Analysis of Strategic Management Accounting: The Emperors New Clothes Study by Beverley R. Lord - Term Paper Example

Strategic Management Accounting Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Critical Analysis of the Research Paper 3 1Summary of the Research Paper 31.2Critical Analysis 5 1.3Implications of Management Accounting 14 2.Suggestions for Improvements 22 Title 22 Areas to Research 22 Research Methods 23 Discussions of the Findings 24 3.Description of the Analysis 25 Approaches of Used in the Analysis 25 Description of the Sources 25 Time-Table 26 References 27 Bibliography 29 1. Critical Analysis of the Research Paper 1.1 Summary of the Research Paper Strategic Management Accounting is generally termed as a management accounting form which is inherently focussed on the issues related to strategic alliances. The concept, to be mentioned is comparatively fresh with its origination that took place during early 1980s. The sole intention of this concept is to develop a relationship between the managerial aspects of accounting with the strategic decisions adapted by the organisation (Inman, 1999). From the initial stage of the evolution of Strategic Management Accounting concept there have been numerous discussions and evaluations regarding the appropriateness and complexity in real life implementations. There were several research papers written in this regard. One of the significant literatures in this case was that of Beverley R. Lord, titled as “Strategic Management Accounting: The Emperor’s New Clothes?” The title itself is a strong evidence of what the literature is actually aiming at. Inclusively, Beverley R. Lord in her literature intended to evaluate the theoretical aspect of the concept and compare its effectiveness with few real life examples. This was due to the fact that the author realised that despite numerous journals, essays and literatures based on the concept there were only a handful of examples related to the implication of the concept. Strategic Management Accounting with its given attributes, uniting the theory of management accounting with strategic planning makes it a complex and debatable concept. Thereby, gathering all the features of the concept and relating it with its implication in a single literature is indeed difficult. However, in the literature, the author, Beverley R. Lord has tried to bring all these aspects together (Lord, 1996). Advantages and limitations of any paper, especially research paper highly depends on the personal knowledge and belief of the author(s). In this context, the author, Beverley R. Lord is a professional acquiring the position of the Department Head of Accounting and Information Systems in the University of Canterbury. Her research interests are concentrated on the issues related to fresh management accounting approaches, the accounting techniques used in different organisations along with the history and education of the accounting concept. Her few recent publications include, ‘Assessing the Implementation of Institutional Change in Local Government: Christchurch City Council and the Long Term Community Council Plan’, ‘Management accounting change in a Chinese state-owned enterprise: an institutional perspective’, and ‘The Glass Ceiling and Women in Accounting: New Zealand Experiences and Perceptions’ (University of Canterbury, 2010). Due to the fact that the concept is complex and wide, it has already been stated that recollection of all attributes in one literature is a difficult task to perform. Therefore, it becomes certain that the literature shall comprise of a minimum level of limitations along with wide ranging information about the concept of Strategic Management Accounting. This paper hereby, will try to critically evaluate the literature or research paper conducted by Beverley R. Lord. Furthermore, the paper shall also try to compare it with other similar research papers with the aim to conclude on the part of its critical evaluation. 1.2 Critical Analysis Issue of the Research Paper Research papers are generally based on a problem or an issue related to the topic. The research paper in this context, i.e. “Strategic Management Accounting: The Emperor’s New Clothes?” by Beverley R. Lord is also based on a certain problem that the author termed to be significant. Beverley R. Lord, in this paper advocated the need of enough real life examples demonstrating the implementation of the Strategic Management Accounting concept. According to the author, there are several literatures and research papers related to the topic. But due to certain reasons they fall behind in providing sufficient information on the pros and cons of implementing the concept in the real life phenomenon (Lord, 1996). Importance of the Issue The base issue of the research paper, as can be easily highlighted is the insufficiency of useful cases or examples in order to elaborate the implementation of the concept. This is a significant issue from both the managerial and the education perspective. The concept, by its nature is entirely related to the practical business phenomenon. On the contrary, case studies as real life examples have always been important for management executors in order to understand the concept in depth. Whether it relates to the marketing dimensions or to the financial approaches, managers have always accepted these real life examples to be of great benefit in order to figure out the pros and cons of its ultimate implementation. Additionally, the real life cases also have a significant role to play in education. Today, when managers are given professional training through various courses, both in terms of theories and experiences, case studies are undoubtedly very significant. Assumptions Research work at its primary stage is conducted based on the assumptions of the author. In this case Beverley R. Lord has advocated the issue based on certain assumptions. The first assumption of the author was that in most of the firms the concept of Strategic Management Accounting was already performed by the management. The deficiency was that the firms did not uphold any kind of accounting methods to record the practise and further relate it with the strategic