligence & analytics (BI&A) technologies to support reporting and decision-making. Traditionally, management accounting is the primary support for decision-making and control in an organization. As such, it has clear links to and can benefit from applying BI&A technologies. This indicates an interesting research area for accounting and AIS researchers. However, a review of the literature in top accounting and information systems journals indicates that to date, little research has focused on this link. This article reviews the literature, points to several research gaps and proposes a framework for studying the relationship between BI&A and management accounting.