In 2022, accounting and finance teams will have the opportunity to increase their visibility and their value within organizations. Management accountants will be at the front and center of this trend, and I believe they are more than ready. While many uncertainties and challenges will be faced in 2022, they will be no match for management accountants. Furthermore, more research effort is required from the point of gaining deeper understanding of the various strategic management accounting techniques. Marketing dynamics (e.g. [62]) and national culture [35, 60] differ from one setting to another, therefore exploring the nature of strategic management accounting techniques that organisations endorse and why are core premises for research. Finally, on the point of performance, reviewed literature documents an obvious gap in the literature from the point of illuminating SMA techniques usage impact along the performance dimensions.

Will Be The ‘Year Of The Management Accountant’

• Market turbulence—a subset of environmental turbulence [47], is defined by Calantone et al. [10] as characterised by continuous changes in customers’ preference/demands, in price/cost structures and in the composition of competitors.
• This study follows the theoretical foundation that strategic management accounting would aid effective management decision-making, and ultimately boost organisational performance.
• He earned his BA degree in accounting from Duke University and his MA degree in business and economics, with a minor in education, from Appalachian State University.
• This section has chapters on EVA (Bouwens and Speklé), inter‐organizational relationships (Kraus and Lind), public‐private partnerships (Moll and Humphrey), and knowledge resources (Roberts).
• Future research should illuminate what strategic management accounting practices organisations are endorsing in the effort to effectively navigate the Corona-crisis-induced challenges.
• “Presentation, education technology, and information technology skills are also critical. Less critical but also important is a knowledge of social media, marketing, and sales,” he says.

Some of the case studies may not age as well and could eventually date the book, but this is a hazard in any business text. Some of the discussions of information technology solutions might not remain relevant either. Comprehensive introduction to the key concepts and methodologies of costing, including budgeting, cash flow forecasting, decision analysis, performance evaluation, and non financial measures.

Managerial Accounting

These experiences can prepare them for additional management responsibilities either in finance or general management. According to Mulling, the career ladder can go in many different directions depending on your individual goals. In fact, he says management accountants often make their mark at companies as vital decision-makers.

Shorter supply chains: US companies set sights on the Americas

In the strategic management accounting domain, there is mixed evidence of the association of organisational structure on strategic management accounting usage. For example, Ojra [58] hypothesised that less formalised organisational structure would lead to higher use of strategic management accounting techniques in Palestinian firms but found no support for that hypothesis. In that study, no support was found for the notion that less formalised structures would lead to higher use of strategic management accounting techniques, both for total SMA as well as for all the dimensions of SMA. Thus, that study concludes that formalisation has no significant influence on strategic management accounting techniques usage in Palestinian firms. That conclusion supports the findings in Gordon and Narayanan [26], but contrast the view in Tuan Mat’s [85] exploration of management accounting practices.

No one accounting control system can be seen as “best” for all situations; rather, the appropriateness of any control system would depend on the organisation’s ability to adapt effectively to the environment surrounding its operations [41, 58, 86]. You’ll be recording and crunching freshbooks vs quickbooks numbers for internal review to help companies budget and perform better. You may help the company choose and manage its investments along with other company managers. Management accountants are risk managers, budgeters, planners, strategists, and decision-makers.

Managerial accountants are not legally obligated to follow GAAP because the documents they produce are not regulated by GAAP. These documents focus on internal company metrics that focus on company performance. Businesses rely on performance measurement metrics to compare their actual results with projections they made during their planning and budgeting phases. Not only does performance measurement help a company course-correct flawed or unprofitable operations, but this crucial benchmark is instrumental in letting a company compare its performance with that of its direct market competitors.

With regard to strategic management accounting discourse, this notion has been numerously supported (e.g. [26, 58, 85]). In their study of Italian manufacturing companies, Cescon et al. [11] found a positive association of perceived environmental uncertainty and strategic pricing usage as a feature of the strategic decision-making SMA technique. In other words, the more the perceived environmental uncertainty, the higher the usage of the strategic pricing feature of the strategic decision-making SMA component. Depending on the type of company, management accountants need to demonstrate expertise in different areas, according to Searle. “In a manufacturing environment, the management accountant needs to demonstrate abilities in lean manufacturing and/or Six Sigma to progress quickly. In a technical field, the professional might need to take on duties in developing systems or managing technical education projects,” he says. He adds that management accountants are often called upon to monitor marketing efforts or act as analysts on special projects.

The research found that for CEBM’s, management accounting serves as an important tool for management control and support, stewardship, performance measurement and decision-making but there is also a need to develop additional accounting tools to support CEBM implementation. The following reports are based on academic research into innovative and topical areas of management accounting practice commissioned by CIMA. They highlight the key findings from the research and their relevance to the accounting and finance community. OJ—the lead author—has made substantial contributions in the design of this study, in the design of the methodological approach and analysis of data, as well as in writing up the conclusions for this study. OA—the corresponding author—has made substantial contributions in the design of this study, the review of literature, the methodological approach and analysis of data, as well as in writing up the conclusions for this study.

To capture the central debates in the SMA discourse, extant literature was reviewed. It is however important to acknowledge that this study may have ignored some literature relevant to the conceptual premise of this study. Finally, although efforts were made by the researchers to ensure validity in this research by adopting an analytical approach that involved thorough reading of literature to ensure valid meaning in the interpretation, it must be reminded that subjectivity is a concern in every qualitative research. Thus, the central foundation in the contingency perspective is that no one single accounting system is universally fit for all organisation in all circumstances (e.g. [41]).

In line with that importance, the call for more effort to enhance knowledge on strategic management accounting has increased over the years. Responding to that call, this study utilised a qualitative approach that involved a systematic review to synthesise existing literature towards understanding the strategic management accounting foundation, contingency factors, and organisational performance impact. Based on the evidence in reviewed literature, we flag key directions for advancing this theoretical premise towards providing further insights that would enable practitioners strategically align their strategic management accounting practices for optimal organisational performance. The contingency framing in this study draws from the theoretical guideline which suggests that both the internal and external environments of organisations should be considered in the effort to advance strategic management accounting literature (e.g. [58, 70]).