provisions. Another assumption adapted by the author was that certain preliminary measures contributing to the features of the external environment of the organisation are performed by the operational management team rather than the accounting team. Precisely, the author intended to justify the issue that in the practical implementation whether the management accounting related to the concept of Strategic Management Accounting or not (Lord, 1996). Theories and Hypothesises In this context the author adapted a simple methodology to prove her assumption. It can be clearly revealed from the paper that the research was based on a quantitative theory. In this regard the author had her primary data collected from the former directors of a firm who were implementing the concept practically. She also gathered information for her paper from the managers and other organisational participants related to the research. Notably, the paper was not only concentric on the primary data collected, but it also focused on the part of secondary information. The author, in this regard initialized the hypothesis that the management accounting practice performed by the firm can be whether termed as the implementation of strategic management accounting or not. Furthermore, the data collected by Beverley R. Lord, continued for a year which was a long period of time (Lord, 1996). Data Collection and Analysis Confirming on the theoretical base, the theories used in this research paper embraces certain major defaults and limitations in terms of its implementation. First, the data collected through qualitative method is basically termed to be descriptive without any statistical proof. Next, a major limitation in this kind of research theories is that the data collection entirely depends on the personal viewpoint of the respondents and the researcher. Moreover, the respondents are adapted from a slender environment which may lead to the deficiency of the research program (Creswell, 2003). Achievements of the Goals of Research Work The advantages and disadvantages of using the qualitative research method can be termed as one of the key issues influencing the achievement of the research. In this context, with all these constraints of the respondents and the researcher as well, it is likely that the information generated at the end of the research shall be inappropriate. This in turn shall lead to a misinterpretation of the collected data. In addition, the paper was intended to be highly focused to conclude on a significant issue in order to provide appropriate examples of the practical implementation of the concept. But through the implementation of qualitative research method the sole aim of the paper was slightly misled. However, one of the vital advantages of the method used was that it is useful to relate the studied and examined literatures with the real case study. Additionally, the research paper also gained another advantage of the qualitative theory. With a wide ranging analysis of different literatures, the author was successful to determine certain major factors influencing the implication of Strategic Management Accounting. The Findings of the Research Paper The research paper from its beginning was executed to find out certain significant examples of real life management accounting practices which can be appropriately termed as strategic management accounting. In this respect, Beverley R. Lord granted a small firm to be used as a case study. The firm was based in New Zealand with the name Cyclemakers Group (NZ) Ltd. Analysing the company’s performance and the management accounting practises for twelve months long, the author was able to establish certain findings from the research (Lord, 1996). To be further included, the findings were primarily based on the pre-examined literatures related to the topic rather than concentrating on the main objective which was to illustrate real life examples related to the implementation of the concept. The objective demanded a practical execution while in the paper the research method was primarily based on the secondary research. Moreover, the sample organisation considered was with a comparative constricted perspective, but the findings of the paper were elaborated at a wider view point. This made the paper slightly ambiguous. In this context, the ultimate finding of the paper was mostly concentric on the issue of challenges faced by the organisations in different environments in a wider perspective. For instance, the author incorporates multifarious aspects of the Japanese and the Western management styles that attribute to different economic conditions and challenges. Moreover, the findings highlighted the issues related to the flaws and advantages that an organisation faces while implementing the concept. These obstacles highly depend on size, nature and functions of the firm. The obstacles can also evolve from the external environment embracing competitors and other threats of the company (Lord, 1996). Contribution of the Findings The elaboration of the findings of the paper was somewhat diverse from its sole intention. Therefore, the findings are of limited use to the research. However, to state the significance of the findings or conclusion of the paper, they were apparently useful for further research programs. The findings are also valuable to understand the basic requirements in order to implement the Strategic Management Accounting. Furthermore, the secondary data collected by the author can indeed prove to be significant with the aim to identify the factors which influence the implementation in a wider perspective. Comparison with another Paper In comparison to other similar papers, the virtues and the short-comings of this paper can be manifestly evaluated. As stated earlier, there are many research papers based on the issue of strategic interference in Management Accounting. One such research paper is the ‘New Directions in Management Accounting Research’ conducted by the Management Accounting Section Research Committee. This particular paper was organised with the objective to provide researchers a list of significant issues associated with the current scenario of management accounting