Trends in management accounting in the Asian pacific region

Summary and conclusions The results of this study indicate that the manufacturing firms in Asia responding to this questionnaire are adopting some of the changes in advocated in the "new" managerial accounting. Respondents see increasingly important roles in their organizations for activity based costing, evaluation of value added activities, quality control, and production and inventory control systems, while retaining some of the traditional techniques appropriate for their more labor oriented manufacturing environment. The integration of accounting controls with strategic measures and the use of non-financial performance measures will become more important in the future. Respondents also considered their cost/managerial information to be useful in a wide variety of management decisions. Managerial accounting techniques and practices have changed in response to the challenges of global competition, international markets, technological advances, and complexity of business. Adoption of these innovations by Asian manufacturers suggest a changing role for the managerial/cost accountant. The future management accountant will need to be knowledgeable of production, quality control, marketing, and management strategy. The results also indicate a broadening of management accounting and a trend toward the integration of management accounting information with strategic planning, suggesting the emergence of the integrative area of cost management. This evidence of changes in the practice of management accounting in Asia will also have significant implications for American universities and manufactures regarding the common body of knowledge required for domestic and international management accounting and the future direction of management accounting education.