The Complementary Role of Institutional and Inter- Organizational Contingency Factors in Using and Designing Costing Systems; A Longitudinal Case Study of the General Establishment of Drinking Water in Tartous

Institutional theory has gained special interest in management accounting research. Some research in management accounting literature tries to depict the change in management accounting systems using elements both from institutional and contingency theories. However, some other research tries to examine the integral impact of institutional and contingency factors on the use and design of costing systems. This research aims at exploring the complementary impact of both institutional factors, informed by new institutional sociology, and other inter- organization contingency factors on the use and design of costing systems in the General Establishment of Drinking Water in Tartous. A longitudinal case study is used in this research, and qualitative data are collected using personal interviews, observations, and examining company documents. The results of this research show that the use and design of costing systems in the case being investigated are particularly influenced by institutional pressures and inter-organizational factors, top management support, the availability of trained staff, and the co-operation of other departments.

The Impact of Physical Environmental Uncertainty On The Environmental Management Accounting Adoption Level "An Empirical Study On Some Syrian Manufacturing Companies"

This research examines the impact of physical environmental Uncertainty on the environmental management accounting (EMA) adoption level. Specifically, it aims at defining the relationship among the government's environmental policy, environmental resources and services used by the organization, environmental products, markets and demand, green competition, environmental technology in the industry, the behavior of environmental stakeholders in the organization, and how major environmental issues are affecting the organization concerning EMA adoption among manufacturing companies in Syria. Drawing from the contingency theory, the research seeks to identify the extent to which physical environmental uncertainty influences EMA adoption level. Hypotheses were constructed based on a direct proportion relationship between the physical environmental uncertainty and EMA adoption level. A total of 68 managers working in 20 Syrian manufacturing companies participated in the survey. Physical environmental uncertainty was tested against the EMA adoption level via simple regression analysis and correlation. The findings indicated that there is a direct proportion relationship between the physical environmental uncertainty and the EMA adoption level. The findings were discussed, and some recommendations and suggestions were provided.