The aim of this study is to investigate the perception of managers from transition countries, as regards the management accounting information system. The research was conducted between May 2015 and March 2016 among businesses operating in Poland and Romania. The data were processed by means of cluster analysis. The findings indicate that the financial information used in operational management is highly rated by managers. Of the three profiles of managers distinguished, those defined as supporters and neutrals dominate in both countries.

Integrated reporting promotes changing the internal processes of companies to generate improved performance. One way toward this goal is to use integrated thinking as a tool to achieve a 'better understanding of the factors that materially affect an organization's ability to create value over time', that is the six capitals, as suggested by the International Integrated Reporting Council. Our goal is to identify 'effects of learning' in the field of integrated reporting on the performance and reporting practices of companies. More specifically, we aim to identify how and to what extent integrated thinking translated into their reporting practices and performance, while companies implemented the International Integrated Reporting Framework. Therefore, we analyse and compare the reporting practices and performance of European companies included in the International Integrated Reporting Council's Pilot Program for two moments in time: 2013 and 2016. We use a set of nineteen indicators, considered as the most important for the presentation of the six capitals. Thus, we provide insights about how integrated reports disclose information concerning the capitals. Results show improvements in performance and the diversification of indicators disclosed in the reports. However, changes are not exclusively attributable to integrated reporting; reporting experience is also a contributing factor. The study contributes to the literature on the impact of integrated reporting in practice.

Research Question: What are the requirements and expectations of each class of external stakeholders? Is there any convergence between the identified expectations? Motivation: There is a large variety of stakeholder expectations that universities are confronted with in their permanent search for social legitimacy, acknowledgement and survival. In the case of accounting study programs, their strong relationships with practitioners and professional associations, as emphasized in previous research in accounting education in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, add to the expectations that need to be met. Idea: This paper explores external stakeholder expectations of accounting study programs provided by Romanian universities, in order to identify the elements to which these expectations converge. Data: Data was collected only from public documents (laws and regulations, reports, studies, press releases, websites of relevant bodies etc.). Tools: A review of relevant public documents has been performed. Findings: As expected, all stakeholders require quality. Still, they ascribe different meanings to quality, evaluate quality in different manners, and hence exert various pressures. More, we observed that all types of isomorphism: coercive, mimetic, normative, as well as competitive are involved in assuring quality and meeting expectations. Contribution: The study contributes to literature with a complex approach, employing stakeholder and institutional theory, in the context of the extensive environment of higher education. In terms of practice, by taking stock of stakeholder requirements and expectations, the study calls the attention of decision makers to stakeholder pressures and the need to adjust accounting study programs accordingly.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how selected contingency factors, such as the company profile and the managers’ profile, impact on the usefulness of management accounting (MA) in two Eastern European countries: Romania and Poland. In order to achieve the objective of the paper, we employed a questionnaire-based survey addressed to managers of randomly selected companies from various industries. Data were processed by means of several statistical tests, as well as classification and regression trees (C&RT) and the results were interpreted in the historical context of the two countries. Our investigation showed that management accounting in both countries is oriented towards providing useful information for budgeting and cost control. There is no interest in preparing and communicating information meant to support strategy implementation. It was also found that the information delivered to management is seldom employed in supporting the decision-making process, where its usefulness is rated as relatively low. The most important predictor variable for the assessment of Polish managers is the origin of the company’s capital, followed by the education of the managers, while in Romania the assessment is mainly influenced by the managers’ function and the origin of capital. The paper contributes to the development of literature in this field by complementing the existing research on MA development in CEE countries, and identifying the internal factors that lead to managers from the two countries perceiving MA usefulness differently. Keywords: management accounting information; usefulness; assessment; comparison; contingency factors; classification and regression trees