In this context, consistency can also be related to the
issue of trust with respect to the use of management
accounting information. Even though not explicitly analyzed
in our study, consistency could also be interpreted
as a mechanism underlying the emergence of trust in management
accounting information. For example, Busco et al.
(2006), who analyze a case of comprehensive organizational
change in the aftermath of a merger, describe the
implementation of what we would refer to as an integrated
accounting system design as one crucial factor for
building trust and therefore facilitating acceptance of new
rationales and routines in management.
Nevertheless, in professional practice it may be difficult
to achieve such consistency, i.e., a consistent financial
language under an integrated accounting system, if the
relevant financial GAAP system is not appropriate for management
control purposes (e.g., if it is mainly driven by
tax or legal considerations, as has been the case with German
GAAP). Even though our study clearly indicates the
relevance of consistency, this property of management accounting information is not a comprehensive substitute,
but rather – at least partially – a complement to other properties
of ‘good’ accounting information, e.g., information
content or relevance for a given decision-making or control
problem. As financial accounting standards under IFRS
or US-GAAP are more suitable for internal decision-making
and/or decision-influencing compared to German, Austrian
or Swiss GAAP, an integration of accounting systems is
therefore probably easier and more successful.