Factors promoting and hindering the adoption of management accounting tools : evidence from Italian manufacturing SMEs

This paper aims to provide empirical evidence of the factors considered relevant in promoting the adoption of Management Accounting (MA) tools, and those able to hinder their spread in Italian manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study represents a bridge between theory and practice as it allows us to investigate which MA tools are adopted in a firms daily practice and which are the main factors fostering/hindering MA tools implementation. In 2018 a questionnaire was sent to a total population of 1,100 Italian manufacturing SMEs; 102 responses were obtained. The findings show that SMEs mainly use budgeting tools, customer satisfaction, benchmarking analysis, economic and financial indexes.

Additionally, the principal variable promoting the adoption of MA practices seems to be the competition increase, which is an input deriving from outside rising the information needs of entrepreneurs. Internal firm-specific factors significantly contribute to favouring the adoption of MA tools, particularly a corporate culture oriented to the management control to support decision-making processes, promoted by entrepreneurs and employees. Contrary, the lack of knowledge concern-ing the potentiality of MA tools and the lack of resources would seem to hinder the spread of these tools. Thus, the role of entrepreneurs, employees, and Universities in promoting knowledge transferring and sharing becomes pivotal to adopt effective MAS. [Publisher's text].