University Tees: Introducing fundamentals of management accounting in a small business

This case introduces sophomore-level managerial accounting students to pricing decisions. The case also offers an opportunity to discuss the concepts of business strategy, business risk, and cost drivers. Students draw on concepts such as relevant costing, breakeven analysis, and contribution format income statements to recommend price quotes for a small business.¹     

How loan portfolio diversification affects risk, efficiency and capitalization: A managerial behavior model for Austrian banks

The aim of this paper is to analyze how diversification of banks across size and industry affects risk, cost and profit efficiency, and bank capitalization for large Austrian commercial banks over the years 1997–2003. Employing a unique dataset, provided by the Austrian Central Bank, we test for several different types of managerial hypotheses, formalized according to a modified version of the Berger and DeYoung model [Berger, A.N., DeYoung, R., 1997. Problem loans and cost efficiency in commercial banks. Journal of Banking and Finance 21, 849–870]. We find that, although diversification negatively affects cost efficiency, it increases profit efficiency and reduces banks’ realized risk. Finally, diversification seems to have a positive impact on banks’ capitalization.     

Cost engineering and costing in Hawthorn Leslie Shipbuilders, 1886–1915

This research examines cost engineering and costing in a British shipbuilding firm in the late nineteenth – early twentieth century. The firm maintained separate systems of contract accounting, costing and reporting for directors and employed internal data from these systems in performance measurement, the development of managerial incentives and the enforcement of managerial accountability. An apparent gap in the information required to manage the firm in a cyclical and highly competitive industry during a period of rapid organisational and technological change was filled by an informal and personal cost engineering system developed by the shipbuilding manager. The shipbuilding manager's cost engineering system employed a wide range of both internal and external data for use in cost management and in cost estimation, pricing and tendering. Thus cost engineering and costing developed to serve different purposes and developed in different spheres and along different trajectories.     

German managers'' attitudes towards Anglo-American accounting: Results from an empirical study on global accounting harmonization

The starting-point of the present paper are systematic differences between the answers of German corporate managers and professors in an empirical study by C&L Deutsche Revision AG (1995) on accounting harmonization. In this study, managers expressed themselves in all questions more positively towards current German accounting and more negatively towards US accounting than professors. The fundamental assumption put forward in this paper is that these differences are due to differences in the economic interests of the two groups. To test this empirically, hypotheses are deduced with regard to the accounting-related interests of the executive managers. The idea behind the hypotheses is that managers' answers to questions in the C&L Industry Study can be explained by structural features of their respective companies. The hypotheses are tested using multiple regression analysis. The results of the tests show that managers' answers can, to some extent, be explained by the suggested multiple regression approach. However, the answers to the rather general and abstract question (the preferred balance between the true-and-fair-view and prudence accounting principles) are much better explained than the answers with regard to detailed US-GAAP regulations. We must assume that the managers' attitudes towards concrete US-GAAP, which are directly related to corporate accounting practice, are influenced by a multitude of firm-specific and personal factors.     

Accounting and the management of outsourcing: An empirical study in the hotel industry

Interview and survey data have been collected to study the nature and antecedents of accounting systems involved in hotel outsourcing decision-making and control. It has been found that there is considerable cross-hotel variation in the degree of accounting system involvement in outsourcing management. Performance and whether outsourcing decisions are made in the context of a long-term strategic agenda, appear to be variables affecting both the nature of accounting involvement and the degree of accounting sophistication in hotel outsourcing management. Hotel quality was also a significant factor affecting the degree of accounting sophistication in hotel outsourcing. It appears that accounting appraisal of outsourcing proposals rarely include long-term oriented sophisticated techniques such as the discounting of future cash flows. It is conjectured that this may be because outsourcing decisions are not conducted in the context of the formal capital budgeting process.     

中国式卖空机制与高管减持——基于融资融券分步扩容的准自然实验

本文以我国的融资融券制度为背景,结合双重差分模型,研究卖空机制对上市公司高管减持行为的影响。研究发现,相对于非融券标的,可融券标的公司高管的月减持比例在允许卖空后下降22%,这种抑制作用在小规模、高盈余平滑度以及非国有公司中体现得更为明显。其次,成为可融券标的后,股价定价效率提高,高管减持收益显著下降。进一步地,本文将高管的减持行为分为定期性与投机性两类,发现卖空机制显著抑制了高管基于信息优势和股价偏差的投机性减持行为。     

Management Accounting and Service Industries: An Exploratory Account of Historical and Current Economic Contexts

Management accounting's development between 1880 and 1930 was rapid but subsequently truncated. This development was notable for its synergy with coincident economic and social changes and a reliance on impetus from the practical experiences of the members of other disciplines. Since World War II, advanced economies have become increasingly dependent upon their service sectors. The characteristics of service firms differ from those of manufacturers on a number of criteria including average number of employees. The accounting implications of these circumstances may include reappraisal of: the behavioural assumptions of management accounting; the roles of budgets; appropriate budget use styles; the utility of management accounting in ambiguous situations; and qualitative research into organizational contexts.     

