Factors affecting accounting system in managing Research and Development (R&D) activities: A research on R&D centers in Turkey

Businesses that do not want to lag behind in technological development, in order to be pioneer of innovation and achieve competitive advantage, increase their Research and Development (R&D) capacity by establishing R&D centers. Businesses benefit from accounting in recording, classifying, summarizing and reporting financial transactions that are wholly or partially related to these activities. Therefore, businesses also need an accounting information system that functions effectively in managing R&D center activities in terms of resource usage, cost control and efficiency measurement. Thus, the purpose of this study is to reveal the factors affecting the accounting information system in management of R&D activities. For this purpose, the attitudes on the issue of accounting unit managers and employees who contribute to operation and management of accounting information system in R&D centers have been evaluated. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed on the data obtained through the questionnaire. Structural equation modeling method (path analysis) was used to test the research hypotheses. As a result of the research, it was determined that accounting information system contributes to the presentation of quality information based on relevance and faithful representation, to increase the efficiency of internal control and audit, to realize the effective usage of resources and to increase the efficiency of corporate governance. On the other hand, it was determined that the factors of openness to technological innovation and development, understanding of quality information presentation, value relevance approach and tax planning approach positively affect the accounting information system in the management of R&D activities. Contrary to this situation, it has been concluded that the institutionalization level and earnings management approach factors are not effective on the accounting information system. These findings show that being in compliance with information technologies and openness to development, developing principles and policies towards quality information production may increase the accounting information system efficiency in managing R&D activities. In addition, these findings reveal that the value relevance approach to meet the expectations of current and potential investors and the approach of tax saving have an effect on the accounting information system. On the other hand, within the research constraints, the fact that level of institutionalization is not effective shows that corporate governance principles, ethical principles and codes, division of labor and specialization are not considered important. Lastly, the fact that earnings management approach is not effective indicates that managers do not adopt manipulative approaches in decision making process. Keywords: R&D, Accounting Information System, Structural Equation Modeling