Does the involvement of management accountants in strategic management processes enhance organisations’ strategic effectiveness? An empirical analysis

Aldonio Ferreira
Monash University
Australia

Carly Moulang
Monash University
Australia

Abstract:
The role of management accountants within organisations is said to be in a state of change and many researchers have called for a greater involvement of management accountants in strategic management processes as means of regaining the ‘relevance lost’ and increasing the value creation of their activities. Although such arguments are compelling, there is neither research examining whether the involvement of management accountants in such processes enhances organisations’ strategic effectiveness, nor research investigating whether there are different implications depending on the stage of the strategic management processes in which the involvement takes place. This paper investigates this issue, by analysing the contribution of management accountants towards the strategic effectiveness of organisations. A high level of engagement in strategic analysis, formulation and implementation will be argued to influence management accountants’ contribution towards the strategic effectiveness of their organisation.

A postal survey of management accountants was conducted in Australian businesses, generating 279 usable observations. We find that management accountants’ involvement in strategic analysis stage leads to their involvement in strategic choice and to strategic implementation stages. We also find a direct path between involvement in the strategic analysis and strategic implementation stages. More fundamentally, we find that only involvement in strategic implementation is associated with organisations’ strategic effectiveness.