Influence of Internationalization on Management Accounting Tools: evidences from Italian Firms

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the diffusion of management accounting tools in Italian manufacturing firms. More specifically, this paper investigates, with an exploratory purpose, the role of internationalization. The elimination of trade barriers, the markets globalization and the environmental turbulences affected company strategies. The search for new partners, new clients and new suppliers from foreign countries are only some of recently Italian firms’ trends due to the up-above phenomena. The research is based on the qualitative data analysis collected through a survey by questionnaire. In particular, 264 questionnaires of Italian manufacturing companies were analyzed. The results of this paper provide empirical evidence on a high positive correlation between the increasing foreign client percentage and the management control tools, activity-based costing and target costing in particular. In the range of internationalization contingency variables, this exploratory study considered only the impact of foreign customers. Further researches can involve other factors as foreign suppliers, joint-ventures, and technological exchanges. This paper contributes to analyse the impact of internationalization, a contingency variable today not fully investigated in management accounting system researches. In fact, managerial control systems and management accounting systems can be considered as key variables in each kind of organization (Anthony, 1956), both publicly-owned and private, both in manufacturing industries and services.