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Purpose This paper aims to analyze the impact of information technology (IT) system implementation on the integration of data and information between sales and accounting departments, and how data integration affects relations with supplier and customers. Design/methodology/approach The change between three different reservation and distribution systems in an airline company was assessed over 20 years based on qualitative data collected while events unfolded and interviews that traced events retrospectively. Findings This study finds that data integration challenges affect the capacity to use revenue and sales data for control purposes and integrating with suppliers and customers. The systems either facilitated the ability to integrate sales and accounting data or enabled integration in wider supplier and customer networks. The implementation of different reservation and distribution systems resulted in a trade-off between integration within the firm and into wider customer and supplier networks. Research limitations/implications Data were mainly obtained from the focal firm, Air Greenland. The protracted study period meant that the data were not as concentrated as they would have been had the analysis been performed over a shorter duration or had the focus been on one implementation process. Originality/value Extant research suggests that integration challenges when implementing IT systems are caused by differences in information needs between groups with different logics. The authors illustrate how data integration is also a crucial challenge when implementing IT systems.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse how contradictions between institutional pressures shape accounting and organisational change within Air Greenland. Design/methodology/approach The paper applies document analysis and retrospective interviews to trace accounting and organisational change spanning 50 years and analyses developments on multiple levels: societal, governance and micro levels. Findings The paper illustrates the didactical development of the organisation and management accounting. The contradictory impetus from the institutional level generates a space where actors are able to affect development and change management accounting systems. Actors at the company level further acted on the institutional level to affect change in governance and institutions. Research limitations/implications The case differs from case studies in emerging countries owing to the low number of inhabitants in Greenland, its income per capita and the legislative influence asserted by Denmark, the former colonial power, restricting the generalizability of findings. Originality/value The paper extends extant research on development of organisations and management accounting change in developing countries through a longitudinal study of how contradictory demands from the governance and legislative levels affect accounting and organisational change. Moreover, the paper is the first case study to address management accounting practices in Greenland.