Article history: Received 23 September 2009 Accepted 3 September 2010 The purpose of this commentary is to initiate discussion on the status of research on the interface between management control, especially management accounting, and information technology, and on howwe could proceed to understand this relationship and changes in it. The commentary also points to the need for expanding the sphere of theories and methodologies applied in the accounting information systems field, if we want to explain and understand the complex and mutually constitutive nature of the relationship, especially how new technologies are actually designed and adapted to work in practice. The mainstream tradition tends to largely ignore the design and implementation processes and especially the struggles therein. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.