Search results for "cost accounting"
showing 10 items of 34 documents
Limitations of rule 23 on the allocation of costs of teaching and research staff in Spanish public universities
2020
In March 2011, the model of cost accounting for Spanish public universities was approved and published based on the CANOA project of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD 2011). This paper focuses on rule 23 contained in chapter 8 of this document, where which regulates the treatment of the teaching and research dedication of university staff (PDI) and the allocation of corresponding cost to teaching, research and management. A reflection is made on certain points where there is the possibility of making different interpretations or in which satisfactory results are not obtained, with the consequences that this entails in the quality of the information and in the comparisons be…
Public-Private Partnership: Transaction Costs of Tendering
2016
Abstract What are the transaction costs of participating in a public-private partnership (PPP) tender? Prior research indicate that there is a significant amount of resources required. However, few researchers seem to measure transaction costs directly. The purpose of this paper is therefore to fill this knowledge gap by presenting estimated transaction costs from both public and private actors. The underlying approach for this research was a case study of a new primary school in Norway. This case was chosen because of the expedient access to detailed information of the tendering process. The main source of data was documents and estimated figures obtained from public and private actors inv…
Cost Management in the Public Sector: Legitimation Behaviour and Relevant Decision Making
2016
This paper presents a case study where a cost management project was implemented using action research methodology at two Finnish organizations working in a purchaser–provider relationship. While the study demonstrates the efficiency-seeking motive behind the implementation of the management accounting tool, subsequent investigation found that tool remained partly unused despite showing its potential relevance for practice through user involvement. However, this does not necessarily signal legitimation-seeking behaviour. Reasons for not using some parts of the tool point to an overestimation of the functionality and an underestimation of implementation problems during the design process. Th…
The role of standard software packages in mediating management accounting knowledge
2006
PurposeThis paper aims to analyse how cost accounting knowledge is mediated in a large multinational organisation employing a company‐wide enterprise resource planning system and off‐the‐shelf activity based costing software to create a uniform profitability management system within the organisation.Design/methodology/approachThe case analysis is informed by the theoretical notions of dis‐and re‐embedding of expert knowledge, expert systems and standards.FindingsThe results indicate that standardised cost accounting software packages may be useful not only because of their superior data processing properties and technical efficiency, but also because of their usability in overcoming resista…
Cost Management for IT Activities: A Case Study in the IT Division of a French Bank Using Activity-Based Costing
2013
The costs of information technology (IT) activities have been increasing rapidly these recent years, due to the technological sophistication and more market-oriented strategies that complexify the value chains of the firms. Many of these expenses do not relate to individual products but are associated to customers, market segments and distribution channels. In this context, the companies try to understand the cost of selling their products and services. This is the reason why customer-driven and market-oriented cost management approaches have gained in popularity.In this paper, we review in a first part the strategic cost management stream and the way we can give a customer orientation to c…
Institutional Logics, ICT and Stability of Management Accounting
2009
The purpose of this paper is to study the institutional logics of how and why two case units in the Finnish Defence Forces have reacted differently to external pressures originating from the State Audit Office to change their management accounting systems. The situation is made complex due to the fact that in military organisations, accountants’ tasks have traditionally consisted of bookkeeping and financial reporting, while management accounting tasks especially (e.g. planning and control) have been performed predominantly by military personnel, who can be called hybrid accountants. The data for this study consists of project memos and interviews with people involved in designing and imple…
Compared Activity-Based Costing Case Studies in the Information System Departments of two Groups in France:A Strategic Management Accounting Approach
2010
International audience; This paper analyses the strategic management accounting concept with an instrumental point of view. We try to show in what extend the ABC developments could be included in a strategic approach of the management accounting and to test if the ABC is a relevant tool to drive the strategy. The first part synthesizes the strategic management accounting developments, which try to improve the Activity-Based Costing method. In the first part, we describe them using the Strategic Management Accounting stream, with a link with cost management and ABC. The second part exposes a taxonomy of the reasons why using the ABC method. In a third part, we confront our developments to th…
A Typology of Cost Accounting Practices Based on Activity-Based Costing – A Strategic Cost Management Approach and a Case Study
2018
This paper examines cost accounting methods containing one or more activity-based costing (now ABC) like dimensions. The research reviews these methods since the early stages of ABC. The objective is to analyze cost accounting proposals with, in part, a philosophy reminiscent ABC. For all the methods examined, ABC is a starting point at least one important component. The research purposes are to analyze the strategic dimension of the methods described and to build a typology useful for managers. Factors of usefulness are considered in the paper. The discussion leads to a four-dimensional typology based on three strategic objectives assigned to the cost accounting systems. The foundation of …
A Comparison Between Japanese and French Cost Management – Contingency and Institutional Perspectives
2018
From an historical perspective, management accounting is a very recent phenomenon (see Johnson & Kaplan, 1987) and is culturally grounded in a few old-industrialized countries, in Europe: Germany, United-Kingdom, France, but also in Japan and in the United-States. Notwithstanding the cultural dominance of English-speaking countries on management, non-English speaking countries keep strong institutional and cultural roots that still influence their ways of managing companies. This is the case when looking at management accounting and more especially at cost accounting and cost management practices (now cost accounting/management). This paper, based on contingency and institutional frameworks…
Pesquisa científica em contabilidade gerencial: estudo comparativo entre Espanha e Brasil
2012
Nas últimas décadas a contabilidade gerencial teve um desenvolvimento acentuado, com inclusão de novos temas e métodos de investigação, revistas exclusivas, e principalmente estudos com perspectivas multidisciplinares. Uma das formas de perceber e entender esse nível de desenvolvimento é estudar suas publicações nas principais revistas. Assim, o objetivo é realizar um estudo comparativo sobre contabilidade gerencial entre a Espanha e o Brasil. Para tanto, foram selecionados 421 artigos de sete revistas espanholas de contabilidade listadas no IN-RECS (Índice de Impacto das Revistas Espanholas de Ciências Sociais), e 245 artigos de seis revistas brasileiras listadas na Capes. Por tanto, anali…