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Abstract:
Enterprise resource planning systems have great potential for changing how companies are administered. In accepting that premise, this paper has two purposes: (1) to demonstrate the capacity of ERP systems to improve capital budgeting by specifying explicitly the intended impacts on revenues, expenses, costs, asset utilization, etc, and (2) to survey Canadian companies about how their use of ERP systems have affected their capital budgeting, management accounting, and control systems. From the 71 surveyed large Canadian companies, 31 responded for a response rate of 43.7 percent. It was found from the respondents that ERP systems are allowing capital budgeting, budgeting, operating statements, forecasting, performance measurement, and costing to be more detailed, more accurate, and quickly reported. However, it is inferred that the adoption of ERP systems is at an early stage and that there are other unidentified factors contributing to management accounting changes.

management accounting, enterprise resource planning systems, capital budgeting, information technology

Abstract:
This paper examines the impact of financial accounting and ERP system with barcodes on management accounting signs. Latour's (2005) agency-network theory is used with a 1914 to 2005 longitudinal study of the management accounting signs and their referents at a single company, the Hudson's Bay Company. The findings are that financial accounting had a significant impact on the use of management accounting signs by adding abstraction and uncertainty, enabling the entire process to be managed. ERP systems with barcodes allow management accounting to be more precise and more effective. Financial accounting is being replaced by ERP systems with barcodes as the basis of management accounting. The findings contribute a solution to the sign-referent issue by identifying the realities of the referents, social or physical, for the management accounting signs, and revealing that the referents have three dimensions - aggregation, temporality, and uncertainty - that affect the relationship between referents and signs. The findings also allow for the conceptualized of signs and management accounting programs and for proposing hypotheses as to their effectiveness.

management accounting, signs, referents, accounting history, barcodes, Hudson's Bay Company

Abstract:
According to two recent studies, delegitimated institutions (accountants as auditors - Greenwood et al., the Cravath promotion model for lawyers - Sherer and Lee) were displaced by new theorized structures, with the expectation that these replacement structures would subsequently become institutionalized. We argue that rather than fading away, delegitimated institutions may follow one of two alternative paths: structuration (Giddens, 1984), or sedimentation (Cooper et al., 1996). Using a historical case study approach to study management accounting with archival evidence for the period 1670 to 2005, we find both structuration and sedimentation processes occurred. However, delegitimation did not mean all of the management accounting techniques were eliminated. This reflected continued reproduction of existing practices. At other times, new techniques were added to allegedly increase effectiveness. Both structuration and sedimentation appear to provide complementary explanations for the delegitimation of management accounting.

management accounting, institutionalization, Hudson's Bay Company

Abstract:
During the 1990s, the Ontario government revised its funding approach for community colleges and universities in response to escalating provincial government budgetary deficits combined with weak economic growth. Between 1992 and 2004, increases in government funding failed to keep pace with inflation, such that Ontario's per student funding dropped to last place in Canada.

Case studies of two Ontario colleges and two universities were conducted to determine the impact of these changes on institutional planning and budgeting. The motivation was to assess the validity of New Public Management (NPM) principles in explaining the actions and the reactions of the institutions. These institutions responded by adopting more strategic approaches including deregulated programming, better program costing, developing new revenue sources and markets, and seeking efficiencies through larger class sizes, simplified grading, and the use of more part-time instructors.

A revised version of Lapsley's (2008) NPM framework was used to assess the effects of the Ontario government's actions upon colleges and universities. On the surface, the colleges and universities responded largely as predicted under NPM, with structural changes to their general management approach, encouraging entrepreneurial behaviour through financial incentives, and enhancing institutional transparency, accountability, and 'auditability' through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). However, what appears to have occurred was more ceremonial adoption of NPM. Effectively, the institutions experienced change on the margins, and continued to budget and manage much as they always have.

new public management, budgeting, planning, government

Abstract:
A conceptual framework for learning management accounting could not be found with a literature search. Numerous frameworks were found for mathematics, and one in particular was deemed relevant for learning management accounting. Schoenfeld's (1985) problem-solving framework was adapted to management accounting. It suggested four parts: management accounting techniques, resources, controls, and beliefs. Of course the management accounting framework needs to be further tested, but it has the promise of systematic development of management accounting problems and cases. It allows instructors to more systematically assist students in learning management accounting. Moreover, it enables the development of testable propositions on how management accountants perform and how students learn management accounting.

conceptual framework, management accounting, teaching