Privatization, changes in management accounting practices and their impacts on financial performance – evidence from Iran.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of external and internal organizational factors of the privatization process on the management accounting practices and the impact of these changes on the financial performance of listed companies on Tehran Stock Exchange that more than 51% of the companies’ shares have been transferred to the private sector. This research, based on institutional and structural theories, provides an exhaustive explanation of management accounting practices changes by considering the conflict of the internal and external factors and the role of the human factor in the privatization process. In this study, according to the general policies of Article 44, to increase competitive advantage, management accounting has been used as a mediating variable in the relationship between privatization and financial performance. To this research, 60 companies which their ownership transferred to the private sector during period from 2002 to 2018 were investigated. To collect data, questionnaire survey and companies financial statements were adopted and to test the hypothesis Structural equation modeling using Smart PLS software. The findings of the study show that external and internal organizational factors in the privatization process, have a significant impact on the management accounting practices that these changes effects on the financial performance of companies. The result is that in the privatization process, the external and internal organizational factors and contradiction of the incompatibility of these factors with the human factor provides the conditions for management accounting practices changes that affect on the financial performance of companies. The results of the current study could be useful for the effectiveness of management accounting changes and its impact on the financial performance of companies in the integration and acquisition process in developing countries.