Enacting a European supply chain: a case study on the role of management accounting

This study reports on an action research project carried out in two non-Japanese, UK manufacturing companies which were considering the establishment of a strategic supply partnership. In the assembler company, materials constituted 80% of manufacturing costs with the result that managing supply chain costs has become a most critical element in overall cost control. The company was seeking closer ties involving information sharing and R&D collaboration with suppliers of strategic components. On its part, the supplier wished to move towards the level of co-operation and trust which the two companies had realized in their US operations. The participation of the researchers as neutral intermediaries between the two companies gave them an opportunity to analyse the role of management accounting in the construction of a strategic partnership. The constitutional role of accounting is highlighted together with the need to develop costing and performance measurement technologies that can be understood and respected by both senior managers and non-accountants involved in the procurement process.

[1]  R. Scapens.  Researching management accounting practice: The role of case study methods , 1990 .

[2]  C. Eden,et al.  Action Research for Management Research , 1996 .

[3]  B. Williams,et al.  Operations management. , 2001, Optometry.

[4]  Thomas H. Johnson,et al.  Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting , 1987 .

[5]  Jayant V. Saraph,et al.  Activity-Based Costing for Purchasing Managers’ Cost and Pricing Determinations , 1995 .

[6]  L. Ellram.  Supply‐Chain Management: The Industrial Organisation Perspective , 1991 .

[7]  David J. Teece,et al.  Towards an economic theory of the multiproduct firm , 1982 .

[8]  木下 毅.  Ian R.Macneil:The New Social Contract--An Inquiry into Modern Contractual Relations,1980 , 1985 .

[9]  D. Teece.  Competition, Cooperation, and Innovation Organizational Arrangements for Regimes of Rapid Technological Progress , 1992 .

[10]  R. Kaplan,et al.  PUTTING THE BALANCED SCORECARD TO WORK , 1993 .

[11]  W. Dugger.  The Economic Institutions of Capitalism , 1987 .

[12]  Mari Sako,et al.  Price, Quality and Trust: Inter-firm Relations in Britain and Japan , 1992 .

[13]  K. Weick.  The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[14]  R. Kaplan.  Innovation Action Research: Creating New Management Theory and Practice , 1998 .

[15]  Ian R. Macneil.  The new social contract: An inquiry into modern contractual relations , 1980 .

[16]  Miles B. Gietzmann,et al.  Incomplete contracts and the make or buy decision: Governance design and attainable flexibility , 1996 .

[17]  Shan Rajagopal,et al.  Cost Containment Strategies: Challenges for Strategic Purchasing in the 1990s , 1993 .

[18]  C. Harland.  Supply Chain Management: Relationships, Chains and Networks , 1996 .

[19]  Anthony J. Berry,et al.  Case study research in management accounting and control , 1994 .

[20]  R. Kaplan,et al.  The balanced scorecard--measures that drive performance. , 2015, Harvard business review.

[21]  Jørn K. Rognes,et al.  Negotiating Cooperative Supplier Relationships: A Planning Framework , 1995 .

[22]  R. Coase.  The Nature of the Firm , 1937 .

[23]  Robert J. Swieringa,et al.  Organizational views of transfer pricing , 1982 .

[24]  W. Seal,et al.  Accounting and trust in the enabling of long‐term relations , 1997 .

[25]  Chris Carr,et al.  Total cost control: Nissan and its U.K. supplier partnerships , 1995 .

[26]  R. Kaplan,et al.  Using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system , 1996 .