Use of the Management Accounting Attributes Proposed by Moores and Yuen (2001) in Companies of an Industry in de State of Santa Catarina

ABSTRACT The management accounting system should provide to managers the information required to accomplish goals and objectives of the organization, adapted to reality and organizational strategies. The goal of this study is to investigate the use of the management accounting attributes, as proposed by Moores and Yuen (2001), in companies operating in the machinery, electrical equipment and materials industry in the state of Santa Catarina. A descriptive research was conducted through a questionnaire applied to the companies’ managers, having its questions adapted from Necyk (2008) and based on the proposition of Moores and Yuen (2001). The population comprises 264 companies listed on the Financial Department of Santa Catarina State in the referred to economic activity segment, and the non-random sample comprises the 40 survey respondents. The results show that the management accounting attributes proposed by Moores and Yuen (2001) in its two lines of thought are used in those companies. The information selection attribute, which addresses information sources used, had 57% of adhesion. The information presentation attribute, addressing information format, type and availability, had 64% of adhesion. The conclusion is that the companies participating in the research use diverse types of information in greater proportion than the sources of information, even though a significant volume of information is not presented in a proper format, which may adversely affect their relevance in the decision-making process.