THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORPORATE CULTURE AND THE USE
OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING INNOVATIONS IN VIETNAMESE
COMPANIES: A STUDY OF TECHCOMBANK
BY
NGUYEN QUYNH THU

Graduation Project Submitted to the Department of Business Studies, HELP
University College, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Business (Accounting) Hons
October 2011
2

Declaration of Originality and Word Count DECLARATION

I declare that this graduation project is based on my original work except for
quotations and citation which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that it has

not close; however, I received one hundred percent replies over the questionnaire
papers sent through both emails and in hands. Based on their answers, the influence
of corporate culture on management accounting innovations in Techcombank has
been found out and contributed a big value to this research.
Finally, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to express my great thanks to all
of my family members and friends for their vital encouragement and cares during the
time conducting this thesis.
4

Once again, I’d love to send the profound feeling to the above-mentioned people,
hadn’t been for all their supports and suggestions, this paper cannot be properly
accomplished.


author also analyzes the relationship between Techcombank’s corporate culture and
its management accounting innovations based on models of Schein, Quinn and
Rohrbaugh. Finally, from the success of Techcombank, the author will propose some
useful experience lessons for Vietnamese companies.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

Declaration of Originality and Word Count 2
Acknowledgement 3
Abstract 5
Table of contents 7
List of Figures 11

2.3.2.2. Open systems 31
2.3.2.3. Rational goals 31
2.3.2.4. Internal processes 32
CHAPTER III – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 33
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3.1. The survey 33
3.1.1. Objectives of survey 33
3.1.2. Questionnaire design 34
3.2. Case study 35
3.2.1. Objectives of case study 35
3.2.2. Data collection 36
3.2.3. Data analysis 37
CHAPTER IV – RESEARCH RESULTS AND EXPERIENCE LESSONS . 39
4.1. Findings from the survey 39
4.1.1. Detail findings 39
4.1.2. Overall findings from the survey 50
4.2. Findings from case study 52
4.2.1. Overview of Techcombank 52
4.2.2. Corporate culture of Techcombank 53
4.2.2.1. Artifacts 53
4.2.2.2. Espoused values 55
4.2.2.3. Assumptions 57
4.2.3 Management accounting innovations in Techcombank 58
4.2.3.1 ABC method 59
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4.2.3.2 BSC method 60
4.2.4. The positive relationship between corporate culture and the use of
management accounting innovation in Techcombank 61

Figure 2.1
Role of corporate culture in organizational commitment
21
Figure 2.2
Corporate culture – Iceberg’s principle
27
Figure 2.3
The competing values model of corporate culture
32
Chapter IV Figure 4.1
Necessary for building corporate culture in Techcombank
40
Figure 4.2
Elements of corporate culture in Techcombank
40
Figure 4.3
Roles of corporate culture in Techcombank
41
Figure 4.4
Difficulties in building corporate culture in Techcombank
42
Figure 4.5
Initiative methods of managerial accounting in Techcombank
43
Figure 4.6
The most understandable method in managerial accounting in
Techcombank

Figure 4.14
Illustrate the relationship between corporate culture and
management accounting innovations based on the competing
value model
62
Figure 4.15
The influence of human relations on management accounting
innovations
64
Figure 4.16
The influence of open systems on management accounting
innovations
66
Figure 4.17
The influence of rational goals on management accounting
innovations
67
Figure 4.18
The influence of internal processes on management accounting
innovations
69

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations
Full name
Techcombank
Vietnam technological and commercial joint stock bank

Randle (1998), nearly all organizations acknowledged that an organization’s well
founded culture could contribute to the accomplishment in every aspect of
performance such as economy and finance.
In particular, for accountants, corporate culture plays a crucial role on the
managerial accounting system. However, the relationship between the corporate
culture and the management accounting innovations is not clear, which many
organizations do pay adequate attention to. Accountants often are less interested in
corporate culture and its influences on the accounting innovations. Therefore, the
first step to build a strong corporate culture is that organization must understand and
consider its culture as beliefs and expectations which can powerfully shape the
behavior of individuals and groups in the organization (Schwartz and Davis (1981),
Schein (1990), and O’ Reilly III et al. (1991)).
Indeed, corporate culture is powerful driver of the economy as well as the social
development. Nevertheless, within the scope of the study, this research only
concentrates on analyzing the influence of the corporate culture on the management
accounting innovations, and how this provides managers with information designed to
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support and enrich decision making. In advanced manufacturing environment, new
management accounting techniques are needed by managers (Green and Amankhienan
(1992)). Besides, this research focuses on Techcombank, one of the leading banks in
Vietnam as an example of Vietnamese enterprises. Consequently, I have chosen the
topic “The relationship between corporate culture and the use of management
accounting innovations in Vietnamese companies: A case study of Techcombank”
as a graduation project in the hope that some results and recommendations from this
thesis can become a reference to help further develop a successful corporate culture for
the company.

1.2. Research objectives
The study concentrates on the concepts of corporate culture and the

what is the relationship between the corporate culture and the use of management
accounting innovations in Techcombank? Finally, what are the experience lessons
from building corporate culture in Techcombank in order to achieve the efficiency of
management accounting innovations?

