Non-Financial Measures In Italian Management Accounting Systems: Some Emerging Practices From A Survey

The use of non-financial measures in management accounting systems is growing. The manner in which non-financial measures are combined with financial measures can be wider than the number of models proposed by scholars and practitioners. This integration seems to be in a state of flux. For this reason the analysis of the structure of these new pathways and outcomes related to the use of non-financial measures in management accounting systems seems to be useful. With regard to this, management is introducing the non-financial information, for instance, coming from production, quality, safety and environment information systems. These measures can be combined in new ways with financial information produced by accounting systems which surely will improve decision-making process and increase management accounting systems effectiveness. The main purpose of the paper is to explore the “state of the art” regarding non-financial practices in management accounting systems in some Italian Traditional Manufacturing Industries. For this reason the paper, after a literature review of the recent survey on this topic, deals with and presents the evidence of our empirical survey on a sample of large and medium size Italian firms. The survey is based on the results of the case study that illustrates the different experiences and developments obtained by each case study in using performance measurements. In particular the case analysis tries to focalise on innovative results or experiences still in progress regarding the use of both financial and non-financial measurements. The paper aims at verifying these first results on a broad scale through the survey. This paper has especially been developed to identify the way of using non-financial measures. The results show a significant preference for forms of integration with different structure gradients that are still under development. It should be underlined that the use of non-financial measures can be very different and its application is in a state of flux, but the respondent management further highlights the presence of outcomes in this integration process. The respondents are quite uniform in recognising the positive and negative perceived outcomes. Finally, we have examined the role of the controller in the process of integration of non-financial measures in management accounting systems. The paper is the result of a national research project funded by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) and through the much appreciated suggestions during the EAA Annual Congress of Copenhagen. The main changes concern the analysis of the literature review, the meaningfulness of the data-base and the assessment of some variables related with the phenomenon of financial and non-financial information integration.