Creativity Research in Management Accounting: A Commentary

Building on the insights from the case studies presented by Cools, Stouthuysen, and Van den Abbeele (2017) and Davila and Ditillo (2017) as well as existing literature on creativity, several suggestions for future creativity research in management accounting are made. Pointing at research in psychology and sociology, I suggest using more context-specific definitions and theories of creativity, and focusing on its process perspective. While the widely assumed tension between creativity and control is primarily driven by the “creativity maximization fallacy” and by the use of broad brush concepts of creativity and control, studying how management control systems influence the creative process of divergent and convergent thinking seems a promising task for management accounting researchers. Finally, creativity in organizations is typically a team sport and thus the relation between leadership, management control, and creativity in teams seems particularly interesting.