The Causal Factors that Influencing Environmental Management Accounting in the Aspects of Accountant for SMEs in Thailand

Abstract

This research aimed to study the causal factors influencing on environmental management accounting for SMEs in Thailand, to study the influence of environmental management accounting that affects the performance of SMEs business in Thailand, and to develop the accounting model for environmental management accounting of SMEs in Thailand. Mixed-method research methodology was applied for this study. Population in this study were 113,722 firm. [1] Most of them were small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in manufacturing sector that registered with the department of business development . Observed variable was investigated by sample size of 10-20 subjects per one latent variable according to requirements of Structural Equation Model (SEM). [2] Nevertheless, the study in the past indicated that the causal factor influencing the environmental accounting consisted of 14 factors. In order to obtain complete and reliable information, we collected 400 samples which were sufficient and more than the minimum requirement for statistical analysis. The sampling method was specific sampling (Purposive Selection). The research instruments were structured interview and questionnaires. Data was analyzed by Structural Equation Model (SEM).

               The results showed that the level of opinions in the dimension of accounting information system factor, data presentation had the highest mean with 3.844 and 0.819 of S.D. In the corporate citizenship factor dimension, experimental and problem analysis had the highest mean with 3.883 and 0.901 of S.D. In the aspect of accounting knowledge factor, the professional skill had the highest mean of 3.891 and 0.731 of S.D. and in the dimension of  environmental management accounting factor, environmental assets showed the highest mean of 3.926 and 0.719 of S.D. Simultaneously, the results of the business operations found that the non-financial performance had the highest mean of 3.817 and 0.723 of S.D. The analysis of data before conducting the structural analysis showed that mean of most of the variables were categorised in the high level ( =3.687–3.926) while the skewness of data is left-handed  negativity which confirmed that data in this study were highly  distributed. The analysis of the structural equation model was conducted based on the hypothesis. It was found that the simulation model of structural equation was in harmony with the empirical data, consistent with the hypothesis of the research. Path analysis results shown that accounting information system, corporate citizenship, accounting knowledge are direct positive influence on environmental management accounting at .01 level of significance. Accounting information system and accounting knowledge are direct positive influence and indirect influence on business performance at .01 level of significance. Furthermore, the environmental management accounting is direct positive influence on business performance at .01 level of significance. The development of the accounting model for environmental management accounting found consistency between the study in the past and data collected by the questionnaire.  Moreover, the number of causal factors that corresponded to the literature were confirmed from our in-depth interviews. The development of this model is consistent to the past study.