The interplay of uncertainty, structure and trust on the diffusion of management accounting and control systems: An agent based modeling approach

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the interplay of uncertainty, structure and trust on the diffusion of a subset of management information systems, namely management accounting and control systems. The article suggests that under conditions of uncertainty, trust and structure are significantly associated with the success of the implementation process. On the other hand, the importance of trust and structure is less significant when the management accounting and control system is not perceived as threatening to organizational actors. The study draws on social network theory and proposes an agent based modeling approach to study the interplay of uncertainty, trust and structure on the diffusion process.