Strategy, strategic management accounting and performance: a contingency perspective

Čadež, Simon (author), Petera, Petr (author), Wagner, Jaroslav (author)

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the role of strategic management accounting (SMA) in facilitating strategic decisions and organizational performance. Drawing on contingency theory, the authors examine how two elements of the decision support system for strategic decisions – managerial reliance on SMA and accountants’ involvement in strategy processes – mediate the relationship between three distinct organizational strategic choices (strategy deliberation, market orientation and nonfinancial priorities) and organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a cross-sectional survey design. The proposed conceptual model is tested with partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis on a sample of 138 Czech firms. Findings – Support is provided for four of the six hypothesized mediation effects. The test of simple mediation reveals that managerial reliance on SMA positively mediates the relationship between two strategic choices (strategy deliberation and nonfinancial priorities) and performance, but not for the strategic choice of market orientation. The same pattern of mediation effects was also observed for serial mediation. Practical implications – Firms pursuing deliberate strategies and nonfinancial priorities can benefit from involving accountants in strategy processes and from managers relying on information gathered through SMA. These decision support system elements collectively enhance decision quality and, in turn, improve performance. Originality/value – The study advances SMA literature in two important ways. First, it introduces a novel SMA construct – managerial reliance on SMA – which adopts the perspective of information users rather than information preparers, unlike prior conceptualizations. Second, it advances a contingency model of SMA by theoretically proposing and empirically demonstrating that SMA is a powerful mediator between strategic choices and performance.

• Language: English
• Keywords: management, company performance, financial accounting, allotment, strategic management accounting, contingency theory, contingency fit, strategy deliberation, market orientation, nonfinancial priorities
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 303-332
• Numbering: Vol. 22, iss. 7
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-183999
• UDC: 658
• ISSN on article: 1832-5912
• DOI: 10.1108/JAOC-06-2025-0219
• COBISS.SI-ID: 282369283
• Publication date in RUL: 23.06.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of accounting & organisational change
• Publisher: Emerald
• ISSN: 1832-5912
• COBISS.SI-ID: 17223398

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: management, poslovanje podjetja, finančno računovodstvo, kontingentiranje

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0441
• Name: Regeneracija ekonomije in posla

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Project number: F1/46/2021
• Name: F1/46/2021