This paper investigates the association between management accounting practice and strategic view in Italian health sector after 20 years from the beginning of the process that introduced managerial technologies in the public sector. Based on management accounting literature (Bhimani, Langfield-Smith, 2007; Bill, Burns, 2012; Chenhall, 2003; Ahrens, Chapman, 2007) and on managerialism in the health sector (Abernethy, Brownell, 1997; Northcott and Llewellyn, 2003; Kurunmäki, 2004), two main research questions have been defined: (a) what are the characteristics of management accountants in the health sector? (b) what are the characteristics of management accounting in practice? To this end, interviews and a national survey have used to collect data. The survey has been conducted among the entire population of independent hospitals and local health trusts. Postal questionnaires were used to collect data from management accountants’ perspective; the response rate was 32%. A number of variables were measured for the following categories: measurement, use of AIS, quality of AIS, budgeting, strategic planning’s aim, and performance appraisal' use. Data have been analyzed through descriptive statistics using SPSS software. The results show how management accounting systems formally align to the theoretical model, but it is the contingency of the organizations that determine how management accounting develops in practice. However, some critical issues haven’t been fully addressed yet.
Management accounting practice in Italian health sector: where are we?
VAGNONI, Emidia
2013
Abstract
This paper investigates the association between management accounting practice and strategic view in Italian health sector after 20 years from the beginning of the process that introduced managerial technologies in the public sector. Based on management accounting literature (Bhimani, Langfield-Smith, 2007; Bill, Burns, 2012; Chenhall, 2003; Ahrens, Chapman, 2007) and on managerialism in the health sector (Abernethy, Brownell, 1997; Northcott and Llewellyn, 2003; Kurunmäki, 2004), two main research questions have been defined: (a) what are the characteristics of management accountants in the health sector? (b) what are the characteristics of management accounting in practice? To this end, interviews and a national survey have used to collect data. The survey has been conducted among the entire population of independent hospitals and local health trusts. Postal questionnaires were used to collect data from management accountants’ perspective; the response rate was 32%. A number of variables were measured for the following categories: measurement, use of AIS, quality of AIS, budgeting, strategic planning’s aim, and performance appraisal' use. Data have been analyzed through descriptive statistics using SPSS software. The results show how management accounting systems formally align to the theoretical model, but it is the contingency of the organizations that determine how management accounting develops in practice. However, some critical issues haven’t been fully addressed yet.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
