The Impact of Historical Performance and Managerial Risk-taking Propensity on the Behavior of Choosing Prospector Strategy and Using Strategic Management Accounting Information in Viet Nam Manufacturer

Strategic management accounting (SMA) supports managers in decision-making and activity control to accomplish both short- and long-term objectives. This study, based on the Upper Echelons Theory (UET), investigates how the CFO's psychological trait-the propensity to take managerial risks, affects the decision to choose prospector strategy and uses SMA information. The main objective of this study is to find out what factors influence the behavior using SMA information. This study also takes into account the internal locus of control "s moderating role effect in some relationships. The CFOs of Vietnamese major manufacturers are investigated. The results have shown that: (1) the lower of the historical performance, the more likely CFOs are to choose the prospector strategy, the more CFOs have managerial risk-taking propensity, the more SMA information usage behavior increases; (2) the more CFOs have managerial risk-taking propensity, the more likely they are to choose the prospector strategy, and the behavior of using SMA information also increases; (3) the CFOs" internal locus of control (ILOC) trait plays a moderator role in increasing their SMA information usage behavior and prospector strategy selection trend. This study adds to accounting expertise by highlighting the significance of SMA information for decision-making, the CFO's management risk-taking propensity, and helping top managers develop an effective SMA system. Low historical financial performance and managerial risk-taking propensity impact the utilization of strategic management accounting information in Vietnamese manufacturingStrategic management accounting is an innovative management accounting tool that has been proving its usefulness when supporting upper managers in making strategic decisions. This study used UET as the foundation theory to establish and test the relationships between low historical financial performance-managerial risk taking propensity-the choice of prospector strategy-using SMA information. In addition, this study also examines the moderator role of the internal locus of control in some relationships. This study surveyed 218 CFOs in medium and large manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam, all relationships were statistically significant. The results of this study have shown that low historical financial performance is an antecedence factor which affecting on the managerial risk-taking propensity in management of CFOs, as well as affecting the choice of a risky strategy such as prospector strategy. And it all affects the use of SMA information. This result implies that the designers of the SMA system need to pay attention to the organization's own factors such as the past financial performance, as well as the strategic characteristics that the organization is pursuing, and especially the SMA system must fit with the psychological personality of the upper managers (CFOs). In order to create the appropriateness in the operation process of the organization toward improving the efficiency of Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises