Empirical explanation of management accounting change: Malaysian manufacturing organisations

Abstract

This is a study of management accounting control system (MACS) changes in Malaysian manufacturing organizations. It both replicates and extends the MACS change model developed in Libby and Waterhouse's (1996) exploratory study in Canadian manufacturing firms and in Williams and Seaman's (2001) Singapore study. Comparisons are made between these two studies and the Malaysian results. The analysis confirms that most changes in MACS are incremental or evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The great variety of changes and causes demonstrates that management accounting change is not a uniform phenomenon as is often implicitly assumed in the literature. The introduction of several new independent variables (change causal factors) does improve the original model's explanatory power significantly. However this improved model does not explain how the changes take place. A case study was therefore designed to complement the survey. In general the results of the case study provide support for the management accounting change literature and the survey findings.