concept. The paper had a wide range of research area covering different economies all around the world. Certain noteworthy aspects undertaken by this research paper was the affect of organisational change and structure on the philanthropy of management accounting. Next, it was focused on the affect of strategic decision making on the concept of management accounting system. In order to state the theory and hypothesis of the paper, it considered multiple theories to prove the assumptions regarding the key issues of the paper (Atkinson & Et. Al., 1997). Comparing these attributes of the paper, i.e. ‘New Directions in Management Accounting Research’, with that of Beverley R. Lord, there are certain key differences to be mentioned in this context. First, the research areas that the two papers covered were drastically different from each other where the former covered a wide range of research area, the later, i.e. ‘Strategic management accounting: the emperor’s new clothes?’ was focused on a constricted area. However, this cannot be termed as a limitation of the later since the former paper was conducted by a number of researchers at a superior level. The next difference is that, the two papers had a vast difference in the research methodology. The former paper focused on multiple theories while, the latter was focused on a particular theory which restricted its accuracy at a large scale. Another limitation of the later paper that can be identified in this comparison is in the writing style. The former research paper had a well defined vision of its objectives, theories, limitations and conclusions which the later research paper lacked. This is indeed a major flaw in research paper which affects the clarity and the usefulness of the paper. However, there were certain major limitations on the part of the former paper. First, it was conducted by several authors from different economies and cultures. This led the paper to a certain ambiguity and biasness which the later paper of Beverly R. Lord was free from. Moreover, the wide ranging research program based on three broad categories made the findings of the paper complex and confusing. The later paper did not have this limitation either. It was based on a single issue to provide real life case studies to the concept of Strategic Management Accounting (Atkinson & Et. Al., 1997). Precisely stating, the virtues of the former paper, i.e. ‘New Directions in Management Accounting Research’ can prove to be very useful for the later paper. Since the sole aim of the paper was to suggest the researcher certain major issues of management accounting system, the author could use these three dimensions to justify the aim of her paper. Notably, her paper was presented in a manner which tended to cover all the three attributes of management accounting system in a particular case. This not only made the paper ambiguous but also failed to justify the sole aim of the research. Instead, if the case was only focussed upon any one of the three issues mentioned, i.e. affect of organisational structure, change and strategic making then the examples and the limitations would have been comparatively definite. For instance, the consideration of the third aspect mentioned to relate the affect of organisational decision making and the concept of management accounting could have been beneficial for the later paper. It is due to the fact that the aspect coherently relates with the key issue of the paper, i.e. the implementation of Strategic Management Accounting in real-life practices. Presentation and Clarity of Objectives Presentation refers to the final format of the research paper and is evidently important to evaluate the clarity of its objectives and findings. Therefore, the presentation of an article plays a crucial role in determining the success of the research. Relating to the context, the usefulness of the research paper presented by Beverley R. Lord was also based on its clarity of objectives and findings. Since the paper mostly supported secondary researches, the information failed to justify the key objective of the paper. Moreover, the objective of the paper was based on an issue which demanded a wide range of primary research in order to prove the fact that the management accounting already used in organisations are related to the concept of strategic management accounting. Therefore, the clarity and the accuracy of the paper were slightly hampered with the aim of rationalizing the adapted hypothesises. 1.3 Implications of Management Accounting Management Accounting Issues Despite the flaws in the paper and the incomprehensibility of the objectives and findings as well, the paper can be evidently useful in multifarious prospects. For instance, the writing style of the author and the format of the research paper apparently depict the actual meaning of the Strategic Management Accounting concept. With a wide research of the secondary data collected by the author was able to reveal certain major features of strategic management, which most of the other research papers based on similar concept failed to verdict. In this context, the author quoted the impulse of competition based on the thought of management accounting. Additionally, the author was successful to embrace various factors influencing the strategic decisions and in turn affecting the pros and cons of the ultimate implementation of the concept. For instance, the paper evidently highlights that the implication of strategic management accounting varies from one concern to other. It is due to the fact that numerous factors influence the organisational entity in large. These factors can be active in terms of operations, market share, competency and external environment as well. The external environment in this context, relates to the constraints present as socio-economic divergences. Precisely, the findings of the paper with a wide range of secondary research reward certain definite features of the concept. Likewise, the major attributes of the concept is useful to analyse certain significant factors, which influences the strategic decisions intended by a firm. These factors basically relate to the competitive edge of the market