“Management accounting practices and organizational performance”

Management accounting practices (MAPs) are crucial for manufacturing firms to control diverse organizational operations and improve their organizational performance. The study aimed to analyze the scope of MAPs and their association with the organizational performance of Nepalese manufacturing firms. The outcomes relied on primary data obtained through structured survey from 223 medium to top-level employees of the selected companies. It was found that traditional management accounting practices had greater dominance (β = 0.817, p = 0.000) in the package of MAPs than contemporary management accounting practices (β = 0.707, p = 0.000) in Nepalese manufacturing firms. The extent of use of contemporary management ac- counting practices was marginally greater (mean = 3.757) than traditional management accounting practices (mean = 3.563). The analysis also disclosed no association of MAPs with organizational performance of Nepalese manufacturing firms. Though the study had a moderately small sample size from the manufacturing industry, future studies may examine the association between MAPs and organizational performance by taking samples of the manufacturing and service industry to ensure comparability and generalizations. The study endeavored to advance management accounting literature by presenting pragmatic evidence on the association of MAPs with organizational performance in the Nepalese scenario.


INTRODUCTION
Management accounting (MA) approaches are generally acknowledged as carrying to an organization's success. Organizations can improve their performance by carrying out MA techniques that address the challenges of competition, change, and cost (Horngren et al., 2009). In addition, MA techniques and practices are internal information platforms within organizations that provide relevant information to stakeholders to add value (Langfield-Smith, 2009). Management accounting practices (MAPs) are classified into two categories based on their development and characteristics: traditional management accounting practices (TMAPs) and contemporary management accounting practices (CMAPs). Johnson and Kaplan (1987) observed that the TMAPs were developed before the 1980s. The TMAPs are viewed as those MAPs dealing with financial measures and focusing internally in the short term (Chenhall & Langfield-Smith, 1998a; Pavlatos & Paggios, 2009). As a result, the importance of TMAPs was challenged and even believed to be lost (Johnson & Kaplan, 1987). Therefore, many new MAPs were evolved to address the shortcomings of TMAPs and take into account the demands of the evolving markets (Wu et al., 2007). In this way, CMAPs are viewed as those MAPs that associate activities, operations, and processes with strategic consequences (Chenhall & Langfield-Smith, 1998b;Hyvonen, 2005). Subsequently, CMAPs can identify and reduce the cost of unproductive activities, which prompts better organizational performance (OP).

LITERATURE REVIEW
MAPs are concerned with utilizing the information to make it more straightforward for executives and facilitate business decision-making processes (Yeshmin & Hossan, 2011). Because of the rapid modifications in manufacturing technologies/innovations and the corporate environment, MAPs and their role in conveying information to support planning and corporate decisions have been re-evaluated. Kerremans  Chenhall and Langfield-Smith (1998a) surveyed Australian manufacturing firms intending to obtain the degree to which practices they were embraced. The findings suggested that most large corporations pursued TMAPs rather than CMAPs. Wijewardena and DeZoysa (1999) discovered that Australian manufacturing firms put more focus on cost management and control tools, such as standard costing/variance analysis and budgetary control at the manufacturing phase. At the same time, Japanese manufacturing firms focus more on cost planning and cost reduction strategies in the product planning and design phase. A similar study by Hyvonen (2005) of Finnish manufacturing firms noticed that MAPs relating to financial measures like budgetary control and product profitability analysis were more relevant in the long haul. Dugdale et al. (2005) studied MAPs in UK manufacturing firms and revealed that traditional financial-based practices were being used alongside contemporary practices like target costing, ac-tivity-based costing, kaizen costing, etc. Bidhan (2007) observed the status of MAPs in the manufacturing firms in Bangladesh. It was remarked that CMAPs such as target costing, activity-based costing, just-in-time inventory system, process reengineering, the theory of constraint, total quality management, etc., were not practiced in private and public sector companies. However, Bidhan (2007) also discovered that practices based on financial measures like standard costing, ratio analysis, and cash flow analysis were commonly employed in Bangladeshi manufacturing firms.
Farjana and Rehana (2010) conducted a comparative study in the manufacturing and service industries focusing on the variability of MAPs in both sectors. The study found that standard costing/variance analysis, ratio analysis, cash flow analysis, cost-volume-profit analysis, and budgetary control were frequently used in management functions. Chand and Dahiya (2010) studied the importance and utilization of MAPs in the Indian small and medium-sized hospitality enterprises. The outcomes showed that MAPs had a significant effect on the various facets of business, particularly on quality improvements and cost reduction. Finally, Angelakis et al. (2010) noticed that TMAPs were utilized slightly higher than CMAPs. Karanja et al. (2012) also conducted a study on the execution of MAPs in small and medium-sized enterprises in developing nations. They found that contemporary practices such as just-in-time inventory systems, target costing, and activity-based costing were adopted to enhance organizational productivity, innovativeness, and improved product/service pricing. Saaydah and Khatatneh (2014) likewise conducted a study on the MAPs and their apparent impact on the performance of Jordanian manufacturing firms. They observed that activity-based costing system, just-in-time inventory system, target costing, kaizen costing, and the balanced scorecard were being employed as contemporary practices. Nor et al. (2016) analyzed the association between MAPs and the financial outcomes of the listed Malaysian firms. It was revealed that there was a significant association between the two parameters of the study. MAPs are advantageous not only for the OP but also for the organization's strategic achievement of the business (Almatrooshi et al., 2016) and provide general information that can be used to boost their OP (Fuzi et al., 2019a). The use of pertinent MAPs will allow employees to concentrate more on executing differentiation strategies (Seal, 2006), such as quality, conveyance, and customer service, to meet customer loyalty and succeed in competitive strategy. The application of MAPs assists the organization in intensifying the OP. More specifically, CMAPs have been implemented to address the shortcomings of TMAPs in identifying information relating to performance measurement and management systems (Fuzi et al., 2019b).

