THE ALIGNMENT OF ACCOUNTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN SMES IN MALAYSIA

Noor A. Ismail, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia and Malcolm King, Loughborough University, U.K.

This study explores the alignment between information systems processing capacity and information requirement in the context of accounting information in small and medium sized manufacturing firms. Cluster analysis was used to group SMEs with similar levels of alignment. Three groups emerged which could be readily identified as Aligned, Moderate and Not aligned. Statistical tests confirmed that the group of SMEs with the highest level of alignment achieved significantly better performance than the other two groups.