Drivers of Choice of Management Accounting System Designs in Nigerian Manufacturing Companies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/ijbsr.v3i9.273Keywords:
Management accounting system design, Contingency theory, Institutional theoryAbstract
This study explored the factors that influence the choice of management accounting system designs by manufacturing organisations in Nigeria. Factors, with potential to explain management accounting systems designs were identified from two theoretical perspectives. The study argued that factors from both institutional and contingency theory perspectives contribute to explaining the management accounting system (MAS) designs in manufacturing companies in Nigeria; and that technical factors as proposed in the contingency theory perspective should provide greater explanatory power. This is in contrast to the dominant institutional explanations of accounting systems in companies in the developing countries as presented in extant literature. Data from a survey of senior level managers of one hundred and forty four companies were subjected to t-tests and hierarchical regression analyses. The results provided support for the study’s proposition suggesting the applicability of the contingency theory perspective to the study of MAS in the Nigerian companies. Based on this persuasion, future studies are needed to examine the relationship between MAS designs and performance of such companies and the interaction effects of identified factors on such relationship, in line with contingency theory propositions.
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