A management accountant from “down-under”: The research of Professor Bill Birkett (1940–2004)

This paper provides an overview of the research of the late Professor Bill Birkett (1940–2004). Bill's research was marked by the pursuit of four key research questions examining: first, the meanings attached to the label ‘management accounting’; second, the sets of relationships framing management accounting; third, the main transformations in management accounting; and, fourth, the potential of global readings of management accounting. We characterise Bill's work in terms of each of these questions. We believe that whilst his research displays a keen awareness of the differences in management accounting driven by national culture and various organisational contexts, Bill's research emphasises abstracted accounts of management accounting, typifying those aspects of practice, which are central to its accomplishment. In so doing, he came to view management accounting as providing a distinct perspective on the management of organisational resources.