THE INFLUENCE OF BUSINESS STRATEGY AND OWNERSHIP ON MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING INNOVATIONS AND RISK MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS IN LARGE MANUFACTURING COMPANIES IN ITALY

Purpose – This research aims to explore possible relations between firm characteristics, such as business strategies, and ownership patterns as contextual contingent factors and innovative Management Accounting (MA) and Risk Management (RM) techniques. Methodology/approach – The paper is based on a questionnaire survey. The survey was completed by the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) and Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of large Italian manufacturing companies. The sample is selected from a data set (479 firms) from the Industrial, Commerce and Agriculture Confederation (CCIA). The data set captures all Italian companies and includes companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange. Findings – The results of the statistical analysis indicate that our expectation of a significant relationship between prospector business strategies and integrated Sophisticated Management Accounting (SMA) was not supported by the data. In addition, the results suggest that our expectation of a significant relationship between prospector business strategies and Sophisticated Risk Management (SRM) was not supported by the data. In conclusion, the use of SRM techniques is not influenced by business strategies in large companies in Italy. Finally, the results show that our expectation of a significant relationship between listed firms and SRM was supported by the data. In particular, the tests highlight that there is a significant relationship between listed firms and non-probabilistic risk assessment techniques.