Modern management accounting: practices in Malaysia's small medium industries

Abstract

as a result of increasing globalization and liberalization as well as the rapid development of technology, especially information and communications technology (iCT), the Malaysian economy is facing greater challenges. local industries are confronted with more intense competition arising from greater liberalization in line with the emergence of aSeaN Free Trade area (aFT a) and World Trade organization agreements (WT o). The maturing of other developing economies and those in transition will also increase the intensity of global competition for Malaysia. With these, the way businesses are conducted would become more demanding and competition between companies would be more intense. it is anticipated that to enhance their competitive edge, companies will use modern techniques and technologies extensively. apart from the services sector, the manufacturing sector is expected to be the major contributor to growth in the eighth Malaysian Plan (8MP) period where it is expected to grow at an average rate of 8.9% per annum, with its share to Gross domestic Product (GdP) increasing to 35.8% by 2005. The task of realizing this growth expectation not only is in the hands of the big manufacturers but also of the SMis. The Seventh Malaysia Plan accorded an important role to the SM is in supporting national industrialization efforts through forging linkages across the manufacturing sector. The 8MP continues to do this by providing a matching grant to enhance the technological capability to improve production efficiency and product quality of SMis. The Small Medium industries development Plan (SMidP) 2001-2005 outlines the challenges faced by SMis which includes intensified global competition, new emerging technologies and changing export competitiveness. Therefore, SM is are also expected to utilize modern techniques and technologies extensively in enhancing their competitive edge. These modern techniques and technologies include the application of modern management accounting techniques among SMis. In line with this, the survey is conducted to find out the current status of modern management accounting techniques applied by the SMis. Modern management accounting techniques include activity- based costing, kaizen costing, target costing, balanced scorecard and benchmarking. Factors influencing the use or non-use of these techniques and the perception of SM is on the effect of modern management accounting techniques would also be examined.