For almost three decades, some have seen Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) as the appropriate response to the problems emanating from a changed competitive and technological environment. Some accounting researchers have seen SMA as implying a greater contribution by accountants to strategy formulation and implementation. Some have viewed it as suggesting accountants move away from purely financial concerns to wider business issues. Others have seen it as an opportunity to make accounting relevant again and to elevate its standing relative to other functions within organizations. This paper will first clarify the strategy concepts employed by SMA researchers. It will then point to the content and characteristics of strategic management accounting that various authors have promoted. Thirdly, we will focus on the method of SMA. This has involved consideration of, for example, value chain, cost drivers and competitive advantage, but has also been extended to embrace a wider range of management accounting techniques which have a long-term, forward-looking and outward orientation. The relevance of these techniques to strategy is briefly outlined. The concluding section will assess the problems of strategic management accounting in enterprise application and make suggestion for further research.
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