Hassan Yazdifar

Management accounting change and the changing roles of management accountants: a comparative analysis between dependent and independent organizations

Management accounting change and the changing roles of management accountants have dominated both the professional and academic accounting literature in recent years. This paper aims to contribute to these debates by providing evidence from a sample of management accountants working in both dependent (group) and independent (non‐group) organizations in the U.K. One thousand (qualified) members of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), U.K., were randomly selected from the association’s database for a postal survey questionnaire. In all, 279 professionally qualified management accountants in both types of organizations responded to a postal survey questionnaire (58 percent from dependent and 42 percent from independent organizations respectively). A Mann‐Whitney analysis of the responses indicates that while some significant differences exist between the views of the two groups, these management accountants agree on several of the management accounting practices and the roles of the management accountant investigated. The study provides further insight into MAS and the changing roles of management accountants. It was earlier hypothesized that significant differences would exist in the perceptions between the two groups. However the weak support for the hypotheses could be explained by the influence of other institutional forces apart from the head office control which is focused on in the paper. Thus, it was recognized that other institutional forces are likely to be at play in shaping the perceptions of the management accountants. This is a limitation of the paper and future research to study the impacts of other institutional factors is recommended.

Management accounting education and training: putting management in and taking accounting out

This paper is offered as a discussion piece. Drawing from personal research on management accounting change in the UK, and the changing roles, skills, and knowledge base required of management accountants, it argues for significant pedagogical reform to redirect education and training to these new areas. Without this the occupation may disappear, as already has happened in many organisations. As management accountants in the Anglo-American tradition are not used in countries such as Japan and Germany, the longevity of the role should not be assumed. It is argued, contrary to claims made elsewhere, that the problems do not lie in management accounting research, which has flourished and produced a substantive body of findings of relevance to industry in a comparatively short time. Instead the paper argues that industry must look to greater sustained involvement in higher education institutions, especially at a local and operating level. In addition there are calls for reforms of topics covered in syllabuses, quality systems in education, assessment systems, and incentives for innovative teaching in higher education institutions.

Culture and Accounting Practices in Turkey

This paper examines the effects of cultural values on accounting practices in Turkey by applying Grays theory (Gray, 1988) of socio-cultural factors on accounting values and practices. We compared the model of accounting with accounting-profession authority, the quality and uniformity of financial disclosures, and accounting measurements in present Turkey. This country is a unique case among developing countries because of its specific geopolitical and cultural features. Our results confirm Grays theory that high uncertainty avoidance and low individualism are positively associated with high conservative accounting measurements. In addition, the study confirms that the highest power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and the lower individualism are positively associated with accounting uniformity. However, large power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, and collectivisms negatively affect professionalism and financial disclosures.

The contract, accounting and trust: a case study of an international joint venture (IJV) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Abstract This paper reports on the results of a case study that examines the effect of the contract and accounting on inter-organisational trust in an international joint venture (IJV). The empirical setting of the research was an IJV relation between a United Arab Emirates (UAE) firm and its western partner. Data were gathered from multiple sources, including documents, observations, interviews and discussions with managers. The paper aims to explore the process of trust development and the role of the contract and accounting in this. We find that trust developed differently for the partners. Moreover the trust concerns of the partners were not the same. Based on this we conclude that trust was not automatically reciprocated. Instead it needs relating to other items such as the contract, accounting and also the institutional environment. The open-book accounting we observed could only be termed ‘partial’ because the western partner had access to the local partners books but not the vice versa. But this partial open-book accounting created conflicts between the partners. We argue that developing one kind of trust through one particular medium may help one party but may damage the relationship between the partners.

Influence of culture on accounting uniformity among Arabic nations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of cultural values on accounting uniformity and consistency among Arabic nations.Design/methodology/approach – A combination of a survey and analysis of published data on accounting information. Cluster analysis is used to classify the countries on the basis of accounting consistency and uniformity.Findings – The study indicates that the Hofstede‐Gray hypothesis of accounting uniformity in Arab countries is supported by actual examination of accounting practice.Research limitations/implications – This is an initial study and the results need to be confirmed in future research. Nevertheless, the finding should be of interested to global investors, international accounting organizations (e.g. IFAC) and other academics who are researching accounting in the Middle East.Practical implications – The study indicates that in Arabic nations with a Muslim majority, cultural factors affect accounting development generally and accounting uniformity par...

The Effect of Innovation Characteristics on Activity-Based Costing Adoption

This paper contributes to the analysis of the factors influencing the adoption of ABC by assessing the contribution of the characteristics of an innovation on adoption, which has not been carried out in prior research. Specifically, the paper applies innovation diffusion theory to examine the impact of five characteristics of an innovation, and organisation size, industry and location on the decision to adopt activity-based costing (ABC). The data for the study was obtained from a questionnaire survey of management accountants in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The relationships with ABC adopted were tested using logistic regression analysis. The best model specification arises when organisations that have adopted ABC are compared with those that have rejected it. The results reveal that organisations are more likely to adopt ABC when they attach a high level of importance to the relative advantages offered by innovations, are large and located in Australasia.

Management Accounting and the Shortcomings of Current PerformanceMeasurement Systems

Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is one of the most talked about performance measurement systems in the management accounting literature in the past two decades. In this paper, we argue that the BSC has failed to perform as a comprehensive performance measurement systems though it focuses on both financial and nonfinancial indicators. By presenting a historical review of the BSC, we explore the key shortcomings of the BSC and discuss the steps which have been taken to address the shortcomings of the BSC since its introduction in the 1990s. And finally, we present our research findings regarding the shortcomings of the BSC in practice