Effects of Transformational Leadership, Organisational Learning and Technological Innovation On Strategic Management Accounting in Thailand's Financial Institutions
Effects of Transformational Leadership, Organisational Learning and Technological Innovation On Strategic Management Accounting in Thailand's Financial Institutions
Effects of Transformational Leadership, Organisational Learning and Technological Innovation On Strategic Management Accounting in Thailand's Financial Institutions
Kornchai Phornlaphatrachakorn*
ABSTRACT
Manuscript type: Research paper.
Research aims: This study aims to investigate the effects of transfor-
mational leadership, organisational learning and technological inno-
vation on strategic management accounting in Thailand’s financial
institutions.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Data were collected from 141 finan-
cial institutions in Thailand through a questionnaire survey. Hier-
archical multiple regression analysis is conducted to examine the
relationships.
Research findings: The findings indicate that transformational
leadership, organisational learning and technological innovation
positively influence strategic management accounting. The results
also indicate a positive relationship between strategic management
accounting and firm performance.
Theoretical contributions/Originality: This study expands on exist-
ing literature by investigating the role of transformational leadership,
organisational learning and technological innovations as antecedents
to the implementation of strategic management accounting. It thus
extends on the applicability of strategic management accounting
in helping financial institutions in Thailand to gain superior per-
formance.
1. Introduction
The prevalence of globalisation and the rapidly evolving technology
which contribute to today’s dynamic business environment is forcing
financial institutions to undergo changes and to respond to these
changes almost on a consistent basis in order to sustain themselves.
While the financial industry used to be described as a highly regulated
sector in the past, armed with limited products and restricted by
geographical expansion, today’s situation of the financial industry has
changed (Rasid & Rahman, 2009; Laela, Rossieta, Wijanto, & Ismal,
2018). Currently, financial institutions trade in various range of complex
financial assets. They also have to respond to the mergers and the
acquisition exercise’s call between insurers, banks and asset managers,
resulting in a complex business world. The deregulation practices
caused by the effect of globalisation have additionally terminated the
complacent approach financial institutions used to practice. In order
to address this dynamic and uncertain environment in which today’s
business is involved in, financial institutions have had to undergo
rapid transformation in order to gain a competitive advantage. These
institutions need to search for a valuable strategic tool to help them to
succeed, survive and be sustainable in these turbulent situations.
Literature (e.g. Simmonds, 1981; Nixon & Burns, 2012; Turner, Way,
Hodari & Witteman, 2017) has emphasised on the application of strategic
2. Literature Review
and Ajibolade (2017), there are very few SMA studies looking at the
financial and banking sector. Past studies (Pavlatos, 2015; McManus,
2013) have only offered a view into using business strategies and
property size as precursors to SMA use. These studies are also diverse
in background as they are from different industrial sectors, hence the
different characteristics of the financial industry.
Transformational H1
Leadership
Strategic Firm
H2 Management H4 Performance
Organisational
Learning Accounting (SMA)
H3
Technological
Innovation
3. Research Methods
3.1 Sample Selection and Data Collection Procedure
The samples retrieved for this study comprise 210 financial institutions
that are listed on the Thailand Stock Exchange. They include banks,
insurance companies, investment companies and security companies. As
large organisations, these financial institutions also have many complex
transactions, operations, activities, practices and actions. In this regard,
strategic management accounting (SMA) would be most adequate to be
used by these organisations to enable them to operate effectively and to
succeed in highly complex situations and environment. In this study,
data are collected by using a mail survey questionnaire. Prior to actual
data collection, the questionnaire is first pilot tested with 30 respon-
dents from the financial industry. The purpose of the pilot study is to
examine the inconsistency of wording and the vagueness or ambiguity
of items. Following feedback, the questionnaire is refined for the
larger study.
The key informants for this study are accounting executives of
financial institutions in Thailand. They also hold positions with the
highest responsibilities involving accounting functions and other
related activities in their organisations. Their positions thus include
Chief Financial Officers, Accounting Directors or Accounting Managers.
Of the 210 questionnaires mailed out, 147 were received, indicating
a response rate of 70 per cent. Aaker, Kumar and Day (2001) indicated
that a response rate that is greater than 20 per cent for a mail survey,
with an appropriate follow-up procedure, is considered acceptable.
The assessment of the non-response bias is centred on two different
procedures: (1) a comparison of sample statistics and known values of
the population such as firm age and firm capital, and (2) a comparison of
the first and the second wave data, as recommended by Armstrong and
Overton (1977). It is found that neither procedure show any significant
differences, indicating that the non-response bias is not an issue. Table 1
outlines the demographic characteristics of these institutions.
According to the data shown, more than half or 59.18 per cent of the
financial institutions have operated their businesses for 15 years or more.
In addition, three quarters or 76.19 per cent of these financial institutions
have 500 employees or more in their organisations, and more than half
or 64.63 per cent of these institutions engaged in a firm capital of less
than 10,000 million baht.
3.2 Measures
All the constructs are measured using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly
disagree to 5 = strongly agree), except for firm age, firm size, and firm
capital. Measurements of these constructs are adapted from existing
literatures. Table 2 presents the measurements of all the variables in
this study.
The first of these is transformational leadership, which refers to the
leadership style of leaders which helps to increase the consciousness of
collective interest among members of the organisation, helping them
to achieve their collective goals (García-Morales et al., 2012). The next
variable is organisational learning which refers to the dynamic process
of creating, acquiring, generating, exploiting and transferring valuable
knowledge, through the interaction, communication, interpretation,
and comprehension among partners. Organisational learning also refers
to the firm’s capacity to act and modify behaviours which can reflect
new knowledge and insights (Jiang & Li, 2008). The third variable is
technological innovation, which refers to the firm’s capacity to innovate
and introduce new tools and instruments as well as the firm’s processes
so as to be competitive in the current market (Verdu et al., 2012). The
fourth variable is SMA which refers to the provision and analysis of
management accounting data regarding a business and its competitors.
SMA can be used for developing and monitoring business strategies
(Simmonds, 1981). The last variable is firm performance which refers
to an outcome displaying the firm’s competence and capability in
practicing its business competitively (Cacciolatti & Lee, 2016; Wang &
Sengupta, 2016).
Of the control variables, it is assumed that firm age (FA) may
influence the firm’s technological learning capacity, its implemented
Table 2: continued
Variables TL OL TI SMA FP
Mean 4.10 4.21 4.15 4.01 3.98
Standard Deviation 0.48 0.43 0.42 0.50 0.72
Transformational Leadership (TL)
Organizational Learning (OL) 0.26
Technological Innovation (TI) 0.28 0.49***
Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) 0.27 0.34** 0.63***
Firm Performance (FP) 0.26 0.28 0.57*** 0.54***
Independent Dependent Variables
Variables
SMA SMA FP FP
TL 0.32**
(0.15)
OL 0.24*
(0.22)
TI 0.30*
(0.23)
SMA 0.53***
(0.14)
FA 0.02 -0.13 -0.10 -0.11
(0.14) (0.12) (0.14) (0.12)
FS -0.01 -0.11 -0.06 -0.05
(0.13) (0.12) (0.13) (0.11)
FC 0.15 0.06 0.14 0.06
(0.13) (0.11) (0.13) (0.11)
Adjusted R2 0.04 0.27 0.03 0.24
6. Conclusion
Existing literature shows that SMA is important for supporting firms in
gaining a competitive advantage, superior performance, survival and
sustainability, within the rigorous competitive market and environment.
Accordingly, this study has examined the effects of transformational
leadership, organisational learning and technological innovation on
SMA implementation by the financial institutions of Thailand. This study
also examines the relationships between SMA and firm performance.
A total of 147 financial institutions are contacted via the mail survey
questionnaire. Using a statistical analysis to project the findings, the
results show that transformational leadership, organisational learning
and technological innovation positively affected SMA. Similarly, SMA
also has a positive relationship with firm performance. This implies that
transformational leadership, organisational learning and technological
innovation are the key determinants for successful SMA. It seems
evident that SMA effectively drives positive changes in the firm’s
performance. To expand on the contributions of the current study,
future research may need to collect data from different populations and
countries so as to test the generalisability of the current study. Future
research may also consider using a comparative study to test the research
relationships and to search for a reliable database of financial businesses
in Thailand in order to obtain a higher credibility of the findings.
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