This paper uses a survey of 220 medium and large-sized enterprises in Vietnam. The results indicate that competitiveness and managerial decentralization are two major factors that profoundly affect application of SMA in Vietnam and that SMA devices can help improve the business performance financially and non-financially. | JED October 2012 | 81 Factors Affecting Strategic Management Accounting in Vietnam’s Medium and LargeSized Enterprises ĐOÀN NGỌC PHI ANH Doctor of Philosophy, University of Economics under University of Đà Nẵng Email: phianhdn@ ABSTRACT Since Vietnam’s transition from a centralized economy to the market-oriented one, many strategic management accounting (SMA) devices have been adapted by Vietnamese enterprises. Nonetheless, there has yet to be a research on factors affecting SMA as well as impacts of SMA on the business performance. Based on relevant research in the world, this paper uses a survey of 220 medium and large-sized enterprises in Vietnam. The results indicate that competitiveness and managerial decentralization are two major factors that profoundly affect application of SMA in Vietnam and that SMA devices can help improve the business performance financially and non-financially. Keywords: strategic management accounting, influential factors, business performance 82 | Đoàn Ngọc Phi Anh Factors Affecting Strategic Management Accounting 1. INTRODUCTION Vietnam’s 2003 Accounting Law recognizes the co-existence of financial accounting and management accounting. The former has been promulgated by Vietnam’s government and basically observed international accounting standards. In the meantime, application of management accounting devices, or SMA, is not compulsory and it is only applied spontaneously by Vietnamese enterprises since the market economy was introduced. However, the questions are whether or not modern managerial devices can improve the competitiveness and the business performance of enterprises; and which factors are affecting the application of such devices. This paper analyzes different viewpoints on SMA and evaluates factors affecting SMA application as well as impacts of SMA on the business performance, thereby providing business administrators and policy makers with a foundation for promoting the development .
