Budgetary control has been used and researched for years by both Western academics and practitioners. In China, it is re-emerging as a tool to implement management control, but might be used in different ways both in terms of understanding and operation. The research objective of this thesis is to examine the applicability of Western theories of change in management accounting in the context of budgeting in Chinese corporations. Challenges can exist because of the differences between Western assumptions and Chinese reality. The current thesis focuses on difficulties Chinese companies encounter in practical and deeper ideological ways: firstly, Western market-based ideology conflicts with an ideology which has been shaped by central-planning for decades; secondly, difficulties stem from the different cultural context of China which emphasizes hierarchical politeness, kinship ties, trust based on personal relationships, collectivism and social harmony, diligence and individual modesty, and less developed modern legal regulatory systems – these all contribute to China’s own way of doing things. This thesis also focuses on the transition process in China. Based on the assumption that budgetary changes do not happen in isolation from other management accounting changes, this thesis discusses these changes which synchronically took place while the case-study companies were implementing budgetary systems. This thesis adopts a longitudinal and in-depth qualitative case study research design, after adjustments made during the learning experience of the pilot study. It takes an interpretive and constructive philosophical underpinning, which allows the researcher to observe and understand the process of change, as well as the differences between Chinese practices and Western theories. Findings show that certain Western management accounting theories of change and Western theories of budgeting work in the case study Chinese corporations. Management accounting theories using an interpretive approach (for example, Berry et al., 1985; Scapens and Roberts, 1993; Ahrens and Chapman, 2002) lead the researcher to interpret management accounting practices from the practitioner’s points of view, and they have provided a range of terms to explain success or failure of management accounting changes. This approach together with Scapens et al.’s Institutional theory approach in management accounting have been found especially useful, in explaining the differences between Chinese vs. Western context. Furthermore, the contingency theory approach in management accounting gives a ‘platform’ which allows the researcher to assess a wide range of possible factors and their relationships with budgetary systems in studied companies. This approach is found useful in this thesis to present changes in other management accounting perspectives. Last but not least, this thesis finds existing Western literature in technical perspective of budgetary objectives, budgetary evaluation and participation, and budgetary effectiveness useful in a different context of China. By describing the change management process, an aspect which is not addressed frequently in the research literature, this thesis argues that to sufficiently understand Chinese companies’ budgetary changes, one also needs to understand unique cultural, social-economical and religious circumstances, and to adjust literature and methodology to adapt to these circumstances. This thesis provides an empirical experience concerning these issues. This thesis contributes to the understanding of management accounting change in China, and the tension which exists when Chinese companies are moving into Western management accounting practices.

Abstract The aim of this dissertation is to analyse the process of change in management accounting in public-sector health care. The change is examined through the implementation of a nationally homogeneous Diagnosis Related Grouping (DRG) system. The DRG system is used to classify health-care diagnoses into groups for service productisation and pricing. The system has been proposed as a solution for cost accounting and budgeting. The practical motivation of the dissertation is to analyse the embedding of change in organisations´ practises. The theoretical motivation of the dissertation is to extend the investigation of change by analysing the process of implementation of a nationally homogeneous system. The research data comprise 39 interviews conducted between 2006 and 2011 with hospital district representatives, the representatives of the company managing the DRG system, the DRG system supplier, and the representatives of the National Institute for Health and Welfare and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities. In addition to interviews, the data consists of participative observations, telephone inquiries, and newspaper articles. This dissertation consists of four essays that analyse the data through the lens of two theories: the Actor Network (ANT) and Institutional theory (NIS). The results indicate how the use of multiple theories (ANT ja NIS) as a methodology enriches and extends the insight into the change process in management accounting. For instance, the analysis of the homogeneous use of the DRG system, without investigating the practices of actors by making use of the ANT, the results could have been different in this respect. Especially, this dissertation indicates how important it is that actors’ actions are also examined in the processes of change in the implementation of public-sector management accounting systems. The idea for the DRG system was introduced to Finland almost twenty years ago. However, the results indicate that it has spread very slowly. According to earlier research, an institutional environment is considered to exercise pressure on organisations in order to make them adopt new practices that are homogeneous with other institutional practices. There is indirect pressure in decentralised health care in Finland, though its power for change is weak. This dissertation shows how the decentralisation of responsibilities in large-scale institutions, such as the health-care system in Finland, also slows down and decentralises reforms. As institutional power becomes weaker, the power of organisations to promote things seems to grow stronger, however. / Tiivistelmä Tämän väitöskirjatyön tarkoituksena on analysoida johdon laskentatoimen muutosprosessia julkisen sektorin terveydenhoidossa. Muutosta tarkastellaan kansallisesti yhtenäisen diagnoosiperustaisen ryhmittelyjärjestelmän (Diagnosis Related Grouping, DRG) käyttöönottoprosessin kautta. DRG on järjestelmä, jossa luokitellaan terveydenhoidon diagnoosit ryhmiin palvelujen tuotteistusta ja hinnoittelua varten. Järjestelmää on esitetty ratkaisuna kustannuslaskentaan ja budjetointiin. Väitöskirjatyön käytännön motivaationa on analysoida muutoksen asettumista organisaatioiden käytäntöihin. Väitöskirjatyön teoreettisena motivaationa on laajentaa muutostutkimusta tarkastelemalla kansallisesti yhtenäisen järjestelmän käyttöönottoa. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu 39 haastattelusta, joita on kerätty vuosien 2006 ja 2011 välillä. Tutkimuksessa on haastateltu sairaanhoitopiirien henkilökuntaa, DRG-järjestelmän hallinnoiman yhtiön edustajia, järjestelmän toimittajaa, Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitoksen sekä Kuntaliiton edustajia. Aineisto sisältää haastattelujen lisäksi osallistuvaa havainnointia, puhelinkyselyjä sekä lehtiartikkeleita. Tämä väitöskirjatyö koostuu neljästä esseestä, joissa analysoidaan aineistoa kahden eri teorian, toimijaverkostoteorian (ANT) ja institutionaalisen teorian (NIS), avulla. Tulokset tuovat esille, kuinka kahden teorian (ANT ja NIS) metodologinen käyttö rikastuttaa ja laajentaa näkemystä johdon laskentatoimen muutosprosessista. Esimerkiksi analysoitaessa DRG-järjestelmän yhtenäistä käyttöä tutkimatta toimijoiden toimintaa toimijaverkostoteoriaa hyödyntäen, tulokset voisivat tältä osin olla erilaiset. Erityisesti tämä väitöskirjatyö osoittaa, kuinka tärkeää julkisen sektorin johdon laskentajärjestelmien käyttöönoton muutosprosessia tutkittaessa on tutkia myös toimijoiden toimintaa. Idea DRG-järjestelmästä esitettiin Suomessa melkein kaksikymmentä vuotta sitten. Tulokset osoittavat kuitenkin, että sen leviäminen on ollut hyvin hidasta. Aikaisempien tutkimusten mukaan institutionaalisen ympäristön katsotaan painostavan organisaatioita, jotta ne ottaisivat käyttöön uusia menetelmiä, jotka ovat yhdenmukaiset muiden institutionaalisten käytänteiden kanssa. Suomen hajautetussa terveydenhoidossa esitetään epäsuoraa painetta, mutta sen voima muutokseen ei ole vahva. Väitöskirjatyö tuo esille miten suurien instituutioiden, kuten Suomen terveydenhoidon, vastuun hajautuessa myös reformit hidastuvat ja hajautuvat. Institutionaalisten voimien heikentyessä organisaatioiden voima ajaa asioita näyttää kuitenkin vahvistuvan.