VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS FACTORS AFFECTING THE USE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING AT PUBLIC UNITS ON THE AREA OF HO CHI MINH CITY Pham Ngoc Toan1*, Le Thi My Nuong2 School of Accounting, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh city School of Accounting and Finance, Ho Chi Minh city Industry and Trade College ABSTRACT In fact, for public units management accounting is still quite new, not yet used in a way synchronous and scientific, besides, managers are still not aware of the importance of management accounting, have not invested the cost to organize and apply this system at the units While the management accounting system plays a very important role in providing quality information, suitable for management and decision making of managers By using a mixed research method in which qualitative research methods combined with quantitative research methods, research results show the factors affecting the use of management accounting at the Public units of Ho Chi Minh City include: Leadership awareness; Organization size; Organizational structure; IT applications; Professional qualifications of accountants; The cost of organizing a management accounting system Finally, the study proposes recommendations related to each factor to improve the effectiveness of applying management accounting at public units of the Ho Chi Minh City Keywords: Factors affecting, Management accounting, Public units INTRODUCTION Currently, the mechanism of operation, financial mechanism in public units facilities in the whole country in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular has gradually been reformed towards increasing autonomy and responsibility, thereby , creating many challenges in financial management In addition, current risks and potential risks arising from internal units or external factors also negatively affect the performance and management efficiency of this public unit Therefore, public units of the Ho Chi Minh City want to survive and develop, need to develop and apply more appropriate management tools, one of which is to apply management accounting, thereby *Corresponding author Email address: toanch10@yahoo.com 663 IN TERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON - CIFBA 2020 helping the unit achieve its goals through planning, evaluating, managing and controlling management quality and quality of services at the public units and making management decisions suitable to ensure the best use of the unit's resources This study was conducted to identify and measure the impact of factors on the use of management accounting at public units of the Ho Chi Minh City From the research results, factors affecting the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City, in which the organizational structure has the most impact and Accounting staff qualifications have the lowest impact on the dependent variable, the independent variables explain 55.2% of the variation of the dependent variable, show that these factors are suitable for research context is public units of the Ho Chi Minh City On that basis the author proposes recommendations related to the factors contributing to improving the efficiency of management accounting at the units, while helping to improve management efficiency and operational efficiency at these units LITERATURE REVIEW, RESEARCH MODEL AND MATERIALS 2.1 Theoretical basis and proposed model Contingency theory Management accounting is an integral part of an organization, which is what backup theory wants to convey Based on contingency theory, management accounting is modified, and adjusted to suit organizational structure and environmental change This theory is presented to explain the application of information technology, size and organizational structure affecting the use of management accounting Theory of cost-benefit relationship The purpose of management accounting is to serve the management needs of the organization, so each different organization has requirements on different management accounting systems, applying other management accounting technical tools together Theory of cost-benefit relationship affects the application of management accounting through two factors: the level of investment costs for the organization of management accounting and the benefits of management accounting information bring to the organization This theory is applied to research to explain the cost factor to organize the management accounting system, the size of the organization affecting the application of management accounting of the unit Factors affecting the application of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City: Leadership awareness Senior managers are those involved in management activities within an organization Resource theory of Wernerfelt (1995) also acknowledges the role of administrators in the unit's accounting information system The senior managers are the ones who understand best about the operation of the unit and understand the necessity of applying management accounting to the organization, connecting management 664 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS accounting with the strategy and operational objectives of Their units, moreover, apply management accounting that requires the unit to invest many different resources, thus needing approval and support from senior management, and the support of the manager high-level management is a factor that determines success or failure when building and applying management accounting at the unit In addition, management's understanding of management accounting also plays an active role in developing and implementing management accounting (Nguyen Vu Thanh Giang, 2017) Hypothesis H1: Awareness of management positively affects the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City (+) Organization size According to Salah A.Hammad et al (2010), large-size organizations will often have wide scope and areas of operation, requiring general accounting information and high management accounting information This information is an important basis for managers to make decisions On the contrary, for organizations with a small size, relatively narrow, the demand for information is not too high, and there is a limit on the level of human resources and the application of information technology often does not apply management accounting but only focus on financal accounting Hypothesis H2: The size of the organization positively affects the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City (+) Organizational structure A unit with good organizational structure, reasonable division among departments, among employees will contribute to ensuring data quality in the general information system of the unit and management accounting information in particular based on mutual control among departments and employees (Xu, 