6,104 research outputs found

    Management accounting education: is there a gap between academia and practitioner perceptions?

    Get PDF
    A mail survey was conducted of all Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand accredited Tertiary Education Institutions and 300 randomly selected New Zealand companies to ascertain the views of management accounting academics and practitioners on the contents of management accounting courses and the skills and competencies of recent graduates. The results show that practitioners placed an emphasis on traditional management accounting techniques, while academics placed an emphasis on contemporary techniques. Both groups were in agreement on the skills and characteristics required of recent graduates. An interesting finding was the emergence of negative comments on the arrogance of new graduates and an increased need for graduates to be work ready. These two aspects were not a feature of previous studies. The implications of the results are that academics cannot ignore the teaching of traditional management accounting techniques and may need to increase the coverage of the issues involved in implementing contemporary management accounting techniques

    Diagnosing performance management and performance budgeting systems: A case study of the U.S. Navy

    Get PDF
    We present here a case study of an organization within the U.S. Navy that created a new organizational construct and performance management system. We explore the issues faced by naval leaders as they attempt to use their performance information to make resource allocation decisions at the sub-organization level, and base budgets at the organization and service (navy) level. We attempt to diagnose many of the practical problems a government organization encounters when implementing a performance management system, to include trying to inform budgets, and make recommendations on actions that would improve the strength of the performance system. We find in the organization a good conceptual framework, organizational enthusiasm, and reasonable attempts to link disparate information systems into a coherent whole. The good intentions are hindered, however, by inadequate accounting systems, a lack of understanding of cost accounting methods, weak use of terminology and longstanding institutional attitudes. This case confirms challenges associated with both performance management systems and performance budgeting found in the literature, and we offer recommendations for public officials considering such endeavors

    Management Accountant's Role and Functions in the Enterprise Resource Planning Environment - Author's Own Research into Enterprises in Poland

    Get PDF
    This article seeks to answer whether the implementation of an ERP system has an effect on the management accountant's tasks and functions, especially in the field of performance measurement and internal reporting. The ERP impacts on the controller's role in the organization will be evaluated using field studies on six enterprises owned by multinational corporations. The question that should be asked here is whether controller's functions and tasks will also be unaffected.Celem badania jest próba odpowiedzi na pytanie czy zastosowanie zintegrowanego systemu informatycznego w przedsiębiorstwie zmienia zadania i funkcje specjalisty do spraw rachunkowości zarządczej. Na podstawie studium przypadku sześciu przedsiębiorstw będących częścią koncernów międzynarodowych zostaje dokonana ocena wpływu zastosowania ERP na rolę kontrolera w organizacji. Autor odpowiada również na pytanie czy w funkcjach i zadaniach kontrolera nie zaobserwowane zostaną zmiany w związku z implementacją ERP

    THE CHANGING ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS IN A TRANSITION ECONOMY – EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA

    Get PDF
    Recently a number of interventions have impacted the Romanianaccounting system, such as the harmonization with the European Directives,International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and an increased move towardsmodern information technologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)software. In this study we directly explore these influences by applying job offeranalysis as a reflection of current and future organizational practices (Bollecker,2000). We determine the competencies expected from accountants in Romanianbusinesses and ask whether financial accounting and management accounting areseparate specialized positions in Romania, or are they developing into hybrid monistpositions? We conclude that the state of the Romanian accounting profession is one oftransition with some alignment with recent global trends. However, our inter-temporal analysis also suggests a degree of intransience with management andfinancial accountants, whilst sharing some common competencies, still maintaining anumber of attributes associated with the two-cycle accounting system. Finally, weshow that ERP competencies are the more important drivers of the hybridization ofaccountants in Romania.accountants in transition, hybridization of accounting roles, Romanian accountingprofession, two-cycle accounting system, enterprise resource planning, job-offer analysis

    Diagnosing performance management and performance budgeting systems: A case study of the U.S. Navy

    Get PDF
    We present here a case study of an organization within the U.S. Navy that created a new organizational construct and performance management system. We explore the issues faced by naval leaders as they attempt to use their performance information to make resource allocation decisions at the sub-organization level, and base budgets at the organization and service (navy) level. We attempt to diagnose many of the practical problems a government organization encounters when implementing a performance management system, to include trying to inform budgets, and make recommendations on actions that would improve the strength of the performance system. We find in the organization a good conceptual framework, organizational enthusiasm, and reasonable attempts to link disparate information systems into a coherent whole. The good intentions are hindered, however, by inadequate accounting systems, a lack of understanding of cost accounting methods, weak use of terminology and longstanding institutional attitudes. This case confirms challenges associated with both performance management systems and performance budgeting found in the literature, and we offer recommendations for public officials considering such endeavors.performance management; performance budgeting; public budgeting

