An opportunity to study the technical and organizational impact of management accounting system changes has emerged with companies' adoption of activity-based costing (ABC). This paper provides a structured account of experimentation with, and adoption and adaptation of ABC in General Motors...

Modern cost accounting posits that manufacturing overhead costs vary with production unit-volume, batches of production, and with the variety of products produced. However, many studies fail to find an association between manufacturing overhead costs and activities associated with production...

Strategic cost management is deliberate decision-making aimed at aligning the firm's cost structure with its strategy and optimizing the enactment of the strategy. Alignment and optimization must comprehend the full value chain and all stakeholders to ensure long run sustainable profits for the...

This chapter provides practical guidance to management accounting researchers on the design and execution of field studies that use quantitative data analysis to test or build theory. We discuss common purposes for conducting field research and provide a brief overview of the accomplishments and...

We study the link between firm value and quality management practices by examining stock price reactions to third party attestation that a firm's quality control process complies with ISO 9000 quality assurance standards. We find that ISO 9000 certification is motivated by international sales...

Transaction cost economics predicts that investments in management control will enable risky interfirm transactions. Risk is rarely eliminated, because firms trade off costs of management control and expected costs of control loss (together, the “cost of control”). The resultant solution...