Business intelligence and analytics, MAPs infrence capability, management accountants's analytical skillset: a study on UAE companies

Abstract

Business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) has become pivotal in enhancing organisational decision-making processes, complementing the traditional role of management accounting practices (MAPs) and urging Management accountants (MAs) to sharpen their analytical skills and be ready for new roles. However, the literature has underexplored this synergy. This study investigates how BI&A adoption influences MAPs inference capability as well as the MAs' Analytical Skillset. It also examines the extent to which these capabilities and the new analytical skillset of MAs mediate the relationship between BI&A utilisation and organisational performance. Based on 192 usable survey responses from MAs and financial professionals in medium and large organisations in the UAE, this study uses the Partial Least Squares to Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to analyse the data. Contrary to the expectations, the results demonstrate that BI&A adoption has a significant negative relationship with organisational performance. MAPs inference capability as well as MAs’ data analytics oriented skillset, however, have a significant and positive influence on organisational performance, while BI&A adoption significantly augments the inferential ability of MAPs. The findings indicate that MAPs inference capability partially mediates the association between BI&A and organisational performance, while MAs' Analytical Skillset fully mediate this relationship. These findings advocate the strategic integration of BI&A into management accounting, suggesting that such an alignment could significantly improve organisational efficiency. This study contributes to the literature by portraying the empirical relationship between BI&A and MAPs, thus offering a foundation for future studies in this intersecting domain. Furthermore, this study makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions by examining the role of MAPs inference capability as a strategic capability under the Resource-Based View (RBV) framework. It expands the application of RBV in management accounting research by operationalising and measuring MAPs' inference capability and empirically validating its impact on firm performance. The study also theorises the mediating role of MAPs inference capability and MAs' Analytical Skillset between BI&A and organisational performance, providing an understanding of value-creation mechanisms. The framework of this study offers current perspectives on the integration of management accounting mechanisms and the role of human skills, thus providing evidence of the relevance of both in the advancement of BI&A.