Title: An empirical investigation of the impact of globalisation and information technology on the role of the management accountant: evidence from the United Arab Emirates

Authors: Sawsan Saadi Halbouni; Mohamed Abdalla Nour

Addresses: Department of Accounting, College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, Room 135 – W5 Building, UAE ' Department of Management Information Systems, College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, Room 129 – W5 Building, UAE

Abstract: This paper investigated the impact of globalisation, information technology and market forces on the traditional role of management accountants of providing relevant information for managerial decisions in an emerging market in the Middle East. The paper conducted a survey of practising management accountants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to examine their perceptions towards the effect of changes in the business environment on their current and future roles, and the extent to which globalisation and information technology (IT) have enabled them to provide better support for management decision making. The study findings indicate that globalisation and information technology are two key factors driving the change in the contemporary role of UAE management accountants. Local market forces were found to have no effect on the role of the management accountant. Thus, the principal contribution of this paper is drawing attention to the influence of globalisation, information technology, and gender on the changing role of contemporary management accountants. It is hoped that this would provide the first building block for theory that relates contextual factors to the role and function of management accountants.

Keywords: management accountant roles; information technology; IT; decision support; United Arab Emirates; UAE; accounting information systems; AIS; gender; globalisation; management accounting; market forces; decision making.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAAPE.2013.055898

International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, 2013 Vol.9 No.3, pp.286 - 306

Received: 16 Jan 2012
Accepted: 09 Nov 2012
Published online: 30 Jan 2014 *

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