Problem statement: Management accounting is not given enough emphasis, at the board level, as a provider of timely and relevant information to facilitate the execution of good corporate governance. Without management accounting information corporations in Botswana may find it difficult to create sustainable corporate governance. Methodology:A questionnaire was used to investigate the use of management accounting tools by the directors in the target organisations.The researchwas carried out among listed companies on the stock exchange and the parastatal organisations in Botswana. Main findings: Most directors in the organisations don‟t emphasise the use of management accounting in decision making.Management accountants have also failed to provide theinformation at board level. Conclusion:To execute their duties efficiently, directorsmay need to call for more management accounting reports from the senior management level up to the board level and regularly use them to facilitate their decision making. / Management Accounting / M. Com. (Accounting)

Many organisations today are still not making use of Management Accounting tools to assist in providing sustainability information for decision-making and the influence this can have on the financial performance of an organisation. This may have a negative impact on the financial performance of organisations, the result of the number of errors and miscalculations that can occur, including obsolete cost drivers; miscalculated business decisions, inaccurate information and human errors. Without applying Management Accounting tools, managers of organisations may find it difficult to improve the day-to-day operations and to take decisions to enhance the financial performance of their business. In this study, information was collected from interviews to determine whether Management Accounting tools could provide sustainability information for decision-making, and how this would influence the financial performance of an organisation. The research was carried out in organisations listed on the JSE. This study found that Management Accounting tools are important in providing sustainability information for decision-making and in determining how this information influences the financial performance of JSE listed organisations. Furthermore, Management Accounting tools provide strategies that influence decision-making and performance, although decision-making is the responsibility of executives or directors of the organisations. The study also found that Management Accounting tasks are performed by financial managers who focus solely on financial statements and reporting. Hence future research should focus on the importance of devolving Management Accounting roles to financial accountants or managers to enable the organisation to focus on different reports for different outcomes. / Management Accounting / M. Phil. (Management Accounting)

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

A central consideration in constructing a theory of the firm is the divergent preferences of managers and investors. Managers have incentives to take actions (shirk, consume perquisites) not in the best interests of the firm. Accounting reports are a primary method by which managers make assertions about their actions or the results of their actions. Auditing is a mechanism by which managers can purchase external verification of their disclosures. This dissertation develops the demand for auditing in two multiperiod environments. The first environment allows the manager to disclose with impunity. In such a case the manager's demand for auditing depends on the ability of the manager to obtain the cooperative solution without auditing. The second environment permits the investors to bring suit against a manager suspected of issuing fraudulent disclosures. In that environment, a cooperative solution can be obtained without auditing. The results of 16 experiments designed to test the analytical assertions suggests that there is a demand for auditing, regardless of whether or not legal recourse is present. Both the availability of auditing and the availability of legal recourse induces a higher level of managerial effort. The highest level of managerial effort was seen when both auditing and legal recourse were available, despite the prediction that the presence of a legal system would make auditing useless. The investors tended to overbid and the markets with auditing reduced that tendency. Truthful disclosures were generally only seen when legal recourse was available.

Este estudo tem como objetivo verificar se as informações obtidas através dos distintos conceitos e definições de overhead, apresentadas pela academia, possuem as características qualitativas fundamentais (relevância e representação fidedigna) e de melhoria da informação contábil (comparabilidade, verificabilidade, tempestividade e compreensibilidade). Como objetivos específicos, buscou-se identificar se os autores pesquisados apresentam a origem do termo e a sua utilidade, além de verificar qual a abordagem utilizada na elaboração de seus conceitos e definições de overhead. A pesquisa identificou que dentre as vinte e duas obras analisadas que apresentaram definição ou conceito sobre o termo, 55% delas consideram o overhead como sinônimo de custos indiretos e também que, a informação gerada a partir dessas definições não possui as características qualitativas da informação contábil. Os demais trabalhos (45%) apresentaram definições distintas como, por exemplo, despesas relacionadas às pessoas de uma organização ou custos relativos às atividades de natureza preponderantemente administrativas, definições essas que possuíam as características qualitativas da informação contábil. Em nenhum dos trabalhos consultados encontrou-se a origem de tal termo e em apenas um deles, um trabalho de Administração, foi apresentada a sua utilidade. Constatou-se também que a maior parte dos trabalhos embasa a definição de overhead na relação desse com a entidade objeto de custeio, classificada nesse estudo como Abordagem Relacional. / This study aims to determine whether information obtained through the different concepts and definitions of overhead presented by the academy, hold the fundamental qualitative characteristics (relevance and faithful representation) and improvement characteristics of accounting information (comparability, verifiability, timeliness and understandability). The specific objectives sought to identify whether the authors have investigated the origin of the term and its usefulness, and perceive which approach they used in the development of their concepts and definitions. This research identified that among the twenty-two works that had presented the concept or definition of the term, 55% of them consider it as a synonym for indirect costs and the information generated from these definitions does not have the qualitative characteristics of accounting information. The remaining studies (45%) had distinct definitions, for example, people related costs or costs related primarily to administrative activities, these definitions does have the qualitative characteristics of accounting information. In none of the studies the origin of the term has been found and only in one, a Management text, was presented its usefulness. It has also found that most of the work underpinning the definition of overhead relates it to the entity object costing, classified in this study as Relational Approach.

