CHAPTER IN Abdel-Maksoud, Takayuki Asada AND LITERATURE Japanese economy has experienced a booming economic cycle in where many Japanese firms went for planned expansions in and, in turn, human capabilities (Iwata & Miyagawa, 2003). synchronised with the success of Japanese manufacturers in the which stimulated substantial interest in the sources of advantage which, in turn, triggered the attention of academics and researchers to discover differences between non-Japanese manufacturing firms’ management accounting systems (Pascale & Athos, 1981; Pegles, 1984; Abegglen & Stalk, 1985;.Shields, Chow, Kato, & Nakagawa, 1991). However, Japanese a recession cycle, where land and stock prices sharply declined,.in the 1990s (1991–2001), which is known in Japanese economy as the ‘ years’ (Iwata & Miyagawa, 2003). As a consequence, many firms found themselves in the dilemma of sustainingNon-Financial Performance Measurement and Management Practices in Manufacturing Firms:.A Comparative International in Managerial and Financial Accounting, Volume 17, 147– r 2007 by Elsevier LtdAll rights of reproduction in any form : 1479-3512/doi:(07) ABDEL-MAKSOUD ET levels that commensurate with their 1980s expansions,.especially with the anti-downsizing Japanese management notion (ibid.)The same era has witnessed another phenomenon involving , where some leading Japanese firms, in their quest to , went for organisational restructuring. For example, Matsushita.(Panasonic) was known for its divisional organisation by product. However,.its management decided to integrate some of its divisions to eliminate redundancy in operations. Also, Nissan Motor had to ex-Renault CEO to revitalise itMoreover, many of the Japanese manufacturing firms started to shift facilities to cheap neighbouring countries, especially China.(Iwata & Miyagawa, 2003; Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry,.2003). However, some of them altered their choice, after facing operating in China, and either returned back to Japan or shifted to some other Asian countries (Iwata & Miyagawa, 2003; Economy, Trade and Industry, 2003). Moreover, Japanese firms deployment of cost cutting schemes, where cutting product costs and,.therefore, prices were inevitableDespite Japanese manufacturers’ tendency towards cost-cutting a full utilisation of resources and deployment of techniques, few Japanese research studies were carried out in decade on the deployment of contemporary cost/management accounting practices and performance measurement systems, especially the use performance measures, in Japanese manufacturing firms ( instance, Sato, Sakate, Mueller, & Radenbaugh, 1982; Daley, Jiambalvo,.Sundem, & Konodo, 1985; Daniel & Reitsperger, 1991; Shields et al., 1991;.Ito, 1996; Sonoda, 1996; Hoshino, 2003; Otomasa, 2003; Takahashi, 2003;.Sakurai, 2003; Kawai, 2004)For instance, Otomasa study (2003) examined the use of in performance measurement systems in Japanese . His study, basically, focused on the introduction of (BSC) in Japanese firms. Otomasa’s findings showed that of non-financial performance indicators in the surveyed firms was evident. Such findings are found to be other more recent Japanese studies (. Kawai, 2004). However, it to indicate that, the current research study distinguishes
