The effect of contingency elements on environmental management accounting implementation in manufacturing firms in Vietnam

tandardized = 0.292), NVTC (βstandardized = - 0.181). The impact of business environment uncertainty on lower-level environmental accounting practices (standardized regression coefficients of 0.181). This result implies that CLKD is the most important variable contributing to environmental accounting management implementation in manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam. Thus, to promote the implementation of environmental management accounting, the environmental strategy of the business should be the first issue to solve and improve. To do this, the first the enterprises 307 must set environmental objectives and policies, in addition, the enterprises must to providing environmentally-friendly products, and commitment to environmental compliance. The enterprises also must to provide the environmental protection solutions. In addition, to increase the implementation of environmental accounting, the enterprises also need to identify appropriate environmental strategies to adapt to the ever-changing business environment. Besides, the task complexity (NVTC) adversely influences the implementation of environmental management accounting at a significance level of 1%. Therefore, in order to promote environmental management accounting implementation, it is necessary to reduce the difficulties and complexities in the process of implementing environmental management accounting. 5. Conclusions This study sought to investigate the level of environmental accounting management implementation in manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam. Drawing on contingency theory a research framework was developed incorporating the following contingent variables: the awareness of business environmental uncertainty, environmental strategy, and the task complexity. Overall, environmental strategy, the awareness of business environmental uncertainty and the task complexity were found to have a significant association with the implementation of EMA, as perceived by the respondents of the firms in the sample research. According to a sample of 279 manufacturing firms in Vietnam, the implementation of international environmental accounting was just average (3.11 on the 5 point likert scale) and the business only concentrated on collecting information on costs related to the environment. The analysis of information environmental and implementation of environmental reports is low level. The lowest mean value of the observed variables is 2.31 which belongs to KTQTMT8 variable (environmental performance analyses). In light of the results, which suggest many organisations are failing to engage with EMA activities, this research would be valuable to develop a deeper understanding as to why such lack of engagement is the case. The findings of this study show that awareness of business environmental uncertainty, environmental strategy, and the task complexity have a significant impact on the implementation of environmental management accounting in manufacturing firms in Vietnam, at a 1% significance level. In addition, the impact of the awareness of business environmental uncertainty on the implementation of environmental management accounting is positive through the mediating role of environmental strategy. These results indicate that contingency theory have been very useful in explaining the implementation of environmental management accounting in manufacturing firms in Vietnam. According to the results of this study, environmental strategy has the strongest influence on environmental management accounting implementation (the highest standardized coefficient which is 0.385). This result implies that CLMT is the most important variable contributing to environmental management accounting implementation at manufacturing companies in Vietnam. Thus, to promote the implementation of 308 environmental management accounting, the enterprises also need to identify appropriate environmental strategies to adapt to the ever-changing business environment. The task complexity adversely influences the implementation of environmental management accounting, at a significance level of 1%. Therefore, in order to promote environmental management accounting implementation, it is necessary to reduce the difficulties and complexities in the process of implementing environmental management accounting. Thus, the relevant authorities should issue guidelines for environmental management accounting implementation and combine programs to analyze environmental information in the accounting software to reduce their time and effort of the accountant. Notwithstanding the useful insight into factors that influence EMA implemntation, this study’s findings must be viewed in light of several limitations and be careful when attempting to generalise from these results. First, this study is subject to the normal limitations of survey based research (Neuman, 2013), because it is possible respondents in more roles in the present study may be unaware of the full range of environmental activities undertaken by their organisations. The second, given the study was limited in a sample in some provinces in Southern Vietnam, so the research does suffer from geographic limitations. Finally, further research should to develop the present framework through the addition of contingent variables, or the exploration of how the variables interact to influence the implementation of environmental management accounting in other contexts. 6. References Abdel-Kader, M. and Luther, R. 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