Computer management accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Computer management accounting - Essay Example The activities that are managed by organisations are becoming more complex and sophisticated, and so too is the way that these activities are configured for productive purposes. This means that the various component Management accounting is concerned with the provision of information to management, to assist with planning, decision-making and control within the business. Because planning and decision-making are inevitably directed to the future, management accounting often involves making future projections, usually called budgets. Important applications of this are capital budgeting, which deals with the appraisal of investments, and cash budgeting, which deals with the projection of future cash inflows and outflows, and the consequent financial requirements of the entity. Management accounting is also concerned with controlling and appraising the outcome of past plans, for example by analysing costs, and with assessing the economic performance of particular divisions or activities of the entity. Because the demand for management accounting information varies according to the activities, size and management structure of the entity, and because the supply of such information is not subject to statutory regulation or audit, there is a much greater variety both of techniques and of practice in management accounting than in financial accounting. ... Management has, of course, direct control over the information system of the business, so that formal regulation of the management accounting system is less important. II. Evolutionary Theories (Institutional Economics) Hamilton (2001)'s first major work, Evolutionary Economics, was primarily an exploration of the contrast between the institutionalist view of the economy as evolutionary and the classical static and mechanistic rendition. In his work this exploration primarily was conducted through examination of major areas, the institutional theories of consumption (demand), production, and distribution. (Hamilton 2001 p.745). Burns & Scapens, (2000) describe the background of institutional theory as "in recent years there has been increasing interest in institutional theory across the social sciences". They argue that three such theories have been used in the accounting literature see Miller, 1994 namely: new institutional or transaction cost economics see Walker, 1998 ; old institutional economics see Scapens, 1994 ; and new institutional sociology see Carruthers, 1995 Although these theories have different origins and intellectual roots, they share a concern for institutions and institutional change. All three offer insights which are helpful for conceptualizing management accounting change. They insist that OIE provides a focus on organizational routines and their institutionalization and, as stated above, in studying management accounting change we are studying changes in organizational routines. It also provides a way of dealing with some of the difficulties of using Giddens' 1984 structuration theor y in accounting research, and especially in research dealing with management accounting change. (Burns & Scapens, 2000 p.2) Burns &