Title: Influence of management accounting change on performance of small entrepreneurial reorganising firms

Authors: Erkki K. Laitinen

Addresses: Department of Accounting and Business Finance, University of Vaasa, POB 700, FIN-65101 Vaasa, Finland

Abstract: This paper analyses the moderating effects of different contextual variables on the influence of management accounting change (MAC) on the long-term financial performance of small entrepreneurial reorganising Finnish firms. Empirical data are based on a survey responded by 85 entrepreneurial firms. The findings show that the influence of MAC on financial performance is weak. They also show that the sign of influence is sensitive for control variables. For univariate analysis without any controlling variables the relationship is weak but positive. When controlling for management control system change (MCSC), organisational change (OC) and contextual variables the relationship is still weak but negative. Twelve contextual variables were used to moderate the relationship between MAC and performance influence. For both the low and high levels of each variable the effect was found negative. The general conclusion is that for very small reorganising firms the influence of MAC is negative irrespective of the context.

Keywords: management accounting change; MAC; management accounting systems; very small firms; entrepreneurial firms; entrepreneurship; financial performance; moderating effects; contextual variables; Finland; reorganising firms; regression analysis; interaction variables; management control systems; organisational change.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2014.062552

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2014 Vol.13 No.2, pp.164 - 187

Received: 14 Jun 2013
Accepted: 11 Apr 2014
Published online: 26 Jul 2014 *

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