The effect of cultural differences on the design of management accounting

This study empirically examined the impact of national culture on the amount of information provided by management accounting information systems (MAIS). Two very different cultures, the Korean and Australian cultures, were considered in our study. The results showed that the much more flexibility performance information is provided in Korean firms, while the amount of quality performance information and traditional cost control information (TCCI) produced in Australian firms is much more than in Korean firms. However, it was found that in the amount of financial performance information and advanced cost control information (ACCI), there exist no significant differences between Korean firms and Australian firms. We also investigated the effect of the three-way interactions among national culture, level of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), and information on production performance. The results of this study revealed a significant impact of three-way interactions on the improvement of production performance. In conclusion, we suggest that under high levels of AMT, Korean firms need a large amount of information-based MAIS, while Australian firms require the ACCI and nonfinancial performance information-oriented MAIS.