Daniel Martinez Ahloy

Daniel Martinez is Associate Professor of Accounting and Control Management Department at HEC Paris. “Accounting systems don’t just record what happens: they shape what is possible.” Daniel studies how performance measurement constitutes markets, organizations, and social movements, offering insights into accountability, impact, and social change.

I explore how accounting systems influence markets, organizations, and social movements. From tracking cannabis in Colorado, to measuring NGO impact in Central America, to understanding how social movements organize through accounting, I examine how accounting enables, constrains, and transforms action.

I offer four key insights:

First, my research shows that accounting systems don’t reflect reality: they shape it. Performance measurement systems play a central role in governing and making markets, organizations, and movements.

Second, I investigate how accounting tools and digital systems track contested commodities: from cannabis to minerals, narcotics, and even living organisms. In these contexts, decisions about what to count and how to trace flows are deeply technical and political.

Third, I study how performance and impact measurement are transforming the nonprofit world. For NGOs, social enterprises, and foundations, today’s metrics influence not only how success is judged but how missions are defined.
Fourth, I examine how social movements experiment with accounting practices to support decision-making, enable collective action, and promote democratic accountability. From activist budgeting to grassroots reporting, movements innovate with and are constrained by accounting numbers.

My work has appeared in Forbes, Risk & Regulation, Times Higher Education, and leading academic journals. Grounded in fieldwork and qualitative research, I aim to reveal how performance and measurement quietly govern our political and social lives.

I have taught management accounting and control in HEC Paris’s MBA and Grande École programs. My courses use real-world cases and interactive formats to explore how managers use performance metrics to steer organizations, allocate resources, and execute strategy. I also teach qualitative research methods, helping students design and carry out field-based studies of organizations, technologies, and decision-making.