area and the company, the financial status of the firm in achieving a competency level and the key functional areas to help the firm gain its competency. The paper not only quotes the different characteristics of the concept, but also relates them with the practical implementation. It is in this part that certain other factors can be identified that restricts the implication of Strategic Management Accounting. As concluded by the author, implementing this complex philanthropy in real practice is easier for the small size organisations. On the contrary, it becomes slightly hazardous to be implemented in an organisation which acquires a multi-dimensional structure. Learning Outcomes Though the research paper contains certain flaws, but it is quite useful to gain an overall knowledge regarding various factors contributing to the concept. Precisely, the paper has certain learning outcomes which are evidently beneficial to understand the concept of ‘Strategic Management Accounting’ in depth. The paper is a significant one in order to determine the importance of strategic management accounting concept with the aim of developing a certain level of competency. According to the author, the concept is also useful to identify the comparatively powerful cost drivers active in the organisation. The paper in its further discussion perpetually depicts the multi-level characteristics of strategic management accounting. For example, the most important attributes of the concept are that it focuses on the competency factor present in the external environment of the organisation and helps to distinguish the cost leaders from the rest. This particular attribute to recognise the cost leaders can beneficially assist the organisation to determine the opportunities of cost reduction and ultimately gain a certain amount of competency and efficiency. To relate the two concepts, i.e. management accounting and strategic alliances chosen by the organisation, both acquire a major role in determining the actual position and its future perspectives. Inclusively, management accounting states the cost structure and the financial strengths of the company, strategic management accounting verdicts the ability to imply every chosen strategic provision. It also implies the future prospects along with the capability of the firm in relation to the external competitive environment. Importance in the Practical Phenomenon The findings of the research paper to be re-emphasised are: The concept of Strategic Management Accounting is certainly a multi-dimensional concept with a mixed approach of strategic analysis and management accounting The concept provides a clear vision to the competency level of the organisation and its cost structure to gain the advantages of its determined strategies This concept is strongly influenced by the organisational structure The attributes related to cultural diversification, and geographic and socio-economic factors also affect the implication of this concept All these attributes are undoubtedly important from the managerial perspective. Inclusively, the paper can be termed to be successful in providing a better understanding of the concept. It markedly states certain major characteristics of the concept. For example, the characteristic of the concept is to identify the competitive edge of the company. This not only provides an evidence of the organisation’s current position but also defines the future prospects of the business entity. Moreover, the concept apparently reflects these attributes in the accounting form. This certain feature can be useful for the practical implementation to evaluate and analyse the strategic decisions in an accounted format. Additionally, the company can project its future financial structure in the virtue of the Strategic Management Accounting concept. This manifestation can reveal the success factor of the strategic alliances opted by the organisation. On the contrary, the concept is very effective to determine the strength of the company in terms of its finances. It has often been recorded that organisations with a smaller market size opt for a specified strategic alliance by somewhat ignoring its financial structure. Since the strategic decisions are mostly adapted on the basis of competency model of the organisation, it becomes theoretical and the future attributes evolve to be bias and ambiguous as well. But as described in the paper, the concept of strategic management accounting can be useful to remove the chances of biasness and any kind of ambiguity. On an overall perspective as depicted in the paper, the concept can be a useful instrument to reward accuracy and efficiency to the strategic decisions considered by the company (Lord, 1996). Moreover, the findings of the paper are also important for the practical implementation of the concept, Strategic Management Accounting. It is because the paper effectively highlights the limitations of the concept in real practice. As stated in the paper, the concept highly varies from one organisation to another. This variation occurs due to numerous constraints to influence the facts related to the concept. For instance, the organisational size and its operational culture have a strong impact on the implementation. To be more precise, the concept according to the findings of the paper is easier to be implemented in smaller scaled business rather than in bigger organisations. Therefore, it can be beneficial for the smaller organisations where on the contrary it shall make the managerial decision more complex to be implemented. Future Implications The business management scenario in the present era is a complex and most significant phenomenon of corporate. It is accepted worldwide by numerous researchers and contributors, that the modern era is a changing era and is referred as the globalization and modernization of business. This rapid changes occurring in the business scenario is indeed influencing the organisations at a larger scale. In order to keep pace with this ever changing modernization, management concept has evolved to be highly complex and varied including a wide range of factors influencing its operations. One certain factor is the accounting