STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING INFORMATION AND PERFORMANCE OF PRIVATE HOSPITALS IN MALAYSIA

Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) information plays an important role in managing competitive advantage of an organization. SMA is one of the main management accounting practices; it is external, concentrates on the future, qualitative, and utilized by organizations to attain strategic goals. The study's objectives are determining the extent of SMA information usage and the correlation between SMA and Malaysian private hospital performance. This study expects SMA information to significantly impact Malaysian hospitals' performance. A survey was employed using hospitals as samples. Data were collected by self-administered questionnaires. The Partial Least Squares (PLS) 3.0 had been used to examine the responses of Malaysian private hospitals. The findings indicate that SMA information (which encompasses analyses on competitor, client and product data) has positive significant effects on performance. The findings also show that Malaysian private hospitals moderately use SMA information. This study contributes to the literature on SMA of service industry, especially in the healthcare sector. Findings of this study can be used by managers to improve SMA information to achieve competitive advantage.