Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to study the impact of modern management accounting practices on the operational performance of SMEs within the Nakhon Ratchasima province. The conceptual framework for the integration of modern management accounting
techniques, which included total quality management (TQM), Japanese management strategies (Kaizen), key performance indicators (KPI), Benchmarking, balanced scorecard (BSC), and value based management ( VBM) , were applied to administrative functions, included planning, controlling, decision making, and building value based management. These factors contributed to the operational efficiency of the SMEs by analyzing the components in each aspect, including cost reduction, increase quality of products/services, proper use of business resources and achieving the goal. Data were collected via questionnaires, which was distributed to 514 SMEs in Nakhon Ratchasima province, as classified by type of business, consisting of agriculture, manufacturing, trade and services. A total of 195 places responded, which attributes to 19.50 percent Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the level of modern management accounting integration, as well as multiple regression analysis to test the hypothesis of the impact of the integration of modern
management accounting on the operational efficiency of SMEs in Nakhon Ratchasima province. Results exhibited that SMEs utilized the 5 modern management accounting techniques used in administrative including TQM, Kaizen, BSC, KPI and VBM respectively. Additionally, the impact of modern management accounting practices on the operational performance of SMEs in terms of controlling, decision making, and value based management showed statistically significant positive results to the overall operational efficiency. Nevertheless, this study did not show the impact of modern management accounting planning on overall operational efficiency. These results indicated that the modern management accounting techniques produced positive outcomes of operational efficiency of SMEs. Ultimately, relevant regulators in the development of SMEs should provide encouragement and education regarding modern management accounting, resulting that SMEs gain more knowledgeable for applying in business operation effectively.