procedures and the other is the Strategic Alliances determined by the organisation (Drucker, 2007). Due to the fact that accounting is a necessary instrument in business management, an accounting concept was introduced to relate the management aspect with the accounting procedure. This concept came to be known as Management Accounting. This concept is used by organisations to formulate financial policies, plan the future perspectives, control and regulate different financial decisions related to investment or mergers or acquisitions, accounting the behavioural factors, and most important of all measure and assess the performance of the organisation. Another feature of the concept is that it mainly emphasises on the cost structure of the organisation comprising of both fixed and variable costs (Chadwick, 1993). With these given role of Management Accounting in the real perspective, it indeed becomes a vital tool for managers in order to control the financial aspects of a business. Considering this fact the organisations in future should be more emphasised on using the approach in an effective manner. To be mentioned in this context, accumulating all the features of the concept and implying it in the real practice turn out to be a difficult task. Hence, the attributes should be analysed separately to attain the objective of management accounting without complexity. For instance, the cost structure of the company should be differentiated from future projections or decision making. This shall increase the accuracy of each attributes and reward an in-depth understanding of the organisational position. After concluding on multifarious attributes, such as the cost structure, investments, profits, etc., the findings can be reanalysed and organised together. Relating the findings with the objectives of the organisation shall provide an efficient strategic design. Hence, the company shall efficiently implement the concept of Strategic Management Accounting. Furthermore, organisations shall also emphasise on the key influencing factors while implementing the concept. In the future perspective, organisations should be more concentrated on the Strategic Management Accounting concept due to certain major limitations on the end of Management Accounting. First, the management accounting procedure is highly biased in terms of financial attributes, i.e. it focuses only on the events related to the financial prosecution of the organisation. Next, the concept is concentrated only on the internal affairs of the organisation and not the external affairs, For example, the financial calculations can state the investment structure or the revenue structure of the company but it fails in stating a significant reason for the success or failure of the company’s performance. On the contrary, the Strategic Management Accounting concept confines the internal and the external affairs with equal importance. It also considers the financial and non-financial attributes of the organisation and relates them to prove organisational efficacy (Smith, 2007). Therefore, the future implications of management accounting should be equally emphasised on the strategic attributes and the financial attributes as well. It shall be undoubtedly useful to keep pace with the growing competition and the changing scenario of the modern business world. 2. Suggestions for Improvements Title With the previous references, the research paper has many limitations in terms of accuracy. First, the title of the paper though strongly impulsive, lacks to relate with the actual context. The phrase ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ in this context refers to the introduction of Strategic Management Accounting as a new tool to the Management Accounting System. Hence, the title depicts an overall perspective to the implementation of the concept. But in the actual context, the objective of the paper was to confine with the practical implication of the concept rather than an overall description. Thus, an appropriate title for the article can be suggested as ‘Strategic Management Accounting in Recent Practises’. Areas to Research The author constructed her research based on a slender area comprising of a single entity in the market of New Zealand. For an individual researcher, it is indeed not possible to emphasise on a wider area in terms of socio-economic diversity. However, considering the demand of the objective valued in this paper, the research should have comprised of more than a single business entity. Therefore, the research area which is more appropriate for this particular research should have been more emphasised to analyse the implementation of the concept in various firms with different organisational structure. Research Methods The methodology used in this paper was a qualitative method and thereby was subject to various limitations in terms of methodology. Qualitative methods are superficially helpful in descriptive research, which is mostly based on available secondary data. But the paper was to be concentric on the practical implementations and examples which demand the research methodology to be quantitative. On the contrary, the analysis of secondary data is also helpful in wiping out the biasness in terms of primary research. Therefore, an appropriate research methodology in this case should be a mixed analysis of both the secondary and the primary data collected. This will not only provide immense information related to the practical implementation of the concept, but also justify with the aid of available secondary data. The primary data collection can be through a survey method of different firms’ management personnel in two different periods. One survey can be conducted at the beginning of a fiscal year, and the other at its end. Survey through this method shall save the time of the author rewarding the predetermined decision and its affect as well. However, to state the primary data collection procedure, sufficient amount of data can be generated by using the online survey through internet or telephone. This shall reduce the constraints in terms of time consumption and slender research area. Conclusively, the respondents of the research can be at least two organisations in the provided research area. Discussions of the Findings The paper, as was discussed previously, had a major limitation in terms of its conclusion. The objective of the paper in this context was to suggest few real life illustrations related to the implication of the strategic management accounting concept. But the findings of the paper were strongly based on the secondary data. On the other hand, the aim of the paper was not concluded in the findings that whether the company used a strategic management accounting or was it merely the management accounting concept in practise. Therefore, the findings must be based on the conclusions of primary data which can be proved by the assumptions of the secondary research. Moreover, the data should be analysed in a statistical and logical manner related to the key objectives. 