The application of management accounting practices towards the sustainable development of family businesses: A critical review

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to comprehensively review the extant literature on the application of management accounting practices (MAPs) to the sustainable development of family businesses (FBs), and to identify future research avenues. Academic interest in the field of MAPs in family businesses as well as the concept of sustainable development has been growing rapidly due to the fast-moving business landscape associated with environmental dynamism, particularly over the past two decades. Consequently, some authors claim that the heterogeneous characteristics of FBs apparently lead to a lower degree of information asymmetry, and that this, in-turn, may weaken the need for MAPs. On the other hand, some studies emphasise that the distinctive conflicts of interest in FBs and some contingent factors (for example, intense competition in the industry) are triggers for the adoption of MAPs by FBs. Given these mixed research outcomes and the absence of a comprehensive study that demonstrates the state-of-the-art in this research stream, this paper aims to review previously reported key works to thoroughly investigate the above mentioned factors with a view to exploring the existing knowledge gap. The holistic conclusion arrived at by the study points to the fact that there seems to have a considerable impact of family involvement on business performance achieved through the application of MAPs. Nonetheless, the impact of certain heterogeneous characteristics of FBs on the application of environmental management accounting (EMA) practices, which is a sub-stream of MAPs, is yet to be explored.

Keywords

• Management accounting practices
• Family business
• Sustainable development
• Economic performance
• Environmental performance
• Environmental management accounting