1.5. Scope of research
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Due to time limitation, the research only concentrates on concept of corporate
culture and its relationship with the use of management accounting innovations in a
specific company. It is Techcombank – the best enterprise in banking industry in
Vietnam.
The content of this research is specific information of corporate culture at
Techcombank in two year: 2009 and 2010 and its relationship with the use of
management accounting innovations. From the results of survey and case study, this
thesis might draw lessons for Vietnam enterprises in building and developing their
own corporate culture.

1.6. Structure of the research
The preferable structure of the thesis consists of six chapters. The first
chapter identifies an overview and background of research topic as well as research
significant. Chapter II is literature review that covers definitions and theories deal
with corporate culture, management accounting innovations, and their combination.
Chapter III is research methodology that presents the research methods as well as
data collection. The results are then present in chapter IV, which refer to the findings
from the selected research methods. Besides, it also discusses the experience lessons
for Vietnamese enterprises. Discussion on recommendations and research limitations
is then presented in chapter IV. The last chapter summarizes the key findings and an
overall evaluation for the whole study.


managers in many organizations over the world, especially in Japanese and
American corporations. And until the nineteenth decade, many in-depth researches
about corporate culture as well as its influence on the development of enterprises
were carried out. This is one of the main reasons why there are many different
concepts of “corporate culture”.
According to Schein H.Edgar (2004), corporate culture was considered as
“the system of shared beliefs, values and standards of solving problems, which is
created in the forming and developing process of a corporation and demonstrated
through physical and nonphysical forms and behaviors of its members.” This
concept means that corporate culture is similar to culture in society that includes
norms, values, beliefs and patterns of behavior of each individual in society.
Besides, Rob Goffee (2003) briefly talked about corporate culture in his book
“The character of a corporation: How your company’s culture can make or break
your business”. He said that “a company’s culture is often buries so deeply inside
rituals, assumptions, attitudes, and values that it becomes transparent to an
organization’s members only when, for some reason, it changes.” It implies that
corporate culture is influenced by the internal integrity of the corporation, the
environment and how well the corporation is competing in the market as well as its
effectiveness.
In general, corporate culture, in its true meaning, means “the way we do things
round here”, or behavior. Therefore, organizations of all size posses some type of
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corporate culture, in which every corporation has a set of values and goals that help to
define what the business is all about.

2.1.3. The role of corporate culture in business
The concept of corporate culture is popular on the world. However, in Vietnam,
in the last few years, enterprises have been aware of corporate culture. In particular,
when Vietnam has been an official member of World Trade organization (WTO) in
Figure 2.1: Role of corporate culture in Organizational Commitment

Next, following Olu Ojo (Business Intelligent Journey, 2003), corporate
culture is a key to innovate the way that an organization assesses the employee job
performance as well as organizational productivity. The research showed that
corporate culture brings the change in “binding on all member and staff of the
company as this will encourage uniformity among members of the organization and
enhance commitment and group efficiency”.

Indeed, a lot of authors and researches identify the concept of corporate
culture as well as its role on innovations such as the influence of corporate culture on
organizational commitment (Zahariah Mohd Zain, Razanita Isahak, and Eelane K
Ghani, 2009), the assessment of organizational culture (Teemu Reiman & Pia
Oedewald, 2002), the role of organizational culture in organizational change (Iivari
& Netta, university of Oulu) and so on. However, based on the concept of corporate
culture, this research will mention a different area. Corporate culture play an
Corporate culture
 Teamwork
 Training and Development
 Communication
 Rewards and Recognition

Organizational
commitment
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essential role in innovations in managerial accounting that helps managers make key
decisions.


2.2. Overview of the innovation of management accounting
2.2.1. Definition of management accounting
Management accounting refers to the process of preparing management
reports and accounts which provide accurate and timely financial as well as statistical
information and data required by accounting management agents in a company to
make day-to-day and short-term decisions.
Management accounting plays an important role in organizations today.
According to Chadwick (2000), he said that “management accounting uses
accounting, finance, and management together with the leading edge techniques
required to drive successful businesses.” It states that a management accounting
system is good if it consists of a responsibility to manage a wide variety of critical
information. Consequently, those included the need to anticipate and be prepared to
deal with various ethical dilemmas. 24

2.2.2. Definition of management accounting innovation
In the last fifteen years, some managerial accounting innovations have
significantly developed for application by most businesses. Since the publication of
Johnson and Kaplan’s (1987) Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management
Accounting, “innovations such as activity-based costing/management, the balanced
scorecard, value-chain analysis and economic value-added systems have been
introduced by organizations to improve the quality of information and management
within those organizations.” It means that initiation in managerial accounting is
considered as a new idea by an adopting enterprise which serves as an underlying
design rule for financial and nonfinancial information systems that aid leaders make
decisions to fulfill the objectives of an enterprise (Foster and Datar, 2000). Hence,
the process of adopting management accounting innovations can be beneficial for

that is considered as a platform for leaders to conduct an overview of the entire
internal structure in order to facilitate the control functions in an organization.
Therefore, it is also responsible for offering a scorecard by which the organization’s
overall performance is rated by outsiders.
In conclusion, managerial accounting innovation is the core of any
management scheme. According to Coombs, Hobbs & Jenkins (2005), before any
management accounting innovation, “accounting information is affected by the