AIMS AND HYPOTHESES
MAPs are crucial, especially in the manufacturing industry, for controlling various organizational activities that improve OP. The MAPs used by Nepalese manufacturing firms (NMFs) are also divided into two categories. TMAPs represent their centrally planned economic heritage, while CMAPs reflect the need to handle day-to-day management challenges. Professionals and analysts require precise MAPs and their association to OP to generalize their use in the Nepalese scenario. However, there has been no empirical examination of the influence of MAPs on OP in MA literature. The study aimed to contribute MA literature by providing pragmatic evidence into the occurrence and efficacy of MAPs. Therefore, the following tasks were set in light of the common presence of the MAPs: • to observe the degree of use of MAPs in NMFs; • to compare the extent of use of TMAPs and CMAPs in NMFs; • to assess the relationship between MAPs and OP in NMFs.
Incorporating MAPs into the organizational system makes operational activities easier (Wahyuni & Triatmanto, 2020 Figure 1.
The study examined the following two hypotheses in light of the literature review and objectives: H1: TMAPs had a greater dominance than CMAPs in NMFs.
H2: MAPs have a positive and significant association with OP.

METHODS AND DATA
The examination utilized a quantitative technique to explain the study hypotheses, and the information assortment measure utilized a perception- 1 al assessment to facilitate the analysis. Nineteen manufacturing firms listed on the Nepal Stock Exchange and their working representatives were considered as the study's population. Of these, the seven firms whose shares have been regularly traded in the Nepalese Share market were selected as sample firms since they have more public/investors' concerns than others. A field survey was performed on 525 middle to top-level employees of the selected firms. Seventy-five targeted respondents from each sample firm were approached to collect data from September to December 2020. The primary aim of selecting the sample firm was to ensure the firms had more pragmatic MA systems and practices. Two hundred and twenty-three respondents representing 42.5% of returned usable questionnaires utilized for the examination. Oke et al. (2012) advised that a sample size of 200 and more would be adequate in social science research, so a total of 223 replies were included in the analysis as a representative sample. Table 1 outlines the demographics of the respondents in the study.  (2012). The MAPs were drawn from earlier studies to intensify the overview's reliability. Therefore, they had been tested previously. Fourteen questionnaires, two from each sample company, were pilot tested with the senior managerial personnel who have the best knowledge of MAPs and OP. Suggestions and feedback from the pilot testing were incorporated into the final questionnaire; therefore, the survey instrument was more reliable and coherent with the study's goal.
Further, Cronbach's alpha (α) and average inter-item correlation coefficient (r) were figured to assess the constructs' statistical reliability. Similarly, composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) were drawn to validate convergent validity. Tables 2 and 3 present the computed reliability and validity indicators values.
The reliability and validity statistics (as demonstrated in Tables 2 and 3) satisfied the suggested threshold values. Hence, the tested and latent variables were reliable and valid for further examination.

