Predicting Change in Management Accounting Systems: National Culture and Industry Effects

• Main Authors: Williams, John Joseph, Seaman, Alfred E.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2001
• Subjects: Accounting; Management Information Systems
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/301; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0361-3682(01)00002-2
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This study replicates the model developed in Libby and Waterhouse's [Libby, T., & Waterhouse, J. H. (1996). Predicting change in management accounting systems. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 8, 137-150] exploratory study of changes in a population of 23 management accounting control systems, and the five components of planning, controlling, costing, directing, and decision making, at the organizational level in Canadian manufacturing firms. The determinants of size, organizational capacity, intensity of competition, and centralization (replacing decentralization) are used to examine a sample of manufacturing firms in Singapore. Regression results from survey data partially support the cross-national transferability of their findings. Additional analyses show consistency between manufacturing and industrial firms but not service-oriented firms, suggesting limited unreliability of the model across different economic sectors.