Strategic Management Accounting and Its Role in Management Control: A Theoretical Perspective

Abstract

The article elaborates on the economic essence of strategic management accounting, with outlining its role in the management control of an enterprise, and systematizing its functions, principles, methods, and tools. This research topic is relevant due to the increasing role of strategic accounting in management control, because it provides information support for long-term decisions in the business sector: it allows for cost, income and investment analysis, for adaptation to changes and effective implementation of long-term plans; contributes in the rational use of financial, material and intellectual resources, in sustaining competitive edge, in project implementation or modernization of business processes. A review of approaches to interpretation of “strategic management accounting” concept was made, with proposing its authors’ definition as a system for collection, processing and analysis of economic information, designed for setting, selection and implementation of business development strategies by analyzing costs, revenues, external environment and resource capacity of an enterprise, and integrating financial and non-financial indicators for assessment of competitive advantages and business development prospects. It is argued that strategic management accounting lays the information and analytical background for management control. The crucial objectives of strategic management accounting were outlined, which allowed to define its main functions: forecasting (planning), analytical, control, informational, coordinative (communicational), regulatory; its supplementary functions were proposed: assessment, adaptive, motivational. A typology of tools and methods of strategic management accounting was made. Principles specific to strategic management accounting were outlined (with reference to the existence of general principles of accounting): purposefulness, relevance, comprehensiveness, strategic focus, adaptability, effectiveness, consistency, forecasting and planning, control and assessment. It is argued that further developments in strategic management accounting will be driven by global trends such as digitalization of business processes, expansion of eco- systematization, rapid transition to jokers’ era, partial geo-economic fragmentation, and de-globalization resulting from prolonged military actions.