Michael Bromwich

The case for strategic management accounting: The role of accounting information for strategy in competitive markets

Abstract A review of two economic theories is utilized to provide theoretical support for the greater possible involvement by accountants in what has been called strategic management accounting. One of these theories is concerned with the underlying characteristics of enterprise products. It suggests that there is a need for accountants to consider the cost structure of not only their own firm but of all enterprises in the relevant market and of potential entrants. It also suggests that costs can not be considered in isolation from demand factors. The second theory to be reviewed is concerned with whether a firms cost structure permits its market strategy to be sustainable in the face of potential entry. This theory again emphasizes the intertwining of demand and cost factors and the need to consider these factors simultaneously. The use of this theory allows a new perspective to be taken to cost behaviour which is especially suited to high technology manufacturing.

Decentralisation and Management Accounting in Central Government: Recycling Old Ideas?

This paper examines the Next Steps development from both contemporaneous and historical perspectives. Specifically, it traces the reliance on a distinct model of management and accounting in Next Steps (1988) and its predecessors (FMI, 1982; and Fulton, 1968). This shows not only that there are a series of commonalities within the details of these various reforms of central government, over the past three decades, but also that these various reforms share foundations which are embedded in ‘management thought’ on best practice in the 1950s and 1960s. We identify contemporaneous studies in both management and management accounting which could have informed these reforms, and make suggestions for situationally specific means of improving management and accounting in central government.

Economics in Management Accounting

Abstract This chapter illustrates the importance of economic management accounting research (EMAR) to the development of management accounting, its current state and its characteristics. This review is based on the UK/US literature and the mathematics is kept to a minimum. Detailed presentations of mathematical models are in the relevant subject chapters. After the introduction, the second section considers what might be involved in adopting an economic approach and looks briefly at the criticisms made of this approach. The next two sections survey some of the historical foundations of management accounting that underlie some of the more recent developments. The fifth section considers the ‘birth’ of EMAR, in the 1960s and 1970s, and reviews the development of some of the major research themes from that time and considers their continued promise. The final section considers a few subjects not otherwise covered and sums up.

A Comparison of Historical Cost and Fair Value Accounting Systems: General and Some Regulatory Concerns

A simple and parsimonious example compares the accounting results of two accounting systems in terms purely of aiding investor decision making (buying/holding and selling securities). This article summarises the ideas in Bromwich et al. (2011) though with a slight regulatory emphasis using a different example. A major aim of this chapter is to show that practical accounting models can help the understanding of their utility in predicting the future. A variety of regulators often have recourse to modelling the possible future outcomes of organisations involving accounting simulations and simulated comparisons of the results of different accounting systems. Reconciling the reported results with those derived from benchmark models reveals the deficiencies of accounting systems in supplying information for decision making. Historical cost (HC) accounting is found to perform poorly. Fair value (FV) systems without estimated FVs may perform even worse and may mislead investors but allowing FV estimates increases the subjectivity of financial reports.