3. Description of the Analysis Approaches of Used in the Analysis There are several methods to analyse a research paper. It can be through focussing on the themes or sections of the paper to be analysed. In this case, the paper was analysed based on the theme by theme method or the thematic method. This method equally emphasises on both the issues of data collection and analysis simultaneously. This particular method is considered to be useful while analysing any kind of emerging concepts (E-articles, 2010). In this context, the concept of Strategic Management Accounting is an emerging concept and therefore it is suitable to enforce the thematic method to analyse the paper. Moreover, the analysis also considered the study of background reading and it is also a part of the thematic method. With the aim to critically analyse the paper a slight inclusion of comparative analysis was also considered. In this case the paper was compared with another research paper based on a similar topic. Description of the Sources In order to conduct the analysis following the thematic method, a wide range of secondary research has been performed. The secondary research in this case is beneficial due to the reason that it provides wide ranging information in a short span of time. The methods used to collect secondary information were through the scholarly articles, journals and other research papers published in various reliable websites and books as well. Considering the nature of the article and its theme, theoretical information was easily available. Secondary data in this context are also beneficial as they tend to be pre-examined and are already proved in terms of accuracy. Time-Table To critically analyse a pre-performed research paper is indeed a difficult task. It not only requires a better understanding of the concept but also involves the efficient evaluation of the information collected. Therefore, to efficiently evaluate the article, it can be quite beneficial to follow a routine or time table. In this context, a period of one week was taken to analyse the article. In the first day of the time frame, the article was studied thoroughly. The second and the third day were used to collect a sufficient amount of secondary data along with certain similar articles and research papers. The next consecutive two days were used to critically evaluate the article. The next day, i.e. the sixth day was utilised to study various other information related to the concept and its evaluation. The final day was utilised to amend the analysis. References Atkinson, A. A. & Et. Al., 1997. New Directions in Management Accounting Research. Management Accounting Section Research Committee. [Online] Available at: http://miha.ef.uni-lj.si/_dokumenti3plus2/196128/Atkinsonetal.-1997-NewdirectionsinMAresearch.pdf [Accessed December 20, 2010]. Chadwick, L., 1993. Management Accounting. Routledge. Creswell, J. W., 2003. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Method Approaches. SAGE. Drucker, P. F., 2007. Management Challenges for the 21st Century. Butterworth-Heinemann. E-articles, 2010. Formats for Analysis. Thematic Analysis. [Online] Available at: http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/QUALITATIVE-DATA-ANALYSIS/ [Accessed December 20, 2010]. Inman, M. L., 1999. Strategic Management Accounting. Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. [Online] Available at: http://www.accaglobal.com/archive/sa_oldarticles/43981 [Accessed December 18, 2010]. Lord, B. R., 1996. Strategic Management Accounting: The Emperor’s New Clothes? Academic Press Limited. Smith, J. A., 2007. Handbook of Management Accounting. Elsevier. University of Canterbury, 2010. Associate Professor Beverley Rae Lord. UC Spark. [Online] Available at: http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/UCResearchProfile/Researcher.aspx?researcherid=84507 [Accessed December 18, 2010]. Bibliography Bouwens, J. & Abernethy, M. A., 2000. The Consequences of Customization on Management Accounting System Design. Accounting, Organisations and Society. [Online] Available at: http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/research/institutes-and-research-groups/center/staff/bouwens/customization.pdf [Accessed December 20, 2010]. Cooper, D. J. & Hopper, T., 2006. Critical Theorizing In Strategic Management Accounting Research. Cardiff University. [Online] Available at: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/carbs/news_events/events/past/conferences/ipa/ipa_papers/00330.pdf [Accessed December 20, 2010]. Dr. Cheong, F. C. & Steve, No Date. Implementation of Strategic Management Accounting. Community College of City University. [Online] Available at: http://www.hkiaat.org/images/uploads/articles/PBE_Paper_II_Strategic_Management_Accounting.pdf [Accessed December 20, 2010]. Moores, K. J., 1994. Strategic Management Accounting: Australian Cases. John Wiley & Sons. Simon, C. & Chris, G., 2008. Strategy and Strategic Management Accounting: An Investigation of Organisational Configurations. Manchester Business School Research Seminar. [Online] Available at: http://www.mbs.ac.uk/research/accountingfinance/documents/CadezandGuilding2008-MBSseminar.pdf [Accessed December 20, 2010]. Smith, M., 1997. Strategic Management Accounting: Text and Cases. Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More