Strategic expansion – Guinness Nigeria, management accounting information and upper echelons

Research based on upper echelons theory has examined characteristics of top managers and their effects on accounting choices. In this paper, we show that management accounting information may influence the relationship between top manager characteristics and organizational outcomes. We draw on the historical case of the Guinness brewing company expanding operations to Nigeria in the 1960s. Our analysis of the case reveals some top manager characteristics of the Guinness board members signaled potential for a strategic choice to expand into Nigeria. However, the case also shows that the strategic choice to open a bottling plant was altered based on accounting information to instead build a brewery in Nigeria. This suggests a moderating role of management accounting information within the general framework of upper echelons theory.