Catherine Elisabet Batt

Copenhagen Business School · Department of Accounting

Auditing is a field of expertise often mentioned as being ripe for automation using artificial intelligence methods at all levels of operations. Primarily, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the auditing profession is done by and for large organizations, leveraging large datasets. While AI approaches for big data are continually imp...

Notwithstanding its sectoral importance to wealth creation and employment, research on the role of management accounting in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is limited. This paper first examines the perceptions of chief financial officers (CFOs) on the impact of information technology (IT) tools on management accounting practices (costing,...

Research Question: Does the use of IS in family businesses differ significantly from non-family businesses? Does professionalisation of accountants positively impact the use of IS, and is there a difference between family and non-family businesses? Motivation: Research indicates family businesses have more limited implementation and use of informat...

Purpose This paper investigates the use of management controls when environmental uncertainty and hostility increase abruptly. Specifically, it explores this in the context of the 2008 financial crisis in six banks located in two countries. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on 26 qualitative interviews with selected managers employed...

Most organizations use budgeting and describe it as an institutionalized management accounting system, but it is also criticized for being unsuitable in today’s uncertain business environment. This paper explores how sudden changes in organizational context impact the importance of budgeting. Earlier studies have reported less importance given to b...

Currently, digitalization is a hot topic in popular media. While family firms represent most firms worldwide, their specific opportunities and challenges in digitalization have not yet received much research attention. As will be argued in this chapter, such research would however be necessary to advance our understanding of contemporary family fir...

Budgeting has been recognized to be the most widely used management accounting tool in the world (Ross & Kovachev, 2009). It has also been called the cornerstone (Hansen, Otley, & van der Stede, 2003) of the management control process and described as occupying center stage in most organizations (Covaleski, Evans, Luft, & Shields, 2003; Libby & Lin...

Purpose This paper aims to explore and explain how administrative controls have been changed as a response to a significant crisis, using the transition of the three largest Icelandic banks from bankrupt to operational entities after the 2008 financial crisis. The Icelandic banks are compared with three Danish banks to separate crisis-driven respo...

This paper explores what effects severe change in environmental turbulence has on internal controls. Internal controls are defined according to the COSO definition of internal controls and are a part of the management control package of the company. The data is based on two questionnaire surveys of internal control design and application carried ou...

A working paper in Icelandic on the characteristics of Icelandic CFOs and changes in task focus and role since 2008

A conference paper currently being worked on for publication.

Þessi grein byggist á rannsókn sem var gerð árið 2008 og aftur árið 2014 m.a. á einkennum og verkefnaáherslum fjármálastjóra í 300 stærstu fyrirtækjum á Íslandi. Báðar rannsóknirnar náðu yfir 60% svörun sem þykir mjög gott meðal stjórnenda. Niðurstöður eru m.a. þær að íslenskir fjármálastjórar fylgja almennt sömu þróun í áherslum og hlutverki og í...

The 2008 economic crisis had a significant impact on the business world. In the present study we examine the impact of drastic increase in environmental turbulence due to a large-scale national economic crisis on budgeting practices in private companies. The empirical material is from two surveys of budgeting practices in 184 Icelandic companies in...

The purpose of this study is to assess if changes in the role of Chief Financial Officers in small and medium sized enterprises is similar to CFO role changes in larger enterprises. We focus here mainly here on the roles related to the management accounting system including data registration, analysis, decision support, reporting and internal contr...