Management accounting, business ethics, enterprise risk management and firm outcomes: evidence from Vietnamese SMEs

This study examined how business ethics (BE), management accounting (MA), and enterprise risk management (ERM) relate to perceived firm outcomes (FO) in Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the Agency Theory, the Resource-based View, and the Contingency Theory, an integrated model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling on 304 valid survey responses. The measurement model showed acceptable reliability and convergent validity, although high correlations among several perceptual constructs called for cautious interpretation. The findings were consistent with business ethics being positively associated with management accounting and, indirectly, with perceived firm outcomes through management accounting, and with enterprise risk management serving as an important intervening mechanism. The model accounts for a high proportion of variance in the endogenous constructs, although this should be read cautiously given the perceptual, single-source measures. The study offers an integrated, theory-based account of these associations in a developing-economy SME setting