The knowledge, attitude, priority of usage and benefits associated with management accounting practices: a survey of Danish companies

There have been several studies of the diffusion of new management accounting practices. Respondents were asked to answer questions in a questionnaire covering four variables: level of knowledge, level of attitude, priority of usage and level of benefit for 15 new accounting practices. The survey includes a sample of 119 large and medium-sized privately owned manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies. For those companies that indicate a 'high' level of priority of usage, our results reveal a high level of benefit from the practices. However, significant differences between low priority of usage and high number of practices associated with the company are very likely to contribute to a more modest level of benefits. Based on the analysis between number of practices and benefits, about 20% of the companies associate themselves with four to six projects on new accounting practices in their organisation. This might lead to poor performance and high failure rates.