Management Accounting Tools f or Sustainability Information Decision - making a nd Financial Performance

Abstract

Many organisations today are still not making use of Management Accounting Tools (MATs) to assist in providing sustainability information for decisionmaking and the way it influences the financial performance of an organisation. As a result it may negatively impact financial performance of organisations due to a number of errors which may include ancient cost drivers; erroneous business decisions, inaccurate information and human errors. Without applying MATs, managers of organisations may find it difficult to improve the day-today operations and take decisions to enhance the financial performance of the business. Information was collected using interviews to examine whether MATs can provide sustainability information for decision-making and how it influences the financial performance of an organisation. The research was carried out among listed organisations on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). It was established that MATs provide strategies that influence decisionmaking and performance, although decision-making is the responsibility of executives or directors of the organisations. The study also established that financial managers who are focusing more on financial statements and reporting perform Management Accounting (MA) tasks. Hence future research should focus on the importance of segregating MA roles from those of financial accountants or managers to enable the organisation to focus on different reports for different outcomes. Khathutshelo Matambele & Huibrecht M. van der Poll 190

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

“…Figure 1 supports Rufino's (2014); and Matambele and van der Poll's, (2017) argument that MAPs are accounting practices that support management decision-making internally based on economic, monetary and non-monetary data generation. Hence, MAPs assist decision-making which might promote manufacturing SMEs sustainability.…”

“…This is attained when the information provided and analysed allows enterprises to plan, implement and control their strategies. Furthermore, MA provides managers with information to make sound decisions (Dubihlela & Rundora, 2014;Matambele & van der Poll, 2017;Ratnatunga et al, 2015;Tilt, 2018). As a result, the number of enterprises that integrates MA as a practice to disclose their impacts through social and environmental activities in annual reports has increased substantially during the past few years (CIMA, 2014).…”

Accounting Education: The Role of Universities in Imparting Sustainability Accounting Knowledge to the Stakeholders through Industry Linkages

“…The knowledge is part of the management accounting that is crucial in providing sustainability information (Matembele, 2014) for strategic decision making and determining of the influence of externalities' influence on sustainability accounting. This is in consistent with ACCA report by (Hannah, 2010) which stated that accountants are in a better position to deep comprehension of social, environmental and economic issues which focus on long-term accounting practices for the gain of all stakeholders.…”

Knowledge Management and The Role of Management Accountants on The Company's Sustainable Reputation

“…Today management accountants are not only as providers of accounting data, for decision making, but have become increasingly involved in the decision-making process. Company managers in an effort to control and direct the company's objectives in these increasingly complex business transactions, urgently require the role of a comprehensive management accountant (Cokins, 2014;Matambele & van der Poll, 2017;Mistry, Sharma, & Low, 2014;Nguyen, 2018).…”