1. Birgit Feldbauer-Durstmueller, 2. Christine Mitter, 3. Ksenia Keplinger
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has committed itself to making the transition from a command economy to a market system. Having undergone fundamental political and economical changes in the last 20 years, Russia is considered to be a significant player in the world economy and an attractive location for foreign direct investments. Although the world financial crisis reduced the scale of investments, the rapid growth of Austrian direct investments in Russia (from €73M in 2000 through €2.719M in 2007 to €662M in 2010) is hardly to be overlooked (OeNB, 2011). According to statistics, more than 1.200 Austrian companies serve the Russian market, of which approximately 400 maintain a subsidiary or a branch (Pfeffer, 2008).
It is widely acknowledged and empirically investigated, that leadership and management theories developed in one culture cannot be easily exported to other cultures (Newman and Nollen, 1996; Fan, 1998; Paik et al., 2002; Thang et al., 2007). This applies also for management accounting that contributes to the achievement of the company’s objectives and thus takes on an important role in managing the organization. Since people react to situations and interpret information differently depending upon the norms of their native culture, culture differences have an impact on management accounting activities. Despite the growing interest in management accounting in transition economies in general (Jaruga and Ho, 2002; Sucher et al., 2005) and in Russia in particular (Morrison and Abrosimova, 1993; Enthoven, 1999; Taylor and Osipenkova, 2003), there is still a significant lack of research concerning the influence of cultural factors on management accounting.
In this paper we investigate how cultural differences between Austria and Russia affect management accounting activities. The aim of our study is to provide a better understanding of the needs and particularities of doing business with Russia as well as develop recommendations for companies entering or already serving the Russian market for designing an effective management accounting system. Hence, the following research question can be derived:
• What is the influence of cultural differences on information supply, planning and control?
To address these research questions, ten Austrian companies operating on the Russian market were interviewed about the management accounting tools, functions and organization as well as their dealing with culture differences. Studies of Hofstede serve as our primary theoretical basis, the GLOBE-Study and surveys of Hall and Trompenaars are used as complement frameworks. The results show that the access to management accounting information as well as the readiness to provide data in Russia is significantly lower than in Austria. Moreover, Austrian employees participate more actively in the planning process, develop more detailed and precise plans and are able to accept objective criticism to a greater extent than their Russian colleagues. Our study demonstrates very clearly that culture differences have a considerable effect on management accounting. Consequently, it is important to consider those differences in designing a management accounting system when doing business in the Russian market.
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Да
Датум:
13.06.2011.
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715
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