    Applying Real Options Thinking to Information Security in Networked Organizations

    Get PDF
    An information security strategy of an organization participating in a networked business sets out the plans for designing a variety of actions that ensure confidentiality, availability, and integrity of company’s key information assets. The actions are concerned with authentication and nonrepudiation of authorized users of these assets. We assume that the primary objective of security efforts in a company is improving and sustaining resiliency, which means security contributes to the ability of an organization to withstand discontinuities and disruptive events, to get back to its normal operating state, and to adapt to ever changing risk environments. When companies collaborating in a value web view security as a business issue, risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis techniques are necessary and explicit part of their process of resource allocation and budgeting, no matter if security spendings are treated as capital investment or operating expenditures. This paper contributes to the application of quantitative approaches to assessing risks, costs, and benefits associated with the various components making up the security strategy of a company participating in value networks. We take a risk-based approach to determining what types of security a strategy should include and how much of each type is enough. We adopt a real-options-based perspective of security and make a proposal to value the extent to which alternative components in a security strategy contribute to organizational resiliency and protect key information assets from being impeded, disrupted, or destroyed

    Application of activity - based costing in companies in Poland

    Get PDF
    Findings of the research have both practical and theoretical implications. First, from the practical point of view, future implementers of ABC systems should be aware of factors actually influencing ABC implementation as well as problems which can be encountered during the implementation process. Managers considering activity-based costing implementation may see level of detail and methods of construction of an ABC information model. They may also benefit from the knowledge of how information generated by an ABC systems is actually used by companies. All this may help to make better decision about ABC implementation and if the decision is to implement ABC, it may help to implement it successfully. From the theoretical point of view the research carried out makes it possible to establish a general tendency: modifications in costing systems applied in Polish enterprises and development of management accounting practice such as ABC follows the same general direction as management accounting practice in the world.Wnioski z przeprowadzonych badań mają znaczenie zarówno teoretyczne jak i praktyczne. Z praktycznego punktu widzenia, przedsiębiorstwa rozważające implementację ABC w przyszłości powinny mieć świadomość czynników wpływających na implementację ABC jak również problemów, które mogą się w procesie implementacji pojawić. Menedżerowie rozważający implementację ABC muszą zdawać sobie sprawę z poziomu szczegółowości i sposobów budowy systemu informacyjnego rachunku kosztów działań. Mogą oni również skorzystać z wiedzy o sposobach wykorzystania informacji z systemów rachunku kosztów działań. Wiedza ta może sprzyjać podejmowaniu lepszych decyzji odnośnie implementacji systemów ABC, a jeżeli decyzja o implementacji zostanie podjęta, może się przyczynić do zwiększenia prawdopodobieństwa zakończenia procesu wdrożenia sukcesem. Z teoretycznego punktu widzenia, przeprowadzone badania mogą się przyczynić do określenia ogólnej tendencji: modyfikacje systemów rachunku kosztów w przedsiębiorstwach w Polsce oraz wdrażanie nowoczesnych metod rachunkowości zarządczej takich jak ABC, zmierza w podobnym kierunku jak praktyka rachunkowości zarządczej na świecie

    ABC Diffusion in the Age of Digital Economy: the UK Experience

    Get PDF
    Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been a call for further research to trace the effects of the speedy changes in business environment on management accounting practices. This study assesses the impact of different information technologies on ABC adoption and implementation. It uses a cross-sectional survey of financial directors and controllers in the UK firms. Postal and electronic questionnaires have been used in order to collect the empirical data. The findings revealed that the rate of ABC adoption has shown a number of changes between 1999 and 2005. The proportions of ABC users and those currently assessing it have dramatically fallen. The percentage of firms rejecting ABC has slightly fallen as well. However, there has been a considerable increase in the number of firms that abandoned ABC implementation and those firms that gave no consideration for its implementation. These results indicate a decrease in the popularity of ABC. ERP systems seem to have a slightly low significant impact on the initial decision of ABC adoption in those firms that do not have any consideration for ABC and firms that have an ERP system before ABC adoption. Furthermore, the results indicate that firms use different information technologies in the ABC assessment and implementation. For ABC assessment, general software applications are the most preferable software packages while a mix of different ABC software packages is the most popular in the case of ABC implementation. Finally, the findings of this study provide an indication on the nature of the possible effect of general IT-related problems on ABC implementation
    corecore