Management accountants and strategic management accounting: The role of organizational culture and information systems

Abstract

This study aims to contribute to the scant contingency theory literature on the determinants of strategic management accounting (SMA) practices and the role management accountants play. We develop and test a more complex theoretical model than in prior studies, to simultaneously examine the role of three variables: management accountant networking, information systems (IS) quality and organizational culture. These have not been examined in a single model before in the SMA literature. Using data from 149 UK manufacturing business units and the partial least square structural equation modeling, our findings document a positive relationship between management accountant networking and the implementation of SMA practices. However, this relationship is positively moderated by IS quality, which further enables management accountants to implement SMA practices. Unlike IS quality, we do not find empirical support for similar moderating effects by the outcome-oriented culture and innovation-oriented culture. Instead, the innovation-oriented culture has a significant indirect positive effect on SMA implementation through management accountant networking but not a direct one. In contrast, we find a direct positive impact of outcome-oriented culture on SMA implementation but not an indirect one through management accountant networking. These results suggest that in outcome-driven business units, the implementation of SMA practices may not be limited to the accounting function. Managers in other functions may be motivated to implement SMA practices even when management accountants are not part of the process.