ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN SMEs

Einar Häckner and Anders Nilsson
Additional contact information
Einar Häckner: Jönköping International Business School, Sweden
Anders Nilsson: Luleå University of Technology, Sweden

Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), 1999, vol. 07, issue 01, 37-64

Abstract: The research questions concern the possible link between Accounting Information Systems (AIS) and profitability in small and medium-sized firms (SMEs). "Instrumental" functions of AIS are compared with profitability for 24SMEs in the Swedish prefab housing industry. Data were collected by extensive, structured interviews with firm CEOs and CFOs. Results are interpreted in the context of the "sense-making process". AIS parts include: budgets, cash management, calculations, accounting and reports. The instrumental functions are evaluated in terms of completeness, complexity, logic, consistency and timeliness.The findings indicate that instrumental features of calculations and reporting do matter and are related to profitability in the business. Well designed features of these parts of an AIS seemed to be necessary but not sufficient prerequisites for profitability. It is suggested that the relationships can be better understood in the light of sense-making aspects.On the basis of the findings a framework of decision models is proposed. The framework is based on two dimensions of a problematic situation: degree of structure and complexity.

Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0218495899000042
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:wsi:jecxxx:v:07:y:1999:i:01:n:s0218495899000042

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0218495899000042

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC) is currently edited by Teck-Meng Tan

More articles in Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().