Accounting information usage and performance of SMEs in the northern region

• Main Authors: Zakaria, Mustafa, Hashim, Mohd Khairuddin, Ahmad, Sa'ari
• Format: Monograph
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Utara Malaysia 2014
• Subjects: HF5601 Accounting
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/24787/1/12542.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/24787/

Firms need accounting information to make decision.Only with good accounting information inputs can firms come up with effective decision to survive, compete and strategize in the present global competition. More precisely firms need accounting information to make effective strategic decision.However in Malaysia there are limited studies carried out on the usage of accounting information, thus there is a need to carry out more studies on accounting information especially among SMEs.In view of the limited studies in the area this study endeavors to investigate accounting information usage among SMEs, particularly the relationship between accounting information usage and performance of the SMEs. In this research, the list of SMEs registered with the Small and Medium Industries Development Corporation (SMIDEC) Northern Branch was used as the sampling frame.Questionnaires were sent to 500 SMEs selected from the sampling frame.From the 500 SMEs only 61 responses of the firms were usable for analysis, providing a response rate of 15 percent. Descriptive analysis, mean and standard deviation scores, and correlation analyses were carried out out on data obtained from the respondents.There are a number of findings from the study such as there are various uses and users of SMEs accounting information.The accounting information need to fulfill certain requirement of the users. Further cash flow and strategic accounting information seems to be important for the SMEs.However a significant finding of this study is the presence of the relationship between accounting information usage and performance of the SMEs.