Justifying government accounting change through management needs: The case of Morocco

Abstract

The paper’s purpose is to contribute to the understanding of why governments adopt accounting practices borrowed from private corporations. Based on a conceptual framework centered on NPM, the evidence for this research was obtained through a qualitative study of the government accounting reform in Morocco (Government accountants, public accounting auditors and accounting professionals). The thematic analysis of collected data through interviews and documents focuses on the management needs that underlie this change by looking at the motivations of said actors. The results highlighted show an overlap between the rational logic and the mimetic logic underlying this accounting choice.