Adoption of management accounting practices in Sri Lanka: a review of literature

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which management accounting practices are adopted among recent empirical evidences reported on the adoption of management accounting practices of listed companies in Sri Lanka. This paper therefore reviews seven recent empirical studies conducted in Sri Lanka on the adoption of management accounting practices. The review finds that nearly all studies have used survey method except a case study. All studies reviewed have concluded that companies listed in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) adopted more traditional management accounting practices at different level of adoption. The study further observed that there are considerable differences at the level of adoption of contemporary management accounting practices between multinational companies being operating in Sri Lanka and indigenous companies of Sri Lanka. The deviation is due to the contextual factors such as size and origin of the organizations. Therefore, this study suggests for future researches on management accounting practices adoption, determinants and their effect on performance on manufacturing sectors as well as among the other sectors especially service sector which is now growing very fast in Sri Lanka.