Article
You will be given a statement for discussion. You are to write a fully referenced discussion in the format of an article. It should have headings and subheadings but does not need an abstract. Use the Harvard method of referencing and ensure the bibliography style is consistent with the citation style. Do not number items in the bibliography. You are expected to use at least five sources from the academic accounting literature. Examples of these sources are given below. Maximum 1000 words (excluding references).
Article
Your employer has a few clients who do not understand what the benefits of using cost volume profit (CVP) techniques might be and whether it is appropriate for them to use it – could they expect to get more useful information by the use of CVP analysis? They are aware that it is mostly used and recommended for businesses to keep track of their performance and wonder if it would help theirs.
While these matters can be explained to client managers, they may have difficulty explaining it to others or the managers in the business may change and their replacements face the same issues. Therefore, in addition to meeting with the client your boss wants you to prepare an article that can be handed to the clients.
The article will explain two matters: (1) the assumptions of CVP analysis and (2) the benefits and issues of using CVP.
You will reference mostly academic articles and must have at least 5 different academic sources. DO NOT reference Wikipedia.
Much of the literature that will be useful to you was published in the 1990’s and the first few years of the 21st century.
Suitable academic journals to browse for this purpose include:
Journal of Management Accounting Research
The British Accounting Review
European Accounting Review
Management Accounting Research
Journal of Applied Accounting Research
Accounting Research Journal
Non-academic journals that may help include:
Management Accounting
Journal of Cost Management
You do not have to, but you may find it helpful to start your research with one of the following papers, as they will have relevant bibliographies:
Norris, G. (2002) “Chalk and Cheese: Grounded Theory Case Studies of The Introduction and Usage of Activity Based Information in Two British Banks”, The British Accounting. Review 34, pp.223-255.
Norris, G and Innes, J. (2002) “Managers’ Views on ABC in An Insurance Company: A grounded theory case study”, Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Vol.6 pp. 57-89
Norris, G. (1997) “The Formation Of Managers’ Views Of ABC And Their Impact On The Outcome Of Its Use: A Grounded Theory Case Study”, Accounting Research Journal, Vol 10, pp. 180-200.
In an article that cites the first article above (Norris, 2002) your citation will look like this. Notice how the articles you read use citations