The Effect of Perceived Environmental Uncertainty on the Use and Perceived Usefulness of Strategic Management Accounting: Some Empirical Evidence

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) affects the use and the perceived usefulness of strategic management accounting (SMA). The study takes the perspective that SMA can be regarded as a set of strategically oriented management accounting techniques and makes the research hypothesis that as PEU increases the use and perceived usefulness of SMA techniques also increase. To test the hypothesis, the responses of 55 CFOS to a questionnaire survey were analysed. The survey considered a cross-section of large manufacturing companies in Italy. The regression-based analysis mainly shows: (1) a positive relationship between PEU and the use of strategic pricing as SMA technique supporting product pricing decisions; (2) a positive relationship between PEU and the use of balanced scorecard; (3) a positive association between PEU and the perceived usefulness of all the SMA techniques included in the study