Influence of management accounting change on performance of small entrepreneurial reorganising firms

Abstract

This paper analyses the moderating effects of different contextual variables on the influence of management accounting change (MAC) on the long-term financial performance of small entrepreneurial reorganising Finnish firms. Empirical data are based on a survey responded by 85 entrepreneurial firms. The findings show that the influence of MAC on financial performance is weak. They also show that the sign of influence is sensitive for control variables. For univariate analysis without any controlling variables the relationship is weak but positive. When controlling for management control system change (MCSC), organisational change (OC) and contextual variables the relationship is still weak but negative. Twelve contextual variables were used to moderate the relationship between MAC and performance influence. For both the low and high levels of each variable the effect was found negative. The general conclusion is that for very small reorganising firms the influence of MAC is negative irrespective of the context.