pandemic by making effective policies to combat
economic recession. The country has made
several economic and structural reforms in the
beginning of the year 2021 which include
permitting 100% ownership in some sectors to
foreign investors, no sales tax or (VAT); no
personal income tax or property tax; allowing
carry forward losses indefinitely; tax incentives
on investments made in undeveloped provinces
for 10-year, providing interest-free loans upto SR
3 million, exemption from import tariffs of spare
parts, raw materials, and plant machinery. All
these reforms were also appreciated by
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD). Such reforms augment the
number of companies and make the very
competitive environment in KSA. Each and
every company would like to make continuous
innovation to survive amid heavily competitive
market. To pace up with innovation, companies
are using different information systems to like
management information system (MIS),
Transaction processing system (TPS), Executive
support system (ESS), and accounting
information system (AIS).
Accounting Information System (AIS) includes
all the tools and systems that are created for the
collecting and display of accounting information
(Esmeray, 2016). It is a discipline that
incorporates information systems, generally
construed, with theory and practice in accounting
and auditing. The related disciplines of MIS and
computer science, accounting, auditing, other
business disciplines like management and
marketing, as well as the fields of economics,
psychology, sociology, philosophy, and history,
are all used by AIS in this process (Trabulsi,
2018).
AIS is the instrument that help firms to develop
a competitive advantage. A company utilises an
AIS framework to gather, organise, process,
retrieve, and report its financial data so that
auditors, business analysts, managers, chief
financial officers (CFOs), regulators, and tax
authorities may use it. (Salehi et al, 2015). The
primary task of AIS is to collect and store data
about an organization's financial activities
efficiently and effectively. This includes
gathering transaction data from source
documents and recording transactions. Besides,
another function is to provide data that may be
used to make decisions, such as creating financial
reports, managerial reports, and ensuring that
controls are in place for proper data recording
and processing (Nizar, Ahmad, & Mohamad,
2016).
The concept of AIS has recently increased
attention from executives because it is beneficial
in the overall performance by boosting the
morale of employees, speeding up the task,
reducing the complaints. It has been one of the
key areas of accounting research. However,
empirical studies of AIS in the context of KSA
have been almost negligible. Considering
theoretical and contextual gaps on how AIS
affects firm performance, this study made an
attempt to test the implications of AIS on
corporate governance, profitability, and
customer satisfaction by collecting data through
online surveys from the top level managers,
conducted statistical analysis using regression
technique and discussed outcomes of the study.
This research was divided into many sections:
introduction, literature review, research gap,
objectives and hypotheses, research
methodology, results and discussions, and
conclusion.
Literature Review
Samuel (2013) used interview to examine the
role played by AIS in the effectiveness of
organization. The sample size was managers
working in automobile companies in Kenya. It
was found that AIS helps in making effective
decisions, higher productivity which reduced
costs, more profits due to higher sales, and
maintaining better coordination among different
departments. Neogy (2014) conducted a research
on two mobile telecommunication companies in
Bangladesh from 2008 to 2012. Data was
collected from high level executives including
Chartered Accountants and Cost and
Management Accountants. Chi square test was
used for analyzing data. It was revealed that AIS
gives opportunities for the selected
telecommunication companies to perform the
accounting functions more effectively and
efficiently and helps in the prevention of frauds.
Odero (2014) analyzed the relationship between
AIS quality and financial performance by
collecting data through questionnaires in Nairobi
County. The sample included 50 small and
medium business enterprises chosen from
different sectors. Binary logistic regression was
used to test the proposed relationship. The study
highlighted a positive relationship between the
quality of accounting information system and
ROI (proxy variable of financial performance) of
SMES in Nairobi County. The researcher
suggested for using computerized AIS for all
enterprises in the county to save time and to
enhance operational efficiency, reliability, and
for overall growth in the firms.