The Management Accounting Profession
Promoting and facilitating the development of the management accountancy profession around the world is a key component of IMAC’s mission.
Management Control Systems
The role of accounting is often stated to be Management accounting, however, fulfils a much broader role in organisations than providing information for decisions. MA provides a framework for planning and management control.
Lean Manufacturing and Quality Control
Lean production management techniques such as Just-In-Time production (JIT), Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS); Total Quality Management (TQM) and Backflush Costing are an important area of MA research.
Life Cycle Costing Systems
Whole of Life Costing, i.e. costing before, during and after manufacturing is considered within a complex and competitive industrial setting is an important area of MA research.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the formal process of measuring and comparing a company’s operations, products, and services against those of top performers, both within and outside that company’s primary industry. IMAC conducts research into the practices of ‘World-class’ performers.
Activity Based Cost Allocation Systems
Activity Based Costing (ABC) is the response to the challenge of complexity. The theory and practice of implementing ABC systems are an important area of MA research.
Customer Profitability Analysis
Methods of finding profitable customers and products are an important area of MA research, as is the area of customer relationship management.
Activity Based Management
Monitoring systems, and the concepts of frequency, timeliness and accuracy, especially in relation to white-collar departments, products are an important area of MA research.
Strategic Performance Management Systems
The linking of financial control systems with process based control systems, and the recognition of how tangible and intangible assets combine in the implementation of organisational strategies that ultimately enhances organisational value are an important area of MA research.
Environmental and Social Management Accounting (ESMA)
Environmental and Social Management Accounting [also known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Triple Bottom-line Accounting (TBL)] is changing the way organisations go about their business. The need for integrated management accounting reports and the impact of climate change and carbon emissions trading on Cost and Management Accounting are an important area of MA research.
Strategic Governance and the Strategic Audit
The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as, the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders, and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs. Issues using ‘leading’ rather than ‘lagging’ indicators, via the Strategic Audit; and the areas of both structural governance and strategic governance are an important area of MA research.
Strategic Thinking
The state of strategic thinking in the current environment, especially in relation to multiple approaches to analysing corporate strategy is an important area of MA research.
Strategic Marketing Analysis
Research is conducted on how concepts such as the product life cycle and product portfolio matrix are linked to managerial accounting techniques such as budgeting and life cycle costing to provide relevant information for strategic decision making.
Product Portfolio Management
As a product moves through various stages of its life cycle, there are differing financial aspects that need to be focused on for competitive positioning. Research is conducted on how a company’s MAS can provide the product managers with decision-orientated information.
Pricing Methods and Strategies
Here research is conducted on pricing decisions in competitive environments. Pricing methods and pricing strategies are specifically contrasted, and the use of such techniques as CVP analysis and linear programming in the pricing area are considered.
International Business Strategies
Here, research is conducted on the role of the management accountant in implementing International Business Strategies. Unique international financial dimensions, especially due to the lengthening of the channels of distribution and the impact of multiple currencies are specifically studied.
Integrated Marketing Communication
The principal ways of communicating with the market, referred to collectively as the “promotional mix” and the role of the management accountant is researched here. The management accountant has a significant role in formulating advertising budgets, especially using specific budget models, and in the difficult areas of controlling advertising outlays and evaluating advertising effectiveness.
The control of the supply-chain distribution function involves a “trade-off” between maximising customer service and minimising distribution costs, and that the management accountant has a significant role to play in achieving this balance. The various management accounting techniques useful in distribution cost analysis and control are researched here.
Strategic Valuation
Here, Business Performance Measures and how these measures are interrelated with the capital structure of the firm are researched. The impact of financial structure on planning performance evaluation is considered, specifically the relative measures (ratios) used in financial statement analysis. The approaches to quantify ‘value’ and ‘strategic value’ for planning purposes are specifically studied.
Strategic Risk Management
Approaches to risk management using short-term (weekly) and long-term (annual) corporate radar systems are researched, in order to determine the health of a business organisation. Bankruptcy prediction models (such as Z-scores) are specifically used in international risk management.
Strategic Scorecards
Research here is focuses on corporate success, and the role of non-financial indicators in measuring and controlling this success. The importance of monitoring both the internal and external environment is highlighted, especially in terms of a firm’s ‘critical success factors’ is specifically considered.
Case Study Research
Here research is undertaken to write a number of specific management accounting case studies for use by members of IMAC organisations.
SMPs & SMEs
Here research is conducted on the range of operational, financing, market, and regulatory challenges faced by small- and medium-sized entities and small- and medium-sized business consultancy practices.