Predicting Change in Management Accounting Systems.

Abstract This exploratory study provides evidence contradictory to the charge that management accounting and control systems are generally resistant to change. Economic and organizational factors associated with the adoption of changes in management accounting systems were identified from the organizational change literature. Their relationship to changes in management accounting systems was tested using a sample of medium-sized Canadian manufacturing organizations. The data were analyzed by multiple regression. The results indicated that, on average, 31 percent of the management accounting systems in the sample organizations changed during the period 1991 -1993. Those components of management accounting and control systems that support decision making and control changed more frequently than components that support planning or directing, or are concerned with product costing. Organizations operating in more highly competitive environments tended to have a greater number of management accounting systems in use. Change in management accounting systems was found to be proportionate to the number of existing formal management accounting systems, consistent with the view that learning and change occur from experience.