Finally, even though the total effect between the
variables integration level of accounting systems and controllership
impact on management decisions’ mediated by
consistency of financial language is significant, and the
path coefficient between the first, exogenous variable and
consistency indicates a strong (0.43) as well as highly significant
effect, the ratings on ‘integration level of accounting
system’ only explain 18% of the variance of consistency of
financial language. This leaves ample room for questions on
what other effects might drive this variable, which we cannot
answer from our study and which would be a matter of
future research.
Other limitations of our study concern the statistical
side. First, due to our non-random sample of firms, findings
are limited in terms of representativeness. However,
our analysis can be considered representative with regard
to the underlying population, which comprises 1269 of the
biggest companies in Germany by sales volume. As we draw on cross-sectional data, our findings may not hold for a
given type of industry. On the other hand, there are no indications
in our theoretical model that the issues discussed in
this paper may differ in relevance with respect to specific
industries.