Factors affecting the use and consequences of management accounting practices in a transitional economy: The case of Vietnam. This study seeks to help fill an important gap in the literature by investigating factors that have facilitated the use of management accounting practices (MAPs) in Vietnam - a transitional economy. | Journal of Economics and Development, , , April 2016, pp. 54-73 ISSN 1859 0020 Factors Affecting the Use and Consequences of Management Accounting Practices in A Transitional Economy: The Case of Vietnam Doan Ngoc Phi Anh University of Economics, The University of Danang, Vietnam Email: phianhdn@ Abstract This study seeks to help fill an important gap in the literature by investigating factors that have facilitated the use of management accounting practices (MAPs) in Vietnam - a transitional economy. Data were collected from 220 medium-to-large enterprises. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 20 accounting heads/vice heads to obtain further information and clarification. The quantitative data collected was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics (including t-tests and structural equation modeling), while the qualitative data was used to shed further light on the various relationships described by the quantitative analysis. This paper reveals that both decentralization and competition have a positive, significant influence on the use of new MAPs except for the old ones. Consequently, the use of MAPs has a positive, significant influence on enterprise performance. Keywords: Management accounting practices; competition; decentralization; performance; Vietnam. Journal of Economics and Development 54 Vol. 18, , April 2016 1. Introduction and transitional economies (Haldma and Lääts, 2002). This general gap in knowledge has remained, despite a number of contributions in recent years such as those of Firth (1996), Joshi (2001), Szychta (2002), Haldma and Lääts (2002), O’Connor et al. (2004), Waweru et al. (2005) and Wu et al. (2007). In the late 1980s, Vietnam commenced a program of economic reform. Since then, the country has been in the process of transforming from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented one. As a result the local business environment has become more competitive and transparent. The .
