Purpose – The study aims to examine the scope and extent of technological and management accounting innovation in Malaysia by identifying the stage of development of practice in industrial companies. Further, it seeks to investigate the factors determining their adoption of technological and management accounting innovations. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire‐based study is conducted within a tightly defined industrial area in the Klang Valley, so permitting personal follow‐up of individual companies. Findings – The study confirms the dominance of financial accounting for the purposes of management control, with minimal adoption of innovative management accounting tools, even for large companies. Originality/value – The Akira model for management accounting development is applied in recognition that it will fit developing South East Asian countries better than western equivalents, because of relatively low levels of automation

This paper advances previous research in corporate social reporting (CSR) by using a taxonomy of five distinct rhetorical strategies to examine any differences in term of type of ethical categories and to identify moral attitudes towards different societal activities between Shari'ah compliant company Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB) and Non-Shari'ah compliant company Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank). The data is analyzed using content analysis. The findings revealed that there are different rhetoric applied in both types of companies such as Agency (profit), Benefit (collective welfare), Compliance (law and contracts), Duty and Ethos (virtue). In term of moral attitudes, both types of companies disclosed relatively similar behaviour and commitment towards CSR. This research is the first of its kind to be conducted in Malaysia by using this new approach and will contribute new insights to existing CSR literatures in Malaysia.