Paper
An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship between Management Accounting, Internal Audit and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP): The Case of Greece
Published Nov 23, 2012 · M. Vardaki, Stefanou J. Constantinos
0
Citations
0
Influential Citations
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate and then analyze the impact of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) on management accounting practice (associated with the adoption of sophisticated accounting techniques) and internal audit. Design/methodology/approach – The authors’ approach is based upon an examination of 6 large firms in Greece (as a case study), which four of them listed in Athens Stock Exchange. The firms represent the numerous sectors of activities such as manufactory industry (food), health, tourism (hotels), ferry, construction (building materials) and chemical. Preliminary interviews with managers in firms adopting ERP systems were inducted in order to cater for the limited empirical evidence available as well as the lack of underlying theories in this context. The questionnaire included open-ended questions concerning both the management accounting practices and internal audit. Findings – Evidence is found supporting existence of the significant relationship between ERP systems, reporting and decision-making. The firms adopting ERP systems experience higher levels of information integration, improvements in terms of reporting and decision-making, and a greater use of sophisticated accounting techniques. The level of integration is the major factor for the positive impact too. Furthermore, ERP systems define integrity constraints for a range of standard business processes. On the other hand, it is not clear if ERP systems expose organizations to significantly different risks including business interruption, change management, process interdependency, privacy and confidentiality, data content quality, and system security. Research limitations/implications – Based upon the empirical results, the managers of the firms must examine the implementation of ERP carefully. Given the large variety of ERPs available, managers must examine the risk that exist if organization convert from existing legacy systems to ERP, the changes of management accounting practices and finally the risks of privacy and confidentiality, data content quality, and system security. Originality/value – The paper provides a new examination of the interaction between internal audit and ERP systems. There are only few researches about ERP systems and internal audit. From an internal audit perspective, ERP systems create new opportunities, as well as new challenges the use of an integrated systems increases transparency in business processes and at the same time, eliminate the need for controls assuring data consistency and accuracy as data move from one system to the next.
ERP systems significantly improve reporting and decision-making in Greek firms, but may expose organizations to new risks like privacy and confidentiality concerns.
Full text analysis coming soon...