Management accounting systems and organizational configuration: a life-cycle perspective

This study adopts a configurational approach that captures possible variabl es (strategy, structure, leadership and decision-making styles) and their r elationships with management accounting systems (MAS) from an organizationa l life-cycle perspective. Using Miller and Friesen's life-cycle model (Mill er, D., & Friesen, P. H. (1983). Successful and unsuccessful phases of the corporate life cycle, Organization Studies, 339-356; Miller, D., & Friesen, P. H. (1984). A longitudinal study of the corporate lift-cycle, Management Science, 1161-1183), a set of hypotheses were tested with data from mail s urvey and field studies of firms in the clothing and footwear industry. Res ults indicated that MAS formality changed to complement organizational char acteristics across life-cycle stages. In uncovering how and why MAS formali ty changed during organizational development, our results indicate that it is growth firms that pay particular attention to increasing the formality o f their MAS. Furthermore, between stages, it is the selection of management accounting tools that dominates the presentation of information in explain ing the different MAS life-cycle stage designs. While based on cross-sectio nal data, the homogeneity of organizational configurations at each life-cyc le stage does suggest that these results imply a longitudinal development o f MAS. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.