Agent-Based Computational Economics in Management Accounting Research: Opportunities and Difficulties

• DOI: 10.2308/jmar-19-073
• Publication Date: 2020-11-04T19:42:01Z
• Authors: Friederike Wall; Stephan Leitner
• Keywords: FOS: Economics and business; General Economics (econ.GN); 0502 economics and business; 05 social sciences; Economics - General Economics

ABSTRACT Agent-based computational economics (ACE)—while adopted comparably widely in other domains of managerial science—is a rather novel paradigm for management accounting research (MAR). This paper provides an overview of opportunities and difficulties that ACE may have for research in management accounting and, in particular, introduces a framework that researchers in management accounting may employ when considering ACE as a paradigm for their particular research endeavor. The framework builds on the two interrelated paradigmatic elements of ACE: a set of theoretical assumptions on economic agents and the approach of agent-based modeling. Particular focus is put on contrasting opportunities and difficulties of ACE in comparison to other research methods employed in MAR. JEL Classifications: C63; D8; D91; M40.