This study attempted to fill this gap by examining factors that influence AIS alignment in the specific context of Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. This objective was achieved by firstly clustering the SMEs according to whether or not there was alignment between accounting information requirements (represented by AIS requirements) and accounting information system processing capacity (represented by AIS capacity). The alignment groups were then tested against potential influence factors to determine their relationships with AIS alignment.
This study focused on AIS alignment because AIS (which covers both the financial and managerial aspects of accounting information) is an important component of modern information systems within SMEs (Mitchell et al. 2000). This exploratory study also aimed to identify fruitful areas of future research in the areas
of accounting and information systems