Management Accounting (Third Edition)

Author: Authony A. Atkinson et al.
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-08-01
Features: This book is edited by four renowned management accountants: Atkinson, Banker, Kaplan, and Young, and it has the following characteristics:
(1) Novel Content. A significant portion of the content consists of new theories, concepts, and methods developed after the 1980s to adapt to the needs of high technology, the information age, global competition, and centralized corporate power. Examples include activity-based costing, target costing, cost drivers, incentive systems, life-cycle cost accounting, quality costs, benchmarking, management accounting and control systems, and more.
(2) Comprehensive Coverage. It not only includes topics covered in similar works but also offers breakthroughs. For instance, it explores the use of financial controls to manage business operations, integrating human behavior considerations into the design of management accounting and control systems, and strategy.
(3) Emphasis on Practicality. While emphasizing theory, the book also highlights practicality. First, the "In Practice" sections in each chapter reinforce the book's strong pragmatic tone. Second, many topics are highly operational. Third, the case studies in the exercise materials are typical examples of management accounting practice.
(4) High Authority. First, all the authors are distinguished professors, with Robert S. Kaplan (Harvard Business School) being considered a master-level scholar. Second, some content is original work invented, discovered, or created by the authors. For example, activity-based costing, activity-based management, and the balanced scorecard are all joint achievements of Robert S. Kaplan and others. The book is widely applicable. It can be used as a textbook for undergraduate accounting and non-accounting majors and also serves as a reference for training business managers and accountants.