The relationships among broad scope MAS, managerial control, performance, and job relevant information

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the decision facilitation and decision influencing roles for management information are concomitant in organizations, and therefore must be analysed concurrently. Design/methodology/approach A two‐stage regression procedure for testing the moderating and intervening relationships among the variables of interest was adopted. First, the interaction of individual level controls (administrative and professional) on broad scope management accounting system (MAS) was tested, then the intervening relationship between broad scope MAS, job‐relevant information (JRI), and performance was analysed. Findings Tests of the moderating relationship between the control environment, broad scope MAS, JRI, and performance revealed a significant interaction term for JRI, but not for performance. Research limitations/implications The usual measurement and implementation errors associated with survey methodology attach to this study. Furthermore, the sample was not randomly selected, which undermines the external validity of the findings. External validity will be further compromised by the relatively small sample size. Hence, caution is recommended in generalising the results to a wider population. Practical implications The study provides evidence on the relationship between broad scope MAS, individual level control mechanisms and the outcome variable of JRI. Originality/value The paper seeks to use a controlled setting, established measures, and methods of analysis to suggest that when existing theory explains the empirical relationship among the variables of interest in more than one way, it may be necessary to comprehensively examine the relationships theoretically and empirically at more than one level to enable a better explanation of the linkage between theory and the empirical tests.