Western management accounting and controls in Russian firms : an analysis of the extent of the use and its influences

Abstract

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in Russia has undergone fundamental political and structural changes. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which Russian firms use Western management accounting and control systems (MACS) at two different points of time to see the possible diffusion of Western MACS. In contrast to focusing on the diffusion of specific MACS techniques (e.g. Innes and Mitchell 1995, Malmi 1999), Russia as a European market economy with enormous potential provides a unique setting for studying the diffusion of the whole range of Western MACS in transitional circumstances. In addition, our study contributes to very limited or even non-existent literature on management accounting in Russia. Our results are based on two questionnaires to samples of 100 Russian firms conducted at the interval of two years. The results show that the use of MACS is not as widespread in Russia as it is in other Western countries, but that especially the use of formal controls such as standard costing and development of production techniques may be gaining importance as the business environment is getting more stable.