The New Age of Accounting Regulation Canada and the United States

This paper reviews major differences between the accounting regulatory systems in Canada and the United States. In the U.S., the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 governs responsibilities of management, auditors, and Boards of Directors related to internal control over financial reporting. In Canada, a series of Multilateral Instruments under provincial jurisdiction serves similar objectives. As compared to the U.S., the Canadian system is more decentralized and principles-based allowing a greater degree of responsibility to the accounting profession for standard setting and oversight. The Canadian approach has resulted in weaker regulation, slower implementation, and greater influence by the accounting profession. These findings imply that accounting regulations should be tailored to fit the political and institutional structures of the adopting country

The deployment of contemporary management accounting practices in Canadian firms: a contingency approach

Effective management accounting systems can provide critical tools and techniques for managing contemporary companies, particularly in competitive global environments. Using a survey of Canadian manufacturing companies, this study investigates the deployment of contemporary management accounting practices (CMAPs), as well as several contingent factors associated with their deployment, namely: industry size and sector, geographic region, and managers' expertise and skills. The findings suggest that CMAPs play important, but still evolving, roles in Canadian manufacturing companies. In addition, the regions and the industries in which the companies operate, along with managerial expertise and skills in some cases, appear to be significantly associated with the deployment of CMAPs. In particular, the Central and Western regions exhibit significant associations with the deployment of several CMAPs.contemporary management accounting; management accounting practices; CMAP; contingency theory; manufacturing firms; industry types; geographical regions; Canada; industry size; manager expertise; manager skills.