The Relevance of Strategic Management Accounting Research

• Ji-eun Park

  Author

Strategic management accounting emerged over four decades ago as a response to the growing inadequacy of traditional management accounting in an increasingly competitive, technology-driven, and information-rich business environment. Since Simmonds first coined the term, SMA has evolved from a notion describing competitor-oriented accounting information into a sophisticated umbrella of sixteen-plus techniques grouped under strategic costing, planning/control/performance measurement, strategic decision-making, competitor accounting, and customer accounting. This paper critically examines the relevance of SMA research in light of Langfield-Smith's influential challenge regarding how far the field had advanced in its first twenty-five years. Drawing on recent systematic literature reviews and empirical evidence from developed and developing economies, we argue that SMA research remains highly relevant because it addresses the persistent relevance gap of traditional management accounting it has demonstrable performance implications that are contingent on strategy, environment, and organisational context it is being reshaped by the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions through big data, artificial intelligence, and ESG imperatives, and under-researched contexts—particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, emerging economies, and start-ups—continue to demand strategic insight from accounting research. The paper concludes by identifying future research opportunities and reaffirming the centrality of SMA to both scholarship and practice.

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