Abstract
Over the last thirty years management accounting has developed as a practical aid to business managers and as a subject for academic teaching and research. Currently, the management accounting textbooks written by academics describe a coherent set of concepts and techniques which are available to management accountants in practice. Unfortunately, in a number of respects, the practical nature of the subject differs quite considerably from these textbook concepts and techniques. It could be said that there is a gap between the ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ of management accounting — a gap which is quite wide, particularly when ‘theory’ includes the various mathematical and statistical techniques available for financial decision making — for example, linear programming and statistical decision theory. However, contemporary developments in management accounting research have provided a basis for understanding the usefulness of textbook concepts and techniques. This book reviews these contemporary developments.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Copyright information
© 1985 Robert W. Scapens
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Scapens, R.W. (1985). Introduction. In: Management Accounting. Macmillan Series in Finance and Accounting. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18054-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18054-7_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-35932-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-18054-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)