Date of Award

1995

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Business Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Business

First Supervisor

Vincent Chong

Abstract

This thesis is an empirical examination of the role of strategic business unit (SBU) strategy and perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) en the relations between 'management accounting systems (MAS) design and SBU performance. Two extreme strategic postures of Miles and Snow's typology were used in this study. They were prospector and defender. MAS design was defined in terms of the extent to which managers' use of broad scope MAS information characteristics for decision making; A survey research methodology was used in this study. The responses of 62 SBU managers, drawn from a cross-section of manufacturing companies in Western Australia, were used in the data analysis. The companies included in the sample were randomly selected from a list of manufacturing companies published in Kompass Australia (1994/95). A path analytic technique was used to test the hypotheses developed in this thesis. The results indicated that under high (low) PEU, the use of broad (narrow) scope MAS information by managers operating in firms pursuing prospector (defender)-type strategy led to effective decisions, thus contributing to improved SBU performance

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