Understanding how Top Management Influences use of Management Accounting Systems

What is it about?

This study looked at how top managers affect management accounting systems (MAS) use in smaller and medium enterprises (SMEs), helping them make decisions. The researchers wanted to see how much support from top managers influenced whether MAS were used effectively in SMEs. They found that when top managers supported using MAS and paid attention to decision-making styles and employee satisfaction, it was more likely to be used well. They also found that training employees to use MAS properly was really important. The study shows that when top managers are supportive and pay attention to how their employees use MAS, it helps them make better decisions. This research adds to what we know about how businesses can be managed effectively, especially in SMEs.

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Why is it important?

First, our findings reveal that three variables significantly mediate the relationship between TMS and MAS: decentralization, training of MAS users, and satisfaction with the information provided by the MAS. As far as we know, based on the literature reviewed, these relationships have not yet been studied. Therefore, studying these new relationships significantly alters our understanding of MAS effectiveness in SMEs organizational contexts, reorganizing the causal maps underlying the contingency theory. Second, our findings contribute to understanding these causal maps by disentangling the relationships between TMS and MAS, examining the individual and group mediating effects, and enabling us to assess the degree of mediation relative to these new relationships. In the analysis process, we found that the combined effect of user satisfaction and training can fully mediate the relationship between TMS and MAS. This finding illustrates the relevance of these organizational instruments that the top management team can use to increase the effectiveness of the MAS. We also found the significative mediation effect of the decentralization of decisions, which can represent a paradigm shift for SMEs’ organizational decision processes. Third, our study confirms that MAS should be viewed in a systemic approach, of which its dimensions are part, avoiding segmented MAS research models and allowing future comparability of research findings. Previous research has used these segmented MAS approaches, causing a lack of comparability in results.