There has been an assertion by scholars that Accounting Information System (AIS) must be in congruent with strategic-type units for it to operate. Limited research has been conducted in this field making it hard to ascertain this assumption. This is a surprise as most of the studies have been conducted in the field of business strategy. Failure by AIs designers to have the knowledge on its relationship with business strategy hassled to most organizations incurring a lot of loss. This has underscored the desire to carefully consider the relationship between strategy and AIS design (Boulianne, 2007, p. 1). A previous research has indicated that AIS improves the performance of a business operating on a competitive business environment. It also claims that AIS may also have negative impacts on a business operating in a non-competitive environment.
Previous research conducted on the relationship between business strategy and AIS resulted to participants classifying their businesses as either prospector or defender. Such classification does not cater for business units that adapted to analyzer strategic-type. It has been realized that most of those asked to describe their units have been found to be inclined to analyzer strategic-type. This type of business analysis gives the participants an opportunity to take a business strategy that best fit their businesses thus making it possible for researchers to make informed decision when conducting their research. The method gives a clear evidence on how information required in this method of analysis differ from that required in defender and prospective. Effectiveness of business performance depends on the ability of the analyzer to have adequate information on the relationship between AIS and the strategic-type (Boulianne, 2007, pp. 3-13). It is with this respect that the urge to conduct a research on this field has been triggered.
It has been noted that information requirements in the defenders’ approach has significantly changed with time. It is this that calls for the need to have a thorough research AIS and contingency research to determine these changes. The move is to facilitate in probing AIS design and identifying the vital information required in decision making. Unlike the previous studies which focused their research on manufacturing industries, this study extends its research to even the service industry. The previous researches used moderation approach to determine the relationship between the various elements of interest while this study uses matching approach. While the previous researches obtained subjective data from unit respondent per industry, the current research corrects both objective and subjective data collected from respondents as well as other secondary sources. The previous researches made it hard to categorize businesses as well as measure their performance (Boulianne, 2007, p. 14). This called for establishment of survey technique that investigates into the relationship between strategy and various performance variables with purposeful measures and numerous respondents. This can be achieved through use of triangulation method. This is to help in obtaining unbiased information.
Based on the contingency study, assumptions were made on the fit between AIS design and firm strategy. This acted as the hypothesis for the study. The hypotheses were then assessed through data collected from numerous business entities. Two sets of questionnaires were used where one aimed at collecting objective information while the other collects subjective information. The former was to be completed by finance managers while the latter was to be completed by the person responsible for overall management of the business. The findings from the study showed that prospector strategic-type, wide-scope AIS is linked to higher performance (Boulianne, 2007, pp. 15-16). To some extent, the defenders, broad-scope AIs also had a relationship with higher performance. Managers using the two approaches (prospectors and defenders) were found to focus on future-based and non-financial information to make their decisions. The study showed that information required by defenders has significantly changed. The research also proved that information required of analyzer differ significantly from that required of defenders.
The article has been clearly written making it possible for the reader to understand the information being passed across. The writer has come up with a clear introduction that gives the account of the entire article. This helps the reader have an overview of the research thus being able to understand the entire research. The fact that the writer has clearly described the various attributes studied or rather compared in the study makes it possible for the reader to have an insight about the context of the article. The method used in the research has also been well outlined as well as the findings. By the writer describing the findings as well as limitations of the study, he has helped one increase his or her knowledge on this field.
The paper has clearly given the hypothesis used, research model employed in the study, the findings as well as the limitations of the study. This information gives the impetus for further study. Having an idea on the limitations of the research conducted as well as the model used, a reader gains the desire to do further research to gain more information now that he or she can be able to avoid some of the limitations faced during the research as well as employ a different research model.
Reference List
Boulianne, E. (2007). Revisiting fit between AIS design and performance with the analyzer strategic-type. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 8(1), pp.1-16.