ADOPTION OF ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE BY AGRO BASED ENTERPRISES IN CHINA -THE CASE OF MEDIUM AND SMALL SCALE PRIVATELY OWNED ENTERPRISES, STATE-OWNED FARMS AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES-

Accounting software has evolved very rapidly and, compared to other enterprises, agro based operations have been slow to adopt accounting software applications. This paper investigates the factors influencing accounting software adoption in terms of the key characteristics of the businesses' manager, accountant and accounting software. Data was collected by a structured survey questionnaire covering 46 agro based enterprises in China. The results revealed low rate of accounting software adoption by these enterprises. Moreover, among the characteristics of the manager and accountant, variables such as manager's age was negatively related to accounting software adoption, accountant's education and number of accountants employed by the enterprise positively influenced the level of adoption. Software characteristics such as software timeliness and software adequacy positively influenced the likelihood of adoption, and software security negatively influenced the level of adoption. Findings of this study have important implications for software developers and vendors.