Kwan Yee-fai. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Thesis (MBA)--Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: leaves 42-43.

Abstract In the wake of diversification and rapid changes in market needs, corporations have to deal with ever increasingly strict demands imposed by both customers and competitors that concern prompt supply, complicatedness in manufacturing technology, life cycle of product, and competition from within the industry. To be able to respond without any delay, consolidate their organization, and take control of operation so as to gain the ultimate advantage in competition, local small businesses must have access to a complete set of managerial accounting information that can constantly reflect the operation of each process and the correctness of information, provide strategic basis for decision making, and provide a mechanism for forecasts and advance warnings. However, selecting a set of electronic tool software that is suitable to a business is more important than anything else in gaining advantage in competition. For the present, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is considered the most viable software that can integrate the internal processes of a business to effect business reengineering and connect with suppliers and consumers to achieve electronic information flow for the system. ERP is an integrative system that has been widely implemented in recent years. It has an outstanding purpose: to help plan and manage enterprise resources in an all-inclusive and integrative manner so that the business can achieve high operating efficiency and immediate improvement, reconstruct its strategic advantages, and reorganize and restart itself. It deserves our investigation whether managerial accounting information can, through the effective application of ERP system, provide corporations with prompt evaluations and make decisions for them and bring about tangible benefits in management. Therefore, this research has defined the major purposes that follow: 1. Pertinent information obtained by local small businesses when they initiate ERP can be subsequently used as the basis for evaluations when others initiate local small businesses. 2. Local small businesses, in implementing ERP, find reasonable analysis or solutions for difficulties they encounter, which will enable other businesses in the future that initiate ERP to reduce possibility of making mistakes and costs by planning in advance and taking preventing measures. 3. Understand how ERP after being initiated by local small businesses help accounting personnel enhance their functions in making spreadsheets and carrying out accounting control, and elevate their analytical skill. 4. Understand that after being initiated into local small businesses, ERP can enable managerial accounting information to bring up effectiveness to users or managers. This research, using case corporations as the subjects of study, was designed to understand the impact of ERP after being initiated on the degree of application of managerial accounting information. As to research design, literature review provided theoretical foundation. Methodology of taking grounded theory, part of qualitative research, was taken to understand the actual meaning of background environment of these corporations. Based on the nature of facts, data were collected, summarized and analyzed through questionnaire survey an case depth interview, to find out how a case corporation is related with managerial accounting information before and after it initiates ERP and to discover the support and impact given by an enterprise after it obtains managerial accounting information. The aspects of such an impact can be used by this corporation to improve or adjust its operation and provide corporations that have not initiated ERP or decided to initiate ERP with self inspection and suggestions to shorten the time frame for initiating ERP, reduce wastes on resources, ensure the effectiveness of using managerial accounting information, gain access to more opportunities so as to ensure perennial existence and create competitive edge for the corporation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-55). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

The selection of textbooks used at tertiary institutions in South Africa, in the discipline of Accounting, is an area where there is a lack of published studies. Factors citied by academics for selecting prescribed textbooks are the cost of the textbooks, comprehensive coverage of relevant topics and applicability to the South African context. Other criteria, such as readability, are often not taken into consideration. Students feel that the prescribed textbooks are prescribed for the wrong reasons and find them difficult to read and learn from. The research reviews the Managerial Accounting and Finance (MAF) textbooks used at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and other universities. Observations about the textbooks, from staff and students are considered from interviews. / Thesis (M.Ed. (Department of Education)) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

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