Public cost and management accounting system implementation and performance: an integrative approach

Abstract

The impact of the cost and management accounting system (CMAS) implementation process in the public sector on its performance has predominantly been researched within the theoretical framework of contingency and/or institutional theory. The research presented in this paper tests the hypothesis that the inclusion of strategic choices (Child, 1972, 1997) made by public accounting actors contributes to the explanatory power of the theoretical framework applied so far. The goal of this paper is to determine the underlying factors in explaining the sources of performance excellence in public CMAS. The proposed multiple regression model combines three separate variables of public CMAS implementation explaining its performance. These are: strategic choice, performance measurement and cost control. Additionally, the importance of institutional pressures (mimetic and coercive) and competences of internal actors within this model are researched. The results are based on survey data gathered from 182 public sector organisations from Croatia and Slovenia.