Effect of product mix and technology on responsibility accounting, account proliferation and product unbundling in the Texas utility industry
Abstract
This study investigates how heterogeneity of product mix and production technology affects the use of responsibility accounting practices, the “unbundling” of products for cost management purposes, and the practice of increasing the number of expense accounts to create homogeneous cost pools. To test these relation‐ships, data were gathered from 31 Texas electric utilities. Analyses find that the more heterogeneous the products offered and the more diverse the production technologies employed, the greater the degree of product unbundling (subdividing products for the purposes of collecting and reporting costs), the more cost centers, and the greater the number of expense accounts.
Keywords
Citation
Dowd, J.E. (2001), "Effect of product mix and technology on responsibility accounting, account proliferation and product unbundling in the Texas utility industry", Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 76-87. https://doi.org/10.1108/02686900110365409
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited