The level of sophistication of management accounting practices: A case of the developing economy

Abstract

This study aims to identify the extent to which management accounting practices (MAPs) are used in the Tunisian context. To achieve this goal, the research is based on semi-structured interviews with 192 Tunisian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We used descriptive statistics to interpret our results. The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) model was then applied to analyze the evolution stage of MAPs. This inquiry highlights the traditional practices as the most used ones. Sophisticated or more advanced practices remain an exception as in all developed countries. The limit of our research is that it is interested only in the industrial sector; other sectors have their own specific problems and require separate in depth studies. The expectations of this study are the enrichment of the limited literature on MAPs at the scale of developing countries in the broad sense and Arab countries in a more specific context. The originality of this study is that it examines the level of sophistication of MAPs in the Tunisian context, using a set of MAPs (38 practices) instead of focusing on a singular number of practices. It is also the first analysis to determine its level in Tunisian enterprises using the IFAC model.