A comparison of New Zealand and British product costing practices

Abstract

The results of a mailed survey designed to compare product-costing practices employed by New Zealand (NZ) and United Kingdom (UK) manufacturing companies is reported. The study's main findings are that, when company size is removed as an explanatory factor, there appear to be few systematic differences in the product-costing practices of the two countries, although there is a suggestion of marginally less sophisticated product-costing practices in NZ. Widespread use of theoretically deficient costing practices in both countries adds to the growing evidence of a time lag between the theory and practice of management accounting.