Contextual factors impact on the use of new management accounting practices: An empirical analysis in the Tunisian context

Fatma Ayadi ,Habib Affes

Abstract

A great interest has been paid to the explanation of the difference in the use of the new management accounting practices between companies. In this present research, we applied the contingency theory in order to improve our understanding of the factors that may explain the use of a set of three new practices of management accounting. In particular, we examined the impact of five contingency factors, such as the perceived environmental uncertainty, the relational capital with suppliers, the generic strategy of cost domination, the organizational architecture and the company size, on the use of the Activity Based Costing (ABC), Balanced Scorecard or (BSC) and the financial and accounting benchmarking. The results showed that the level of the perceived environmental uncertainty, the relational capital with suppliers and the company size significantly affect the use level of the new management accounting practices.