IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/acbsfi/v12y2002i3p461-486.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The rise of cost accounting: evidence from Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Valerio Antonelli
  • Fabrizio Cerbioni
  • Antonio Parbonetti

Abstract

Accounting historians link the origins of cost accounting to the rise of manufacturing firms and, in a more detailed way, to efficiency control, pricing and decision-making problems faced in those organizations. To date, the international debate has mainly focused on practices in the USA, Great Britain and France, with little evidence available of developments in other countries, such as Italy. In this paper, the authors analyse the development of cost accounting in an Italian firm, 'La Magona d'Italia'. This iron, steel and tinplate firm, situated in Piombino, is observed over the period 1865-1940, i.e. during the central phase of the industrial revolution in Italy. We find that several factors influenced the implementation of a cost accounting system at Magona, including efficiency control, strategic decision making, and stock valuation. We also find a strong British influence on Magona's strategy, organization and information system, particularly in respect of finance, managers, technology and accounting practices. There is little evidence that Italian accounting traditions and practice played much of a role.

Suggested Citation

  • Valerio Antonelli & Fabrizio Cerbioni & Antonio Parbonetti, 2002. "The rise of cost accounting: evidence from Italy," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 461-486.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acbsfi:v:12:y:2002:i:3:p:461-486
    DOI: 10.1080/09585200210164601
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585200210164601
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09585200210164601?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hoskin, Keith W. & Macve, Richard H., 1986. "Accounting and the examination: A genealogy of disciplinary power," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 105-136, March.
    2. Alfred D. Chandler, 1969. "Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262530090, April.
    3. Hoskin, Keith W. & Macve, Richard H., 1988. "The genesis of accountability: The west point connections," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 37-73, January.
    4. Hopper, Trevor & Armstrong, Peter, 1991. "Cost accounting, controlling labour and the rise of conglomerates," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(5-6), pages 405-438.
    5. Johnson, H. Thomas, 1972. "Early Cost Accounting for Internal Management Control: Lyman Mills in the 1850's," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(4), pages 466-474, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Enrico Guarini & Francesca Magli & Alberto Nobolo, 2018. "Accounting for community building: the municipal amalgamation of Milan in 1873–1876," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1-2), pages 5-30, May.
    2. Giacomo Boesso & Fabrizio Cerbioni & Livia Mian, 2019. "La filantropia nelle fondazioni: determinismo manageriale vs solidarismo civico," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(1 suppl.), pages 121-144.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carnegie, Garry D. & McBride, Karen M. & Napier, Christopher J. & Parker, Lee D., 2020. "Accounting history and theorising about organisations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    2. Toms, Steven & Fleischman, Richard K., 2015. "Accounting fundamentals and accounting change: Boulton & Watt and the Springfield Armory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-20.
    3. Stacchezzini, Riccardo & Masiero, Eleonora & Lai, Alessandro, 2023. "Histories as counter-accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    4. Glenn Vent & Ronald Milne, 2000. "Accounting practices of the St. Joseph Lead Company: 1864-1900," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 97-128.
    5. Carmona, Salvador & Ezzamel, Mahmoud & Gutiérrez, Fernando, 2004. "Accounting History Research:Traditional and New Accounting History Perspectives," De Computis "Revista Española de Historia de la Contabilidad". De Computis "Spanish Journal of Accounting History"., Asociación Española de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas (AECA). Spanish Accounting and Business Administration Association., issue 1, pages 24-53, December.
    6. Napier, Christopher J., 2006. "Accounts of change: 30 years of historical accounting research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 445-507.
    7. Bryer, Rob, 2013. "Americanism and financial accounting theory – Part 2: The ‘modern business enterprise’, America's transition to capitalism, and the genesis of management accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 273-318.
    8. Trevor Boyns & John Richard Edwards & Marc Nikitin, 1998. "The development of industrial accounting in Britain and France before 1880: a comparative study of accounting literature and practice1," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(3), pages 393-437.
    9. Quattrone, Paolo, 2004. "Accounting for God: accounting and accountability practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, XVI-XVII centuries)," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 647-683, October.
    10. Bigoni, Michele & Funnell, Warwick, 2015. "Ancestors of governmentality: Accounting and pastoral power in the 15th century," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 160-176.
    11. Caroline Lambert & Éric Pezet, 2007. "Discipliner les autres et agir sur soi:la double vie du contrôleur de gestion," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 10(1), pages 183-208, March.
    12. Quattrone, Paolo, 2009. "Books to be practiced: Memory, the power of the visual, and the success of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 85-118, January.
    13. Jones, Michael John & Oldroyd, David, 2015. "The ‘internationalisation’ of accounting history publishing," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 117-123.
    14. Nicolas Berland & Trevor Boyns, 2002. "The development of budgetary control in France and Britain from the 1920s to the 1960s: a comparison," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 329-356.
    15. Quattrone, Paolo & Hopper, Trevor, 2005. "A 'time-space odyssey': management control systems in two multinational organisations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(7-8), pages 735-764.
    16. Lambert, Caroline & Pezet, Eric, 2006. "Discipliner les autres et agir sur soi : les vies du contrôleur de gestion," HEC Research Papers Series 844, HEC Paris.
    17. Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo & Noguchi, Masayoshi, 2011. "The disciplinary power of accounting-based regulation: the case of building societies, circa 1960," MPRA Paper 28374, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Richard K. Fleischman & David Oldroyd & Thomas N. Tyson, 2011. "The efficacy/inefficacy of accounting in controlling labour during the transition from slavery in the United States and British West Indies," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(6), pages 751-780, August.
    19. Lukka, Kari & Granlund, Markus, 2002. "The fragmented communication structure within the accounting academia: the case of activity-based costing research genres," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(1-2), pages 165-190.
    20. Bettner, Mark S. & Frandsen, Ann-Christine & McGoun, Elton G., 2010. "Listening to accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 294-302.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:acbsfi:v:12:y:2002:i:3:p:461-486. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RABF21 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.