**5. Conclusions**

In recent years, the organizational environment has changed significantly because of the globalization of business, increased competition, rapidly changing technologies and demands for continuous improvement, and more recently as a result of the pandemic crisis and the recent war in Ukraine, all of which have increased uncertainty for companies. In these circumstances, managers need not only more accounting information, but also more timely accounting information to make better decisions and thus achieve their goals. That is why non-financial information becomes relevant in decision-making, and also because it is available sooner and a good non-financial performance may translate into good financial performance.

From the literature review, four hypotheses were formulated aiming to analyze the association between environmental uncertainty, (financial and non-financial) accounting information relevance in decision-making, and organizational performance. It appears that the organizational environment of large manufacturing companies operating in Portugal has a moderate uncertainty, resulting mainly from intense competition and high demands for social and environmental responsibility. In situations of higher environmental uncertainty, greater emphasis is given to non-financial information for decision-making, particularly to the non-financial information related to employees and customers, and supplier assessment. However, in general, managers continue to attach greater relevance to financial information than to non-financial information related to processes, operations, and employees. The same is not true for non-financial information related to the external environment. Our results suggest that in the evaluation of customers and suppliers, non-financial information is of similar relevance to managers as financial information. Furthermore, when greater relevance is assigned to financial information, greater emphasis is also given to non-financial information. Thus, we conclude that financial information and non-financial information are complementary.

Regarding the impact of environmental uncertainty and the relevance attributed to non-financial information on organizational performance, contrary to the results of Hoque and James (2000), Hoque (2005), and Al-Mawali and Am (2016), the data collected did not reveal statistically significant results. Thus, there is a need to understand what additional factors (e.g., contingent factors such as competitiveness, strategy, technology, organizational structure, and organizational and national culture) can influence these variables and have led to different findings.

The implications of this paper are relevant not only for researchers but also for practitioners (e.g., accounting professionals and managers). From the theoretical point of view, the results of this study contribute to theory by validating the findings of previous contingency studies regarding the influence of environmental uncertainty on non-financial information relevance for decision-making purposes. In line with the contingency perspective, non-financial information is more relevant under specific circumstances, that is, uncertainty contexts. Nevertheless, this information should be combined with financial information, given their complementary nature. The results regarding the influence of environmental uncertainty on the relationship between non-financial information relevance and organizational performance, however, challenge findings of previous studies. Thus, further research is needed to examine this relationship, considering also what additional factors can influence this relationship and justify the different results achieved.

From the practical point of view, the findings of this research reveal the need for accounting professionals and managers to provide and use non-financial information in decision-making, namely in uncertainty contexts. In these contexts, given their complementary nature, not only non-financial information should be provided and used, but also financial information. These findings support the implementation of accounting practices, in particular strategic management accounting practices, which collect and provide financial and non-financial information. Some of these strategic management accounting practices are particularly devoted to providing non-financial information on customers, which is considered relevant to decision-making purposes. Therefore, organizations regarding the external environment as uncertain have a greater tendency to use strategic management accounting practices to survive intense competition (Oyewo 2022).

This study has some limitations that should be considered when interpreting the results. A main limitation relates to the instrument used for data collection, the questionnairebased survey, as it restricts the number of questions, prevents the placement of new

questions to clarify certain situations detected, does not allow the respondent to aid in the interpretation of questions, and is not always filled in by the most suitable person. Another limitation arises from the fact it was a "cross section" study. Studies with contingency approaches have been the target of some criticism (Chapman 1997; Tillema 2005). Longitudinal studies using qualitative methods, such as case studies, may help to overcome these criticisms, since these approaches consider the specific context of the organizations not captured by questionnaire-based surveys (Otley 2016). However, "surveys" are needed to make generalizations and thus build a coherent whole (Chenhall 2003; Tillema 2005).

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, R.P. and M.-C.G.A.; methodology, R.P.; software, R.P.; validation, R.P. and M.-C.G.A.; formal analysis, R.P.; investigation, R.P.; resources, R.P.; data curation, R.P. and M.-C.G.A.; writing—original draft preparation, R.P.; writing—review and editing, R.P. and M.-C.G.A.; visualization, R.P.; supervision, M.-C.G.A.; project administration, R.P. and M.-C.G.A.; funding acquisition, M.-C.G.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was supported by National Funds through the FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), I.P., within the scope of the project Ref. UIDB/04630/2020.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **Notes**


#### **References**

