Comparative Analysis of Management Accounting Practices in Australia and Japan: An Empirical Investigation

This paper is based on the findings of a questionnaire survey conducted on large manufacturing firms in Australia and Japan during 1997. The results of the survey have revealed a number of important differences between the two countries. For example, while management accounting practices of the Australian companies place an emphasis on cost control tools at the manufacturing stage, those of the Japanese companies devote a much greater attention to cost planning and cost reduction tools at the product design stage. Further, the Japanese companies seem to have introduced more frequent changes to management accounting practices than their Australian counterparts.