CONTINGENCIES INFLUENCING MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING PRACTICE: A YEMEN-BASED EMPIRICAL STUDY

Abstract

A significant number of management accounting studies have observedvarious levels of management accounting practice (MAP) adoption.Although academicians and practitioners have argued that advanced MAPscreate value and improve the performance of their adopters, researchers havedetermined that traditional MAPs remain dominant in the market. This studyaims to contribute to the extant body of knowledge on this topic by exploringthe level of MAP adoption in Yemen and by examining the effect of certainexternal (environmental) and internal (organisational) factors on the levelof MAP advancement. The sample firms include large firms that operate invarious economic sectors in Yemen, such as manufacturing, financial, naturalresources extraction and service, as well as medium and small firms toachieve sufficient sample size. The International Federation of Accountants(IFAC) framework on management accounting stages is used to classify thelevels of MAP advancement. Competition level and structure type (levelof delegation) significantly explain the variations in MAP advancementlevels among firms in Yemen. A higher degree of competition and amountof delegations can drive firms to adopt more sophisticated MAPs. Theseresults improve our understanding of why some firms invest in upgradingtheir management accounting systems and target best practices, whereasother firms tend to continue using traditional MA tools.