End-user control environments and the accounting managers' perceived quality of the applications

Abstract The availability of powerful application developments tools has raised important questions about the extent to which control can and should be administered over end-user developers. This study examines the relationships among four factors hypothesized to be relevant to the control of end-user computing and the quality of such applications. The variables examined were end-user application quality, the extent of management concern about end-user computing issues, the extent of the organizational control environment, and the impact of resulting applications. Management concern about end-user control was shown to have a positive linear relationship with application impact, control environment, and application quality. There was no support for the hypothesis that a more extensive control environment is related to higher application quality.