Innovative management accounting practices for sustainability of manufacturing small and medium enterprises

Abstract

The environment in which manufacturing small and medium enterprises operate has become very complex, and therefore manufacturing SME’s owners need to be aware of the impact their decisions have on the environment and society. The aim of the research was to identify which innovative management accounting practices can be integrated into manufacturing SMEs’ strategies to overcome the challenge of being blamed by stakeholders as contributors to social and environmental problems. Published articles were sourced from the University of South Africa’s online library using keywords. A systematic literature review was employed to discover themes and concepts during secondary data gathering to detect traditional and innovative MAPs in management accounting literature all over the globe. The qualitative data analysis and research software, Atlas.ti was used to synthesise the data. Thematic analysis was used to evaluate the occurrence of words, phrases, themes, metaphors, and the construction of concepts in MAPs literature. During the analysis, seven innovative MAPs (activity base costing/budgeting; product life cycle costing; total quality management; environmental costing; target costing; kaizen costing and value analysis) were identified. It is recommended that manufacturing SMEs integrate these innovative MAPs into their strategies to impact their environmental, social, supply chain management and recycling policies to promote operational efficiency to achieve sustainability. Further research to identify influencing factors; strategic procedures; and the environmental and social benefits of integrating these identified innovative MAPs into manufacturing SMEs to achieve sustainability, should be undertaken.

Environmental Management Accounting Implementation Challenges and Supply Chain Management in Emerging Economies’ Manufacturing Sector

“…Various studies focussing on EMA practices (EMAPs) in developing countries have been done, with much focus on material flow cost accounting (MFCA) [18][19][20]. Studies that researched EMAPs have also contributed to the discourse [20][21][22]. Other studies acknowledge that EMA adoption in developing countries is still an issue.…”

The Possibility of Sustainability Accounting Implementation in Village Owned Enterprise

“…With this explanation, we can develop a new point of view that the implementation of sustainability accounting is part of an organizational strategy whose goal is to improve organizational performance from the context of social and environmental performance. For example, Nartey & Poll (2021) described the innovative management accounting practices for sustainability for SMEs in the manufacturing industry. Innovative management accounting practices can be used by management as part of organizational strategy.…”

“…This shows that a small business organization has good capacity and capability to implement sustainability accounting practices. For example, innovative management accounting practices that support the concept of sustainability have been implemented in small business organizations in the manufacturing sector (Nartey & Poll, 2021). This provides an argument that the management of small business organizations has creativity in implementing accounting systems within the organization so that the organization is able to implement the concept of sustainability.…”

“…Several previous studies have attempted to examine sustainability accounting practices or accounting practices that support the concept of sustainability in small business organizations. Nartey & Poll (2021) examined the innovative management accounting practices that support the concept of sustainability in small business organizations in manufacturing. In the context of sustainability performance in small business organizations, there has been research on the factors that influence organizational management in disclosing sustainability performance (Scagnelli et al, 2013).…”

The Influence of Management Accounting Information System Characteristics on Managerial Performance in Bandung City MSMEs in 2023

“…Dlamini & Schutte (2021) also explores the usage of management accounting practices among SMEs in Zimbabwe and found that MSMEs often use cost and budgeting system as well as strategic management accounting system. According to Nartey & van der Poll (2021), innovative management accounting practices is also found to influence sustainability of manufacturing small and medium enterprises. Similarly, Alvarez et al (2021;Ahmad & Zabri, 2016;Ruiz & Collazzo, 2021) found that management accounting practice positively affects MSMEs performance.…”