Management Accounting in a Dynamic Environment

Whether students pursue a professional career in accounting or in other areas of management, they will interact with accounting systems. In all organizations, managers rely on management accounting systems to provide information to deal with changes in their operating environment. This book provides students and managers with an understanding and appreciation of the strengths and limitations of an organization’s accounting system, and enables them to be intelligent and critical users of the system.

The text highlights the role of management accounting as an integral part of the organization’s strategy and not merely a set of individual concepts and computations. An analytical framework for organizational change is used throughout the book to underscore how organizations must adapt to create customer and organizational value. This framework provides a way to examine and analyze the organization’s accounting system, and as a basis for evaluating proposed changes to the system.

With international examples that bring the current business environment to the forefront, problems and cases to promote critical thinking, and online support for students and instructors, Management Accounting in a Dynamic Environment is no mere introductory textbook. It prepares readers to use accounting systems intelligently to achieve organizational success.

The authors have identified several cases to accompany each chapter in the textbook. These are available through Ivey Publishing:

https://www.iveycases.com/CaseMateBookDetail.aspx?id=434

Cheryl S. McWatters is the Father Edgar Thivierge Chair in Business History and Professor of Accounting at the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Canada. She is editor of Accounting History Review, associate editor of the Journal of Operations Management and Accounting Perspectives, and on the editorial boards of the Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal and the Accounting Historians Journal, among others. An award-winning author and editor, Professor McWatters has published widely in accounting, operations management, and accounting and management history.

Jerold L. Zimmerman is Professor Emeritus at the Simon School of Business, University of Rochester, USA. His co-authored research with Professor R.L. Watts, M.I.T., has received the prestigious American Accounting Association Seminal Contribution to the Accounting Literature Award. The Watts and Zimmerman research, which has come to be called ‘positive accounting theory’, seeks to understand the costs and benefits of various accounting procedures. A founding editor of the Journal of Accounting and Economics, one of the most highly cited accounting publications, Professor Zimmerman has published widely in accounting, finance, and managerial economics, including a number of textbooks in both accounting and managerial economics.