Illuminating the darkness: the impact of the First World War on cost calculation practices in British firms

Through a detailed examination, using business archives, of the impact of the First World War on cost calculation practices in British firms, this paper examines, and finds wanting, the claim of Loft (1986, 1990) that cost accounting came into the light in Britain during the First World War.costing, Britain, First World War

The development of managerial control in British firms, c.1880-c.1940

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed a growth in the use of information within firms throughout the industrialised nations. In her survey of this phenomenon in American businesses, Yates (1989, 1994) has stressed the importance not only of technological developments in relation to the office and the growing size of businesses, but also the growth of management ideology. In her study of the tableau de bord in France, Pezet (2009) has drawn attention to certain parallels between developments in the USA and France. This paper explores the extent to which developments in managerial control in Britain mirrored developments in these two countries. It is found that there were important similarities in timing and motivation, though differences in the precise approach championed.information, statistics, budgetary control, Higher Control, tableau de bord

In memoriam: Alexander Hamilton Church\u27s system of scientific machine rates at Hans Renold, Ltd., c.1901-c.1920

In 1901, Alexander Hamilton Church wrote a path-breaking article in The Engineering Magazine, entitled The proper distribution of establishment charges\u27. This article, published in six parts, is generally considered to have been one of the most important articles on the subject of overhead allocation and Church\u27s system of scientific machine rates is often seen as a precursor of work which eventually resulted in the emergence of standard costing. Around the same time, Church introduced his system at Renold, a firm of British chain manufacturers, where it was used well into the First World War. Towards the end of the war, however, the system was gradually abandoned in favor of standard costing and budgetary control. Using archival and published sources, this paper examines the factors leading to the demise of Church\u27s system at Renold and, in so doing, throws light on the between scientific management, organizational change and the development of successful costing systems

Automation and Management Accounting in British Manufacturing and Retail Financial Services, 1945-1968

This article looks at the effects of office mechanisation in greater detail by describing data processing innovations in major building societies during the dawn of the computer era. Reference to similar developments in clearing banks, industrial and computer organisations provides evidence as to the common experience in the computerisation of firms in the post-war years. As a result, research in this article offers a comparison between widespread technological change and changes unique to service sector organisations. Moreover, research in this article ascertains the extent to which the adoption of computer-related innovations in financial services sought to satisfy financial, rather than management accounting, purposes.banks, building societies, manufacturing, computers

The advent of double entry based costing practices in the British engineering industry: Ransomes of Ipswich, 1856-1863

The history of accounting in all countries is punctuated by significant gaps in our knowledge. For Britain, where topics such as cost accounting have been the subject of a substantive research effort, there is still much we do not know. It has been suggested that engineers played an important role in the development of costing during the nineteenth century (Wells 1977, 50), but that such activity occurred outside the double entry bookkeeping system. The lack of relevant contemporary literature and surviving business records has made it difficult to examine the validity of such claims. This paper reviews the surviving evidence from the agricultural implement manufacturer, Ransomes of Ipswich, in an attempt to provide a better understanding of the emergence of costing within the engineering sector during the 1850s and 1860s

Pluralistic approaches to knowing more: A comment on Hoskin and Macve

In the early 1990s, there emerged a growing view, popularized through the pages of important research journals such as Accounting, Organizations and Society and Critical Perspectives on Accounting, that traditional historical accounting research was in some senses inferior to the new accounting history. The term new accounting history encompassed a number of methodologies designed to produce what has become known as critical accounting history. Among these methodologies, the work of Foucauldians, particularly that of Professors Hoskin and Macve, focuses on areas of particular interest to ourselves. We address their literature in some of our work for the follow­ing interrelated reasons. First, we found it difficult to under­stand the precise direction of their arguments concerning the position of human accountability in the development of modern managerialism and the relationship between human accountability and modern management accounting. As Funnell [1996] argued, language can create barriers, and we, like others, found this a factor in our inability to interpret in a meaningful manner the messages that Hoskin and Macve wished to convey. Second, we were keen to encourage an inter­change of ideas between historians of different persuasions. Third, we perceived unwarranted criticisms from critical accounting historians of traditional accounting history. Fourth, certain groups of earlier researchers were categorized, in an apparently derogatory fashion, through the use of labels such as traditional, economic determinist, and economic rationalist

Development of accounting in Europe in the era of scientific management: The Italian engineering conglomerate, Ansaldo, 1918-1940

Utilizing archival materials, this paper examines the case of the Genoa-based firm, Ansaldo, which, by the early decades of the 20th century, had emerged as a major force in the inter-related fields of engineering, shipbuilding, and metal and steel manufacture in italy. following financial problems immediately after World War i and during the 1920s, the company was subsequently taken under the umbrella of the italian state\u27s financial holding unit, the institute for industrial reconstruction (iri), in the 1930s. utilizing lewin\u27s theory of change as a framework for investigating change in management accounting, the paper examines the internal and external factors influencing the development of cost/management accounting at the company. these are also examined against the background of the development of scientific management, both in italy and elsewhere

Public venture capital in a regional economy: The Welsh Development Agency 1976-1994

Between 1976 and 1994 the UK Government’s Welsh Development Agency made 2,304 loan and equity investments totaling £117.8 million. The agency aimed to address difficulties faced by firms in obtaining finance, and such intervention was justified by the market failure and spillover hypotheses. This article assesses the agency’s investment activities against both justifications. It finds that while some investments succeeded, the portfolio’s financial performance was poor, and the agency did not address widespread market failure. Evidence of spillover returns existed, but cannot be quantified accurately across the portfolio. The article argues that the agency’s two venture capital objectives, to assemble a profitable portfolio and to grow employment levels through boosting commercial activity, were incompatible within a poorly performing regional economy. Although spillovers can justify public venture capital in such economies, expectations as to financial performance should be realistic in the absence of an ecosystem that facilitates demand for capital

Accounting and performance monitoring in Tuscany: Larderello, 1836–1858

This study examines the use of accounting for performance monitoring in a new industrial environment, the manufacture of boric acid in Tuscany during the middle decades of the nineteenth century. We provide a background context showing the growing significance of Tuscan boric acid as a source of borax for use in the industrialisation of Britain and France, and how the supply of this product came into the hands of François-Jacques Larderel. However, given the method of financing employed, Larderel was forced into fixed-price supply agreements with his financial backers, which influenced the nature of the accounting system and its use as a means of performance monitoring. We also reflect on possible sources of inspiration for the system utilised from 1836