Exploring the direct and indirect performance effects of information/communication technology and management accounting and controls

The primary aim of this paper is to explore whether, and how, information and communication technology (ICT) mediates the performance effect of management accounting and controls (MAC). A second objective is to advance understanding of Chinese firms' management practices. Archival and survey data from 219 exchange-listed Chinese firms show that both ICT and a wide range of MAC are extensively used, though there is great variation across firms in the use of each technique. We also find that both ICT and MAC (with a few exceptions, including activity-based costing/management) have significant and positive direct performance effects and in addition, ICT enables MAC to have a significant and positive indirect performance effect. These results suggest that both the use and evaluation of ICT and MAC would be made more effective by explicitly considering the mediating role of ICT in MAC deployment. Since Chinese firms are rapidly expanding their use of ICT and MAC, they will especially benefit from paying heed to these lessons.