Nice to value. Unraveling the nexus between management accounting use and financial performance: A quantitative study of SMEs

Paolo Roffia, Thomas Henschel and Fares Getzin

Journal of the International Council for Small Business, 2025, vol. 6, issue 1, 48-54

Abstract: This study investigates the intricate relationship between management accounting (MA) practices and financial performance (FP) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Italy and Germany, offering practical insights for practitioners and policy makers. Despite the theoretical benefits of MA practices like cost accounting, budgeting, and key performance indicators, their implementation in SMEs remains limited. Prior research suggests that SMEs often rely on informal control systems due to resource constraints and a lack of familiarity with MA tools. The COVID-19 pandemic and recent European conflicts have stressed the need for robust MA practices to navigate economic volatility and enhance resilience. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected via questionnaires from 238 SMEs in Italy and Germany, targeting chief financial officers, board members, and majority shareholders. The analysis, employing partial least squares structural equation modeling, reveals a significant positive impact of MA practices on FP. Factors such as resource availability, training, and the culture of control play crucial roles in this relationship. These findings underscore the strategic importance of MA in driving organizational performance and highlight the need for SMEs to adopt these practices more comprehensively. This study offers valuable guidance for SME managers in enhancing operational efficiency and strategic decision making. Moreover, it provides policy makers with evidence-based recommendations to support SME growth and resilience through targeted training programs and resource allocation, ensuring a robust framework for economic stability and development.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/26437015.2024.2386267 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ucsbxx:v:6:y:2025:i:1:p:48-54

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/ucsb20

DOI: 10.1080/26437015.2024.2386267

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the International Council for Small Business is currently edited by Eric Liguori

More articles in Journal of the International Council for Small Business from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().