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Considerable international attention is now focused on management accounting to deliver value‐adding services that facilitate effective decision making against the backdrop of complex and often unpredictable global structural changes. A review is made of a number of potential opportunities for accounting to contribute to organisational performance, together with a discussion of some possible shortcomings. One conclusion arising from this analysis is that management accounting must become organisationally proactive to ensure its value‐adding role.

Performance evaluation in production and marketing involves the application of a wide range of measures. These encompass the activities specific to each department type and those in which there is a common organisation‐wide interest. The results of a questionnaire survey of 134 marketing and 155 production managers suggest that accounting data have to be supplemented by non‐accounting data to satisfy managers' information requirements. Hence the utility of accounting data in the task of departmental assessment may be limited. Implications for management accounting are that management reporting must recognise these differential information needs, given the premise that performance evaluation is one of the essential tasks of managerial accounting.

Extends the investigation into the nature of the relation between participative budgeting and budgetary slack. The literature focusing on this association can be divided into two groups, the conclusions of which are inconsistent with one another. One camp argues that managers intentionally use participation to create slack, while the other argues that managers, through anticipation, reduce slack in their budgets. In attempting to reconcile these differences, it has been suggested that superiors’ evaluative styles and information asymmetry are two factors which may influence this relation. The mechanism, however, by which they may exert an influence is unclear, since the cross‐sectional evidence also conflicts regarding the nature of the impact of evaluative style and information asymmetry on the association between participation and slack. A field study was conducted to allow an in‐depth analysis to be made. The study proposes that the association between participation and slack arises from a complex process of interactions between the parties involved. Although managers were aware that participation provided them with the opportunity to build slack into their budgets, they did not necessarily attempt to do so for reasons that include moral, ethical and career advancement considerations.

This paper analyzes citations from the first 20 volumes of Advances in Management Accounting using Google Scholar in April and May, 2013.

This study assesses the success of the first 20 volumes of Advances in Management Accounting using citation analysis. Four citation metrics are used. The four citation metrics are: (1) total citations since year of publication until April and May, 2013, (2) citations per author since year of publication until April and May, 2013, (3) citations per year since year of publication until April and May, 2013, and (4) citations per author per year since year of publication until April and May, 2013.

The top 20 authors for each citation metric, the top 20 faculties for each citation metric, and the top 20 doctoral programs for each citation metric are determined. Furthermore, the top 20 articles are determined using two citation metrics and the H-index for Advances in Management Accounting is computed.

Potential doctoral students, current doctoral students, “new” Ph.D.s with an interest in management accounting, current management accounting faculty, department chairs, deans, other administrators, journal editors, and journal publishers will find these results informative.

Responses to environmental uncertainty have included designating marketing units to interface with the environment to enable manufacturing units to operate in conditions approximating certainty. If buffering is effective, the impact of environmental uncertainty should be lower and conditions may be more suitable for a greater reliance on budgetary control in manufacturing than in marketing departments. The objectives of this study are to first, assess if there is a difference in the level of environmental uncertainty between these functions. Second, to evaluate if the relation between reliance on budgetary control and unit performance is influenced by departmental function. Third, since function and environmental uncertainty are unlikely to be perfectly correlated, if environmental uncertainty influences that relation. The results suggest that there is no difference in the level of environmental uncertainty or reliance on budgetary control between manufacturing and marketing departments. Furthermore, the findings suggest that reliance on budgetary control is no more effective in enhancing performance in either unit category. On relaxing the presumption that function proxied for environmental uncertainty, it was found that reliance on budgetary control is more effective in enhancing performance in conditions of low rather than high environmental uncertainty.

Behavioral research in management accounting has made significant progress over the past half century. Although that progress has not often been smooth, it has demonstrated the need to pay careful and close attention to behavioral issues to promote effective organizational functioning. The range of issues addressed has expanded dramatically, consistent with the growth in the complexity of organizations, and the need to manage cross-national operations. This paper provides a review of major findings in the field. It then examines work that reflects on prior literature and puts forward proposals that may contribute to the advancement of the discipline. Finally, it considers some emerging research issues and suggests some conclusions.

Organizations are increasingly reliant on their top management to provide research and development (R&D) units with a strategic focus reflecting changes in their competitive environments. However, little research has specifically explored implications arising from top management involvement in R&D budget setting. This study examines empirically the extent to which such involvement is associated with first, an emphasis on financial factors in setting R&D budgets, and second, with the importance of budget targets for R&D managers. Third, the study evaluates the impact of that involvement on R&D performance evaluation. The results of the research provide evidence of the relation R&D budget setting has to these three factors.

Empirical evidence suggests that competitive advantage is of considerable importance to organizations as global competition, extensive changes in technology, and customer demands intensify. However, little work has been done in the management accounting arena to identify critical organizational strategies that might facilitate it. Following a literature review, this study assesses the extent to which product life cycle cost analysis, customer involvement, and cost management contribute to the competitive advantage of firms. The findings of this research show that life cycle cost analysis, customer involvement, and cost management enhance an organization's competitive advantage, consistent with the study's theoretical expectations. The provision of empirical evidence on the utility of these three variables to the promotion of competitive advantage underscores the need to conduct further research focusing on them in management accounting.

Issues relating to the financial and non-financial performance of firms are attracting considerable research attention. Four specific factors are focused on this paper, namely quality of information system (IS) information, corporate environmental integration, product innovation, and product quality to investigate the extent to which these variables influence financial and non-financial performance. All four independent variables were found to enhance the performance assessed in non-financial terms. In contrast, the results show that product innovation alone influences financial performance. The findings of this study suggest that the efficacy of these factors may be more effectively assessed by evaluating their impact on performance measured in non-financial terms, thereby suggesting that the inclusion of non-financial measures in performance evaluation models should enhance control system functioning.

Domestic refrigerator manufacturers have had to cease their use of CFCs following the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. Two primary substitute refrigerants have been adopted; one being HFC‐134a and the other being hydrocarbons. Given the availability of hydrocarbons and pressure from both the green movement and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, there has been a marked increase in their use. The purpose of the paper is to examine the role of financial investment appraisal methods in the decision processes of refrigerator manufacturers in their responses to the phasing out of CFCs. The contribution made by financial decision tools to their decision‐making processes arising from the CFC phase‐out has not been reported. The decision choices of refrigerator manufacturers is of importance to the issue of whether their responses to the Protocol reflect a strategy designed to enhance long‐term competitiveness, or whether they were in response to immediate pressures to satisfy regulatory, cost and other short‐term interests. To address these issues, field study data were collected from refrigeration and refrigerant companies operating in Australia, Europe, New Zealand and the UK.