Variations in National Management Accounting Approaches

1. Introduction

Two recent books comparing national management accounting environments, one on Europe (Bhimani, 1996) and the other on Latin America (Lizcano, 1996) have highlighted how national approaches vary in this area. In this article we:

1. Contrast this recent awareness of contrasts in national management accounting approaches with the well established awareness of contrasts in national financial accounting approaches.

2. Discuss the ways in which national management accounting environments vary drawing mainly, but not exclusively, on the work of Bhimani on Europe and Lizcano on Latin America.

3. Reflect on the implications of these variations for managers working in an international environment.

2. Comparative national management accounting

An analysis of national variations in financial accounting practice emerged as early as 1911 in a lecture by Henry Rand Hatfield (reprinted as Hatfield 1966). Comprehensive international surveys of national financial reporting practice emerge from the 1970’s onwards. (See for example Price Waterhouse 1973, 1975, 1979”). By contrast the first comparative published surveys of national management accounting practices only emerge at the regional level, and as recently as 1996, in surveys of Europe by Bhimani (1996) and of Latin America by Lizcano (1996).

Both surveys have involved giving experts on management accounting within the country concerned an outline of areas to be covered and allowing them to describe the management accounting environment in their country in their own way. Bhimani covers Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Lizcano covers Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru, together with Spain and Portugal. Altogether, therefore, we have studies of 12 European and 11 Latin American countries, with Spain covered twice. In a review of Bhimani, Birkett (1998) observes that the very concept of what constitutes the domain of management accounting varies between the countries covered. In this paper, we put forward five distinct aspects of national management accounting culture where we believe comparisons between countries can be made:

1. The influence of regulations or official recommendations on management accounting practice.

2. The training and qualifications of a management accounting profession.

3. The impact of one country’s influence on another.

4. Variations between countries in the use of specific management accounting techniques.

5. The objectives of using management accounting techniques.

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