Does national culture impact management accounting? A structured literature review

Description

This paper reviews findings on how national cultures influence management accounting. It is based on a conclu-sive sample of 90 peer-reviewed journal articles that were identified in a structured literature search. Furthermore, it offers a detailed analysis of the sample’s bibliographical characteristics, including the chronological order of publications, journal metrics, article type, and country focus. The findings from the sample articles are presented along a self-developed research framework and clustered into functional, instrumental, and institutional manage-ment accounting aspects, each influenced by national culture, and several sub-clusters. We found evidence that research on the impact of national culture on management accounting has been growing over the last two decades with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions being most influential in this research field and research addressing mainly developed countries (e.g., USA, Japan, and Western European countries). Most authors confirm the influence of national culture on management accounting. The identified literature mostly proves that national culture impacts all functional aspects of management accounting (e.g., information supply, planning), the implementation and usage of different management accounting tools (e.g., budgeting and performance measurement tools) as well as several institutional management accounting aspects. Accordingly, to ensure effective and efficient management accounting, it is highly relevant to identify and embrace these specific influencing factors of national culture, especially in internationally operating companies.

Period	28 May 2021
Event title	EAA Virtual Congress 2021
Event type	Conference
Location	AustriaShow on map