Information Technology Sophistication, Management Accounting Information Provision and Computer-Based Information Systems Success

The emergence of a knowledge-based economy, consequent to the advancement in information technology (IT), puts more pressure on businesses to generate information to quickly create technologically advanced and customised products at relatively low costs. Firms, particularly small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), need to understand and rely more on strategic accounting information and recognise the potential that IT has in generating these information. This paper reports the results of a study which offers an explanation for the relationship between IT sophistication and computer-based information systems (CBIS) success of SMEs, by incorporating into the model the provision of management accounting information (MAI provision). Data were collected from 214 SMEs in Malaysia by way of a questionnaire-based survey. The results showed that IT sophistication is a determinant of MAI provision, which in turn, is a determinant of CBIS success. Overall, the results suggested that MAI provision plays a mediating role in the relationship between IT sophistication and CBIS success of SMEs. An interpretation of these results is that those SMES which employ sophisticated IT can generate sufficient management accounting information and thereby improve their CBIS.