Anura De Zoysa

A Comparative Analysis of Management Accounting Practices in Australia and Japan: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract This paper is based on the findings of a questionnaire survey conducted on large manufacturing firms in Australia and Japan during 1997. The results of the survey have revealed a number of important differences between the two countries. For example, while management accounting practices of the Australian companies place an emphasis on cost control tools at the manufacturing stage, those of the Japanese companies devote a much greater attention to cost planning and cost reduction tools at the product design stage. Further, the Japanese companies seem to have introduced more frequent changes to management accounting practices than their Australian counterparts.

An investigation of perceptions of company annual report users in Sri Lanka

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on a study of how users of company annual reports in the emerging market of Sri Lanka view those reports. Since limited studies exist that examine financial reporting practices in emerging markets, little is known about the user perceptions of company annual reports in these markets. This paper contributes to filling this gap by examining the views of a wide spectrum of users on the usefulness of corporate annual reports in Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approach – The data reported in this study were collected through a questionnaire survey, covering seven user groups – accountants, executives, bankers, tax officers, academics, financial analysts, and investors. The 264 responses received were analysed using the Kruskal‐Wallis one‐way ANOVA test.Findings – The results reveal that most use annual reports for obtaining information for share transactions. Despite the long delay in publishing many annual reports and lack of availability of these reports to the g...

Capital structure and firm performance in emerging economies: an empirical analysis of Sri Lankan firms

This paper offers an empirical analysis of the impact of capital structure on firm performance in the context of an emerging market—Sri Lanka. The study applies both pooled and panel data regression models for a sample of 155 Sri Lankan-listed firms. The results demonstrate that most of the Sri Lankan firms finance their operations with short-term debt capital as against the long-term debt capital and provide strong evidence that the firm performance is negatively affected by the use of debt capital. The study also finds a significant negative relationship between tangibility and performance indicating inefficient utilization of non-current assets. The negative performance implications associated with over-utilization of short-term debts and the under-utilization non-current assets provide corporate managers with useful policy directions.

Standard costing in Japanese firms: Reexamination of its significance in the new manufacturing environment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review literature on standard costing in Japanese manufacturing environment. It examines the changes in the manufacturing environment in Japan that has lowered the significance of standard costing in Japanese firms and investigates the current level of its applicability in Japanese firms.Design/methodology/approach – The paper systematically categorizes the relevant literature and reviews it methodologically.Findings – The paper finds that standard costing is still being used by a large number of firms both in developing and developed countries. Overall, the research suggests that the importance of standard costing has not declined to such a low level despite the technological changes. In Japan standard costing is still used for different purposes despite its apparent weaknesses.Research limitations/implications – This is not an empirical investigation of standard costing in Japanese manufacturing firms.Originality/value – The paper will be useful to researchers, ...

THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL PLANNING AND CONTROL ON PERFORMANCE OF SMEs IN AUSTRIALIA

Although there has been some discussion in the academic literature on the relationship between planning and performance of small and medium enterprises(SMEs), no prior research has attempted to capture the control aspect of planning and its possible impact on performance. Furthermore, most of the studies on this aspect have been concentrating on long-range strategic planning with little attention being devoted to financial planning based on annual budgeting. Therefore, based on the results of a study involving a questionnaire survey of budgetting and budgetary control processes of 473 manufacturing SMEs in Australia, this paper attempts to provide an analysis of the impact of both financial planning and control of the sample firms on their performance. The results reveal that greater comprehensiveness in both financial plannig and control processes leads to higher sales performance of these firms.

Adoptability of Japanese management practices in Sri Lankan industry

The effectiveness of Japanese management practices (JMPs) is often referred to as a major reason for Japans economic miracle. In recent years, several countries also have achieved remarkable results by adopting some JMPs in their manufacturing organisations. Through the overview of an Indian experience, this paper attempts to examine how Sri Lankan industrialists can benefit from adopting JMPs in their organisations. It is suggested that JMPs, if properly adopted, can accelerate industrial development in Sri Lanka by contributing effectively towards achieving low cost, superior quality and high productivity.

Corporate governance and postcolonialism: the experience of Sri Lanka

This paper explores the perceived adequacy of Anglo-American corporate governance reforms in an emerging market. Using a perception survey of Sri Lankas corporate governance stakeholders, 277 questionnaire survey responses from five stakeholder groups in Sri Lanka are used in factor and regression analyses. This empirical study finds that adoption of best practice Anglo-American policies and regulations do not result in the perception of good corporate governance by stakeholders. The application of postcolonial theory offers an insight into this discrepancy. Current technical modes of investigation only replicate the modernity narrative. Policy setters and regulators should consider corporate governance as a cultural practice as well as a technical practice, to better serve stakeholder perceptions. This study introduces postcolonial theory as a means of cultural evaluation of corporate governance practices.