Tim Neerup Themsen

About

View research profile and publications

E-mail

tnt.acc@cbs.dk

Telephone

Office: +4538155657

Departments

Department of Accounting

Room: SOL/D4.32

View research profile and publications

Subjects

Public management Project management Financial management Budget Accounting Construction

Primary research areas

Project accounting and performance

I study how accounting practices shape projects and influence what we call success. My work explores how tools such as budgets and risk matrices both enable and constrain project performance in public and private organizations.

Risk management and performativity

I explore how risk management frameworks and technologies perform the ability to manage risks — showing how visual and calculative tools can produce a false sense of security for the realization of the project’s objectives.

Public sector internal auditing and governance

I study how accounting, auditing, and control practices shape public governance. My research shows that we have moved from an “audit society” to an “innovation society” – redefining accountability and the role of internal audit in government, and challenging traditional ideas of control, transparency, and public value.

Behavioural consequences of management accounting

I examine how management accounting affect human behaviour, responsibility, and collaboration — and how economic tools shape everyday organizational action.

Accounting, value, and society

I am interested in how accounting defines value for money and the responsible use of scarce resources, and how accounting practices can help create more sustainable and transparent societies

I change how we think about project accounting in society

Projects rarely deliver the results they promise. I study how project accounting shapes projects and influences what we call success. My research shows that commonly used project accounting tools – such as budgets and risk matrices – do more than support the management of projects; they can limit decisions, prevent necessary actions, and even challenge the value of a project’s outcome.

By understanding how project accounting works in practice, we can improve the way projects are designed, governed, and evaluated — in both the public and private sectors. My work helps organizations and decision-makers make large investments more transparent, accountable, and economically sound.

I am driven by a curiosity about how numbers, calculations, and reports come to matter for real people and organizations — and how they can support not only successful projects, but the responsible use of scarce resources in society.

Recent research projects

The contronymity of project accounting

Explores how project accounting both supports and undermines project outcomes. Based on Denmark’s 5.5 billion-euro hospital programme, the study shows how accounting shaped success and failure.

Read the publication in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (2025)

Performance management in higher education

Explores how the design and use of performance contracts between the Ministry of Higher Education and Science and Danish universities have evolved, shaping governance and performance management.

Accounting for collaboration costs

Examines how clients and contractors account for the costs of coordination, communication, and collaboration — and how accounting practices influence project relations and management decisions.