Management Control Systems and the Presence of a Full-Time Accountant: An Empirical Study of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
Advances in Management Accounting
ISBN: 978-1-78560-972-5, eISBN: 978-1-78560-971-8
Publication date: 23 November 2016
Abstract
Purpose
We document the relationship between size, the presence of a full-time accountant, strategy, and the adoption of management control systems (MCSs) in small- and medium-sized Canadian manufacturing enterprises (SMEs).
Methodology/approach
Using survey results from 247 Canadian SMEs, we use partial least squares to holistically test our model and also present data for each MCS.
Findings
We find that the presence of a professional accountant is strongly associated with the adoption of MCSs and is a significant explanatory variable more often than either size or strategy.
Research limitations/implications
While the impact of organization and strategy has been extensively studied within large organizations, we investigate these relationships within SMEs. Additionally, we investigate the impact of having a full-time accountant, a constraint unique to SMEs due to their limited resources.
Limitations include the fact that we likely have a significant survivor bias as the average age of our sample firms was 30 years. Our analysis of nonresponse bias does not allow us to conclude that such a bias did not exist. Also, it is possible that some respondents believed they had a certain MCS when others might think they did not.
Practical implications
This study will be of interest to owners/managers of manufacturing SMEs, their advisors, and economic development agencies. Our study also has implications for accounting education as most students will work for SMEs.
Originality/value
Few studies have documented the MCSs adopted by North American SMEs, and none have considered the impact of the presence of a full-time accountant.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgment
The authors thank the Canadian Academic Accounting Association, the Society of Management Accountants of Canada, the Jeanne and J. –Louis Lévesque Chair in Financial Management at the University of Moncton and the Centre of Accounting Research and Education at the University of Manitoba for their financial support. They also thank Michel Coulmont, Guy Cucumel, Benoit Lavigne, François Brouard and reviewers and participants of the CAAA Annual Conference and the University of Manitoba/CGA Conference for their helpful comments.
Citation
Berthelot, S. and Morrill, J. (2016), "Management Control Systems and the Presence of a Full-Time Accountant: An Empirical Study of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)", Advances in Management Accounting (Advances in Management Accounting, Vol. 27), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 207-242. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1474-787120160000027006
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017 Emerald Group Publishing Limited