THE BENEFITS OF ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING PRACTICES IN MALAYSIAN SMES

Abstract

Malaysia is a primary destination for smart manufacturing and high technology activities. However, as businesses grow and compete, there is high pressure on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to improve their organizational performance, diversify and expand their business, and support stakeholders' interests. Management accounting practices (MAPs) are likely to allow businesses to achieve such objectives as the use of financial and non-financial information at the management and operational level will assist in planning, control, and decision-making subsequently. This increases profit and sales while reducing operational cost, improving quality, and strengthening stakeholders’ relationships, including enhancing customer value. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a system that allows businesses to achieve these enhancements as the ERP software integrates various automated processes related to technology, inventory, finance, services, and human resource management. The review of studies in the field of MAPs has found that the operational, tactical, and strategic benefit from the ERP system implementation may affect MAPs in SMEs; hence, this study aims to examine the possible relationships that may exist between operational, tactical, and strategic benefits of ERP implementation and MAPs among Malaysian SMEs. Data was collected using online questionnaires from 150 managers from SMEs in the state of Selangor. Using Structural Equation Modeling (AMOS), the study found that both operational benefit and strategic benefit of ERP system implementation had significant positive relationships with MAPs in Malaysian SMEs. The implications of the research findings of this study are discussed.