2003) The strong relationship between management accounting and organizational structure is also shown in the research conducted by Salah A.Hammad et al (2010) According to Xu (2003), centralized organizational structure will help the unit to better control data quality Hypothesis H3: The structure of the organization positively affects the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City (+) IT applications The application of management accounting is influenced by factors related to information technology application in management accounting organizations Information technology applications related to organizational hardware, software, databases and processes (Salah A.Hammad et al, 2010) Therefore, the issue of equipping the infrastructure in accordance with the needs of the units is one of the important factors affecting efficiency in management accounting applications Hypothesis H4: IT applications positively affects the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City (+) 665 IN TERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON - CIFBA 2020 Accounting staff qualifications When accounting staff has a high level of expertise, it will help reduce errors in recording and processing information, as well as help the management accounting system operate more smoothly (Nguyen Vu Thanh Giang, 2017) Today, the role of accountant does not stop at recording and reporting, but also in the role of data analysis and monitoring, which will help increase the usefulness, relevance, quality of the information created to support unit managers, so that staff qualifications greatly affect the quality of the accounting management information they provide Hypothesis H5: Accounting staff qualifications positively affects the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City (+) The cost of organizing a management accounting system The research results of Nguyen Vu Thanh Giang (2017) explain that the organization of a separate management accounting department will consume manpower, material resources of the organization The application of management accounting in organizations must be balanced with the benefits that management accounting information brings Although the units and organizations know that the benefits from the application of management accounting are huge, but due to the financial potential is limited, the investment costs for the use of management accounting are also will decide if the unit accepts to use management accounting Hypothesis H6: The cost of organizing a management accounting system positively affects the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City (+) 2.2 Research Method and materials The study was conducted through two main stages: (i) Qualitative research to build a formal research model and complete a survey questionnaire for formal research; (ii) Quantitative research to collect, analyze survey data, and test model assumptions Sampling method: Samples are selected by a random method According to Tabachnick & Fidell (2007) when using MLR (multiple regression), the sample size should be calculated by the following formula: n ≥ 50 + 8p (p: number of independent variables) The number of samples selected in the study is 135 samples that are suitable (135> 50 + * 6) The author builds a regression model of factors affecting the use of management accounting at public health care units under the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health as follows: MAPs = β1LA+ β2 OS + β3 OSTR + β4ITs + β5QUAL + β6COST + ε Where: β0: Intercept coefficient; 666 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS β1, β2, β3, β4, β5, β6: Standardized regression coefficient for each of the independent variable; ε: Random disturbance terms assumed to be normally distributed with mean); MAPs: the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City; LA: Leadership awareness; OS: Organization size; OSTR: Organizational structure; ITs: IT applications; QUAL: Accounting staff qualifications; COST: the cost of organizing a management accounting system INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS Result profile of sample respondents: Among those surveyed, in terms of gender characteristics, there are 57 person who is male, accounting for 42.22%; The percentage of females is 57.78% In terms of age, the majority of respondents belong to the age group from 30 to 39, accounting for 39.26%, followed by people from 20 to 29 years old, accounting for 25.19% and from 40 to 49 years old, accounting for 18.52% and the rest are people over 50, accounting for 17.03% Of the total participants, most of them have a college or university degree (89.62%), followed by those with a master’s or above degree (accounting for 7.41%), the rest are people with other level, accounted for 2.97% Table Profile of sample respondents Demographic Information Gender Age Education level Categories Frequency Percentage Male 57 42.22 Female 78 57.78 Total 135 100 20-29 34 25.19 30-39 53 39.26 40-49 25 18.52 50 and above 23 17.03 Total 135 100 College and university 121 89.62 Master’s or above 10 7.41 Others 2.97 Total 135 100 Source: SPSS After testing the reliability of the scales of independent and dependent variables The author evaluates the relevance of the linear regression model as follows: 667 IN TERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON - CIFBA 2020 Table Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square 627a 561 552 Std Error of the Estimate 13083 Durbin-Watson 1.763 Source: SPSS The results show that the R2 coefficient is adjusted = 55.2%> 50%, thereby showing the independent variables explain 55.2% of the variation of the dependent variable, the rest is explained by the weak Other factors are not considered in the model LA OS MAPs Adjusted R2 =.552 OSTR ITs QUAL COST Figure The model Table Coefficients Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients B Std Error (Constant) 1.645 170 LA 087 017 242 OS 076 019 OSTR 139 ITs T Sig Beta Collinearity Statistics Tolerance VIF 4.569 000 894 1.118 178 3.504 000 963 1.038 031 295 4.830 000 782 1.278 073 025 273 3.216 002 768 1.303 QUAL 158 036 091 3.648 000 616 1.622 COST 072 019 267 4.573 000 949 1.054 8.303 000 a Dependent Variable: MAPs Source: SPSS Based on the research results table, it can be seen that the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City is influenced by factors including: MAPs = 0,242 AL+ 0,178 OS + 0,295 OSTR + 0,273ITs + 0,091QUAL + 0,267COST 668 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS Conclusion: Through research, the author has identified factors affecting the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City, in which the organizational structure (β = 0.295); IT applications (β = 0.273); the cost of organizing a management accounting system (β = 0.267); Leadership awareness (β = 0.242); the size of the organization (β = 0.178); accounting staff qualifications have the lowest impact on the dependent variable with β = 0.091 RECOMMENDATIONS The study proposes a number of recommendations related to each factor to improve the effectiveness of the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City, such as considering the structure of organization, as well as implementing appropriate decentralization; improve the application of information technology to accounting and management accounting in particular; reasonable balance between costs and benefits that management accounting information brings to avoid resource waste, as well as inefficient investment; Unit leaders must raise awareness about the importance of management accounting, actively improve themselves with management accounting through training, or advice from accounting departments and related departments;The unit should recruit, arrange, organize training, guide accounting staff in general and management accounting in particular to meet the requirements of professional qualifications and knowledge of organization and process activities of public units, thereby contributing to good implementation of accounting work at the units REFERENCES [1] Nguyen Vu Thanh Giang (2017) Factors affecting the application of management accounting in enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City Master's thesis in economics, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics [2] Hammad, S A., Jusoh, R., & Yen Nee Oon, E (2010) Management accounting system for hospitals: a research framework. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 110(5), 762-784 [3] Tabachnick, B G., & Fidell, L S (2007) Using Multivariate Statistics (5th ed.) New York: Allyn and Bacon [4] Wernerfelt, B (1995) The resource-based view of the firm: Ten years after Strategic management journal, 16(3), 171-174 [5] Xu, H., Horn Nord, J., Daryl Nord, G., & Lin, B (2003) Key issues of accounting information quality management: Australian case studies Industrial Management & Data Systems, 103(7), 461-470 669 IN TERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON - CIFBA 2020 APPENDIX Table Scale reliability analysis Item Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Item Deleted Corrected Item Total Correlation if Item Deleted Cronbach's Alpha Leadership awareness Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha: 0.875 Item-Total Statistics LA1: Managers appreciate the usefulness of management 13.185 accounting technical tools N of Items: 3.506 732 835 LA2: Managers have knowledge of management accounting technical tools 13.169 3.739 558 956 LA3: Managers have a high demand for applying management accounting 13.284 3.222 791 785 LA4: The manager accepts a high level of investment in the use of management accounting 13.301 3.244 619 916 Organization size Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha: 0.852 N of Items: Item-Total Statistics OS1: The higher the turnover, the higher the demand for applying management accounting in the unit 11.638 3.674 470 871 OS2: The larger the number of employees, the higher the need to apply management accounting in the unit 11.561 3.185 546 855 OS3: The more years of operation, the higher the need to apply management accounting in the unit 11.740 3.418 670 434 OS4: The bigger the business capital, the higher the demand for managing accounting in the unit 11.525 3.863 527 867 Organizational structure Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha: 0.827 Item-Total Statistics 670 N of Items: VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS OSTR1: There is an organizational structure divided into administrative units according to the nature of the operation 12.006 1.722 601 804 OSTR2: There is clarity in the division of work in administrative units within the unit 12.047 1.714 617 797 OSTR3: There is coordination in the relationship between the part of the unit 12.047 1.607 671 773 OSTR4: There is a professional management for each part of the unit 12.041 1.543 722 748 IT applications Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha: 0.649 Item-Total Statistics N of Items:3 ITs1: Use the software to set up the management accounting reports 7.747 1.326 396 644 ITs 2: Internal information network allows connecting the work of departments at the unit 7.924 1.278 530 459 ITs 3: There is a separate accounting software used for management accounting 7.718 1.328 460 551 Accounting staff qualifications Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha: 0.813 Item-Total Statistics QUAL QUAL1: Accounting staff has professional knowledge in accounting and has an 12.506 understanding of the field of management accounting N of Items: 962 551 804 QUAL2: Accountants are able to use techniques and methods to implement management accounting 12.500 891 697 735 QUAL3: Organizing the work of fostering and improving the qualifications and knowledge of management accounting for accountants 12.494 914 641 761 QUAL4: Accountants are trained according to prestigious and quality processes 12.476 914 643 760 671 IN TERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON - CIFBA 2020 The cost of organizing a management accounting system Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha: 0.831 N of Items: Item-Total Statistics COST1: Costs for management accounting systems include design costs 11.953 3.678 618 806 COST2: Cost for management accounting system including operating costs 11.941 3.618 654 789 COST 3: Expenses for the management accounting system include implementation costs 11.876 3.565 686 775 COST4: Costs for the management accounting system include the cost of inviting experts to advise on the use of management accounting 12.035 3.656 680 778 The use of management accounting at public health care units under the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha: 0.494 N of Items: Item-Total Statistics MAPs1: The ability of applying costing system 15.900 1.144 336 432 MAPs2: The ability of applying budgeting system 15.859 1.045 373 394 MAPs3: The ability of applying performance evaluation system 15.871 1.013 474 350 MAPs4: The ability of applying decision support system 15.906 1.104 388 407 MAPs5: The ability of applying strategic management accounting 16.206 650 166 715 Source: SPSS 672 ... at public units of the Ho Chi Minh City From the research results, factors affecting the use of management accounting at public units in the Ho Chi Minh City, in which the organizational structure... explain the cost factor to organize the management accounting system, the size of the organization affecting the application of management accounting of the unit Factors affecting the application of. .. that these factors are suitable for research context is public units of the Ho Chi Minh City On that basis the author proposes recommendations related to the factors contributing to improving the