THE EFFECTS OF USER PARTICIPATION ON THE DESIGN OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION-SYSTEMS

The roles of user participation (UP) in the design of Management Accou nting Information System(s) (MAS) have long received the attention of MAS researchers. By surveying business firms through a structured ques tionnaire, this study investigated the interactions among contextual v ariables (Task uncertainty and organizational structure), information characteristics (Scope, timeliness and aggregation) and UP. The result s suggest that under high task uncertainty, aggregated and timely info rmation with high UP is positively associated with increased MAS perfo rmance. However, when the task uncertainty is low, the UP makes no imp act on the relation between performance and information characteristic s. In a less structured organization, broad scope, timely and aggregat ed information with high UP has a positive influence on the performanc e. In mechanistic organization, narrow scope and disaggregated informa tion through the high UP can lead to higher MAS performance. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.