Abstract:

Since the industrial revolution era, management accounting has become a recognized field of accounting practice. However, many organisations (manufacturing companies inclusive) do not completely appreciate the need for the institution of a full-fledged management accounting system to support managerial decision making. This could be basically attributed to the lack of knowledge of what constitutes management accounting information and the fact that financial reporting mentality still dominates the accounting activities and procedures of many manufacturing companies. The main objective of this study was to establish the nature of the relationship between management accounting information and corporate performance of manufacturing companies in Rivers State, Nigeria. To achieve the primary objective of the study, the cross-sectional survey design was adopted. The population of the study was made up of the thirty-two (32) manufacturing companies in Rivers State registered with the Rivers/Bayelsa State branch of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). All the population elements make up the sample of this study; hence, a census of the population was done. Purposive sampling technique was adopted in selecting ninety-six (96) respondents for the purpose of data collection. Data collection was done primarily using structured questionnaire. Analysis of data was carried out using descriptive statistics while linear regression and correlation analysis were used in testing the hypotheses. The investigation revealed that a positive linear relationship exists between management accounting information and corporate performance of manufacturing companies in Rivers State and that management accounting information accounts for less than 10% of change in corporate performance (measured using net profit). The study concluded that the performance of a manufacturing company does not substantially depend on management accounting information since the correlation between the two variables is very weak. One of the recommendations made was that management of manufacturing companies should continue to demand management accounting information so as to sustain the positive relationship that has been identified to exist between management accounting information and corporate performance.