The improvement of competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is extremely important to ensure the sustainability of the Japanese economy and local economies and communities. In order for SMEs to appropriately cope with severe business challenges and to improve their competitiveness, it is extremely important for them to utilize management accounting effectively. On the other hand, in recent years, frameworks and methods for the utilization of accounting and management information in SMEs have been developed. Therefore, many SMEs are now ready to utilize management accounting by introducing these frameworks and methods.

Under these circumstances, it is important for researchers and practitioners to deepen their understanding of the current status and issues of management accounting in SMEs in order to effectively utilize management accounting in SMEs and to provide management support based on it. Therefore, we have chosen ``Current status and issues of management accounting in SMEs’’ as a unifying theme.

This study conducts a literature review to achieve two objectives: first, to organize the concept of ``Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)’’ which has been the subject of management accounting research on SMEs and to clarify its characteristics in order to present the need for management accounting research on SMEs independently from management accounting research on large companies. The second is to present the direction of future research based on the management accounting research of SMEs, taking into account the characteristics of SMEs. The second is to present the future direction of the research based on the management accounting research of SMEs, taking into account the characteristics of SMEs.

This paper examines the role of Management Control Systems (MCS) in high uncertainty, leveraging Knight (1921)’s risk and uncertainty framework. It posits that MCS can aid entrepreneurial managers in navigating strategic ambiguities by supporting both causation-oriented planning and effectuation-driven decision-making. The discussion extends Tobita (2021)’s concept, suggesting MCS as a tool for managers to discern and close the gap between their company’s current state and its aspirational future. The proposed hypothesis suggests that entrepreneurs use MCS to evaluate risks, identify opportunities, and craft strategies, thus facilitating long-term decision-making and the expression of entrepreneurship.

Small and medium-sized enterprises: SMEs in Japan generally do not have excellent Management Accounting Systems. This is a typical problem for SMEs. In this paper, the author first explained the Life Cycle Stage Model of SMEs Management Accounting. Second, I explained the Application Criteria for SMEs Management Accounting.In other words, the relationship between the three approaches is shown in a triangular diagram: the first Application Criteria: TQM/Marketing Management Accounting/Information Analysis: TQM/MMAIS approach, the second Application Criteria: Health and Productivity Management approach, and the third Application Criteria: SDGs approach. It was revealed. There, the relationship between the applicable company model and the applied company is explained by calling it the application triangle systems.