Exploring Management Accounting Practices in Emerging Telecommunication Market in Ghana

Abstract

The ever-increasing importance of telecommunication companies in Ghana coupled with global and domestic competitions, increasing cost and decreasing profitability was the impetus for this study. This research examines the application of a broad range of management accounting practices used by telecommunication companies in Ghana. It sought to establish the extent of use and reasons for the adoption of Management Accounting Practices (MAPs) in Ghana mobile telecom industry (GMTI). This study was a cross-sectional survey that yielded 37 useable questionnaire from respondents with varied professions in accounting and finance in MTN Ghana, a leading telecommunication company in Ghana. The findings show that the most used category of MAPs is strategic analysis practices, which has a higher relative usage rate than reported in previous research. Again, MTN Ghana uses more of traditional budgeting techniques, and relies more on financial measures than for non-financial measures. The use of costing systems by MTN Ghana is quite low, prevalent among them are departmental overhead rate and Activity-based Costing. Overall, this study provides valuable understandings into the nature of MAPs applied by telecommunication companies in emerging markets in developing countries.