University lecturers are expected to do some research but it is not always easy for accounting lecturers to find a topic that is publishable – at least in the academic journals and thereby lead to promotion. So when anything new comes along (like ABC) there is a tendency to jump on the bandwagon. This press release, therefore, is a timely warning particularly to management accountants working in academia of the dangers of getting carried away by the need for them ‘to publish or perish’.
1 Can you identify any topics covered in this chapter that you think are of little practical benefit? If so, what are they?
2 Do you think that the professor is correct in arguing that ABC and scorecards have improved profitability? If so, how?
3 What is she implying when she says that ‘…they are vulnerable to the side effects of tactics used to simplify what ultimately remain complex situations and the judgement biases that result from them’?
4 What do you think causes ‘flavour of the month’ techniques to be abandoned?