RESULTS
This examination was the employees' perceptional evaluation of whether there was a relationship between MAPs and OP in the NMFs. As per the respondents' demographic information   Table 1, nearly 54.0% hold at least an officer or/and above position in their companies. In addition, 53.8% of males and 46.2% of females participated in the study. Seventy-five survey questionnaires were distributed equally to each sample company. The usable responses were in the range of 39.7% (i.e., 29 responses) to 49.3% (i.e., 37 responses) from each firm. Accordingly, the descriptive insights of the 17 retained variables used in measuring three constructs and the extent of specific MAPs are reported in Tables 4 and 5. Table 4 showed that the level of use of CMAPs (mean = 3.757) was slightly more significant than the TMAPs (mean = 3.563). Table 5 displayed a more thorough insight into the utilization of the TMAPs and CMAPs. The degree of utilization was divided into three classes, 'nonusers' (reaction point of 1 on the 5-point Likert type scale); "utilize to a small degree" (reaction points 2 and 3), and "utilize to a great degree" (reaction points 4 and 5). The higher average utilization of a great degree of CMAPs (61.26%) than the average utilization of a great degree of TMAPs (55.10%) indicated that CMAPs are getting more attention in the Nepalese scenario. Despite having more attention from practitioners, the TMAPs had a dominance (β = 0.817, p = 0.000) in the package of MAPs than the CMAPs (β = 0.707, p = 0.000) in the NMFs, as presented in Figure 2, hence H1 was supported.
The association between the degree of utilization of the TMAPs and CMAPs with OP was as-  Note: **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

DISCUSSIONS
The first and second objectives of the study were to inspect and analyze the degree of utilization of MAPs in the Nepalese manufacturing sector. The uses of TMAPs like standard costing/variance analysis (79.37%), capital budgeting (77.13%), budgetary control (67.70%), and break-even analysis (55.60%) were more popular and had a great extent of use. Such a result was also consistent with  (2012), who reported higher usage of such practices. A plausible clarification of the increased use of such TMAPs may be ascribed to the organization's lack of knowledge and/or experience in CMAPs (Lapsley & Oldfield, 1999;Sulaiman et al., 2005). Another potential explanation may be accredited to organizations' long-term connotation with TMAPs (Joshi, 2001). The use of TMAPs has been regarded to oblige organizations' capacity to embark on transition (Lapsley & Oldfield, 1999).
On the other hand, the study found that all the retained CMAPs were getting more attention in the NMFs. The CMAPs had more than 50% of a great extent of use (53.36%-74.00%). The general use of a great extent of CMAPs (61.26%) was higher than the TMAPs (55.10%). The utilization of CMAPs is related to implementing measures to encourage the option of substantial value-added accomplishments and/or the cancellation of non-value-added accomplishments (Ittner et al., 2002). Such accomplishments can enable organizations to accept suitable changes in their processes, systems, conveyances, and markets (Maiga & Jacobs, 2004;Sarkis, 2001). Subsequently, CMAPs may assist organizations in tracking costs in a viable manner (Chenhall & Langfield-Smith, 1998b) and progress the productivity and profitability of their operations (Ashworth et al., 2009).
The final objective of the analysis was to quantify the relationship between MAPs with OP. The study found that MAPs were not substantially associated with the OP in NMFs. Although the degree of Figure 2. Model of the study usage of CMAPs package was gaining more attention, such practices were not significantly associated with OP. Such findings were also consistent with earlier studies like Holmes et al. (2006) and Lapsley (2009

CONCLUSION
The study aimed to assess how NMFs used MAPs, compare them, and determine their relationship with OP. The assessment was the employees' perceptional evaluation regarding the concerns. The degree of use of MAPs on a five-point Likert scale (mean = 3.620 and standard deviation = 0.568) was great in NMFs. When the level of use of the two sets of MAPs was compared, CMAPs (mean = 3.757) were slightly higher than TMAPs (mean = 3.563). The findings indicated that Nepalese enterprises are progressively embracing CMAPs since the average utilization rate of CMAPs (61.26%) was greater than the average utilization rate of TMAPs (55.10%). Such findings will positively impact organizational effectiveness if CMAPs are employed as part of the overall organizational strategy. While analyzing the association of MAPs to OP, overall MAPs had no significant association with OP (β = -0.026, p = 0.750) in NMFs though they are gradually adopting CMAPs. Hence, this study was distinct from earlier studies because it examined the association of MAPs with OP in the diffusion of TMAPs and CMAPs in the Nepalese scenario and discussed the combinations of such practices.
NMFs have been seen to rely on both practices to adapt to critical changes in the business environment. The fundamental function of MAPs was to provide relevant information to aid managers in making sound decisions. Inadequate information provision might add to ineffective resource management and performance degradation. Changes to MAPs must be staged to accommodate changes in the business environment. Accordingly, the adaptation of MAPs should be context-dependent. Appropriate MAPs customized to support business operations will result in competitive advantages and more remarkable performance. This is because effective MAPs enable working representatives to concentrate more effectively on differentiation needs, which can help maintain and improve consumer expectations, particularly quality and usefulness.
Despite the study's importance, there were some shortcomings. First, the sampling design limited its relevance to the Nepal Stock Exchange companies. It was a subjective assessment based on a standardized questionnaire. Self-rating to indicate how useful the MAPs could have caused confusion and discord among participants. The analysis did not propose a precise sequencing of MAPs deployment that may provide the greatest value. The findings raise several questions worth exploring further. Future research may use a case study or longitudinal design to assess the MAPs and OP relationship. These studies