The rapidly changing contemporary business
environment is far more complex; product
diversity has increased, cost structures have
become more overhead-intensive driven by
activities rather than volume, the importance
of non-financial indicators have increased and
the rise of the service sector is phenomenal
(Scapens, et al. 2003). The above complexities
and changes make management accounting a
continuously evolving craft. In these
circumstances traditional or conventional
management accounting techniques are of
little value. Conventional management
accounting and control systems (MACS) such
as budgets, standards, performance
measurement and evaluation, overhead
allocation and transfer pricing, among others,
were all more or less fully developed by 1925.
Beyond this period, until 1988, it is argued
that the pace of newer developments in MACS