The impact of top management team characteristics and historical financial performance on strategic management accounting

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the top management team (TMT) characteristics and historical financial performance on strategic management accounting (SMA) usage. Design/methodology/approach - Objective data were extracted from annual financial statements, as well as data from questionnaires in a sample of 94 enterprises were used. Findings - Data analysis showed that one of the most important factors that influence the level of usage of SMA techniques is lagging historical performance of the enterprises. Those organizations that had low profitability in the past, due to the economic crisis, adopted and used innovative SMA tools more extensively, to improve their financial performance in the future. Based on Upper Echelons theory and Role theory, it was found that TMT characteristics (educational background, tenure, creativity) affect the adoption and the usage of SMA tools. Research limitations/implications - First, this research was performed on one sector. Second, only a few SMA techniques were included. Third, some TMT characteristics were measured with only one item. As a result, it was not possible to check for reliability and validity of the measurements. Practical implications - First, TMT characteristics influence the decision-making process and management control. This should be taken into account during the process of the selection of top managers. Moreover, SMA tools can be effectively used not only by CEOs and the managers of the accounting department, but from marketing managers as well. Consequently, a better communication between marketing and accounting managers is deemed essential to improve the performance of the company. Originality/value - Previous research has studied the effect of CEOs and CFOs characteristics in the design of Management Control Systems. The authors explored for the first time, the effect of the characteristics of one more member of Board of the TMT, that is, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), in the adoption and use of management accounting innovations (MAIs). Second, the authors studied one more characteristic of top level managers from Role theory, that is, creativity. Although many studies link creativity to the adoption of MAIs, this is the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, that creativity is studied as an additional parameter that influences the adoption and use of SMA. Furthermore, this research provides additional knowledge about the effect of historical performance in MAIs usage. For the first time, it used objective data from annual financial statements, it calculated financial ratios, to measure historical financial performance. Moreover, this study provides knowledge about the effect of TMT characteristics in accounting choices in geographical areas, outside the USA.