Research in managerial accounting: Learning from others' experiences

The purpose of this paper is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of three research methods employed in managerial accounting: experimental, survey and field research. We do this by drawing on the three papers published in this issue of the Journal. These three papers provide the reader with a 'behind the scenes' exposé on the problems, choices and decisions confronted by the researcher during the method phase of the empirical study. The complexities associated with method are rarely reported in published papers nor is there any explanation of why effort is devoted to particular methodological issues. It is, however, important for the novice researcher to recognise these choices and problems, both when selecting a particular method, and in designing a study. We attempt to critique these papers in terms of choice of method and also the extent to which each of the studies satisfies the three 'maxims' of scientific method, namely, construct validity, internal validity and external validity. Our review demonstrates the trade-offs that are necessarily made when designing a research study. There are, however, ways in which the effects of these trade-offs can be minimised and we provide guidance as to how the study design might be improved to achieve this.     

法制环境、管理者能力与企业债务契约

本文从管理者能力的视角出发,选取2010-2018年沪、深A股上市公司为样本,实证分析了管理者能力对债务契约的影响及其影响路径。研究证明:管理者能力越强,企业的债务期限结构越短、债务融资成本越低。进一步研究发现,在不同的法制环境中,二者的关系存在异质性,即管理者能力对债务期限结构、债务融资成本的影响在法制环境较高的地区较为显著。本文丰富了企业债务契约的影响因素,探寻了管理者能力影响债务期限结构、债务融资成本的路径。     

Measurement Matters—Alternative Input Price Proxies for Bank Efficiency Analyses

Most bank efficiency studies that use stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) employ each bank’s own implicit input price when estimating efficient frontiers. But at the same time, most studies are based on cost and/or profit models that assume perfect input markets. Traditional input price proxies therefore contain at least substantial measurement error. We suggest here two alternative input market definitions to approximate exogenous input prices. We have access to Bundesbank data, which allows us to cover virtually all German universal banks between 1993 and 2003. The use of alternative input price proxies leads to mean cost efficiency that is significantly five percentage points lower compared to traditional input prices. Mean profit efficiency is hardly affected. Across models, small cooperative banks located in large western states perform best while large banks and those located in eastern states rank lowest. This paper is the result of a research cooperation between the Utrecht School of Economics and Deutsche Bundesbank. It represents the author’s personal opinions and does not reflect the views of the Deutsche Bundesbank.     

Influence of cost accounting change on performance of manufacturing firms

The purpose is to analyze the influence of cost accounting change (CAC) on the financial performance of Finnish firms. Empirical data are based on a survey responded by 121 manufacturing firms. PLS is used to extract the influence of CAC on performance. The general expectation is that CAC should have a positive lagged effect of performance. However, prior empirical evidence is mixed and usually only a weak influence is found, if any. This study shows that CAC is closely associated with a simultaneous pricing system change (PSC). CAC and PSC are interrelated because product cost usually plays an important role in pricing. PLS shows that CAC has a weak positive lagged main effect on performance whereas PSC has a strong negative effect. The total effect of CAC is insignificant because the positive direct effect is offset by the negative mediation indirect effect through PSC. The result indicates that when assessing the influence of CAC on performance it is important also to take account of the corresponding indirect influence through PSC. The study also shows that perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) has a strong negative moderating effect on the influence of PSC on performance. Thus, the influence of PSC on performance is more negative when PEU is high.     

新旧会计准则下所得税会计核算的比较研究

为与国际惯例趋同,我国对会计准则体系进行了修订,2006年财政部颁布了新企业会计准则。与旧准则相比,新会计准则变化很大,如所得税会计核算,需要根据新会计准则重新设置会计科目进行会计核算,进一步明确了所得税会计信息的披露内容,以最大限度地满足会计信息使用者的需求。     

The Evolution of Standard Costing in the U.K. and U.S.: From Decision Making to Control

Decision making and control are two fundamental components of industrial management that are aided by accounting information. This article traces the evolution of standard costing in the U.K. and U.S. and describes how it has served these two purposes over time. At the start of the industrial revolution, standard costing, in the form of past actual costs, aided managers in make-or-buy, pricing, outsourcing and other routine and special decisions. In the late nineteenth century, as the mass production of homogeneous products became more common, predetermined, norm-based standard costs were promoted as the means to control operations and reduce waste. The use of predetermined costs was recommended by both academic and professional branches well into the twentieth century. Since the mid-1980s, norm-based standards have come under fire for not providing appropriate strategic signals in an era of global competition, continuous improvement and perpetual cost reduction.
This article compares the nature of standard costing practices in the British Industrial Revolution with those that evolved in the U.S. under scientific management. The enquiry is not limited to double-entry systems and, like Miller and Napier (1993), the domain is broadened to include other forms of cost-keeping practices. We utilize primary and secondary sources to argue that the environment and rationales for standard costs have changed fundamentally over time. It is speculated that in the future standard costing will be used far less for individual accountability or operational control, but will return to its decision-making roots in the form of long-run cost targets that benchmark the success of continuous cost-reduction efforts.