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Blocher, 6e
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Table of Contents
Preface
Welcome-Overview
What's New
Supplements
Sample Chapter
About the Authors


Student Edition
Instructor Edition
Cost Management: A Strategic Emphasis, 6/e

Edward J. Blocher, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
David E. Stout, Youngstown State University
Paul E. Juras, Babson College
Gary Cokins, SAS/Worldwide Strategy

ISBN: 0078025532
Copyright year: 2013

What's New



New Features throughout the 6th Edition:

  • Paul E. Juras of Babson College joins the 6th edition as a new coauthor.
  • Strengthened focus on improving the end-of-chapter exercises and problems—for clarity, clear linkage to chapter learning objectives, and an appropriate level of challenge. Each end-of-chapter exercise and problem is tagged with the chapter learning objective(s) examined in that exercise or problem.
  • Sustainability is now integrated into each chapter, and exercises and problems that involve sustainability are marked with a distinctive icon.
  • The Self-Study Problems at the end of all chapters are now available in Camtasia file form, in addition to Word form (as was the case with the previous edition), via the Online Learning Center. Students can use the Camtasia files to understand the solution by viewing a short video that takes them through the problem on a step-by-step basis and in an animated, narrated fashion.
  • Selected chapters offer increased use of specialized features in Excel.
  • Excel tutorials (one for each chapter) are also now available in an animated, narrated Camtasia file form, as well as Word form, via the Online Learning Center.
  • New section in Chapter 18 on the impact of IFRS on the management accountant's role in management control.

Updated Features throughout the 6th Edition:

  • Real-World Focus: More than 40 new or updated Real-World Focus examples have been incorporated. These boxed features highlight how cost management supports the strategy of real, familiar organizations.
  • Cost Management in Action: The authors also have updated or added many of the Cost Management in Action boxes. These boxed features encourage students to think critically about real organizations by asking them about the relationship between cost management and management strategy. The students have access to the authors' comments at the end of each chapter.
  • End-of-Chapter Material: Over 100 end-of-chapter exercises and problems are either new or revised. Icons appear throughout the end-of-chapter material including Strategy, International, Service, Ethics, and, new to 6e, Sustainability.
  • Enhanced Test Bank: The 6e test bank features multiple-choice questions and problems now linked to learning objectives, level of difficulty, and AACSB Assurance of Learning Standards.

Retained Features:

  • Significant, Integrative Focus on Strategy: Each topic in the text is viewed as it supports the firm's efforts to become more competitive and successful. The unique aspect of this book is that the strategic emphasis is integrated throughout the text, in contrast to other texts which treat it as an additional topic, if at all. As before, using strategy we focus on WHY we cover each topic (in addition to the WHAT and HOW), in contrast to most texts that focus only on the WHAT and HOW.
  • Framework to Integrate Strategy: The Five Steps of Strategic Decision-Making: To extend and integrate the strategic emphasis of the text, the five-step framework for decision-making threads throughout the text. In all but a few chapters there is a short example that uses the five-step framework to show how a consideration of the organization's strategy plays a key role in making the decision that will address the business-related problems presented in that chapter.
  • The Economic Downturn Increases the Importance of Reviewing and Executing Strategy: The economic downturn is addressed in the text, both in the chapters and in the end-of-chapter exercises and problems. The downturn requires firms to place an even greater emphasis on executing their strategy successfully. Moreover, the economic difficulties may require a firm to review and modify its strategy to more effectively compete in the changed economic conditions.
  • Chapter Organization and Part Introductions: There are four major parts to the text:
    • Part 1: Introduction to Strategy, Cost Management and Cost Systems;
    • Part 2: Planning and Decision Making;
    • Part 3: Operational-Level Control; and,
    • Part 4: Management-Level Control.
  • A compelling feature of the text is to include an introduction to each of the four parts to explain the learning objectives of the chapters in that part. Briefly, the objective of Part 1 is to introduce foundational concepts, including strategy, strategy implementation, and product-cost systems. The coverage of cost systems begins with job costing, and is followed by ABC, process costing, and joint product costing/cost allocation. Part 2 begins with cost estimation, since planning and decision making are guided by knowledge of cost drivers and cost behavior. Parts 3 and 4 study performance measurement: Part 3 looks at this issue from the perspective of those who manage operations on a day-to-day basis, while Part 4 examines performance evaluation at a higher level: business-unit mangers who have responsibility for divisions, product lines, manufacturing plants, and whose unit is evaluated as a cost center, profit center, or investment center.
  • Integration of Important Topics: Key topic areas for the course are integrated across the chapters. As noted above, strategy is integrated throughout the text. In addition, accounting for "lean" is included in four chapters as it relates to the subject matter of that chapter. Similarly, Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) is covered both in the ABC chapter and in the chapter on budgeting. ABC appears in most of the chapters in Part 2, as it has a key role in planning and strategic decision-making. Nonfinancial performance measures and the balanced scorecard (BSC) are introduced in Part 1, and then covered as part of operational and management control chapters included in Parts 3 and 4. These are just examples of the efforts the authors have made to integrate key topics throughout the text.
  • Organized to Emphasize the Role of Cost Management Information: In this way, each cost management method/topic is clearly linked not only to the firm's overall strategy, but also to the management function that uses the method.
  • Activity-Based costing (ABC) Integrated Throughout: Blocher uses ABC examples and problem material in cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis, relevant cost decision-making, process costing, and both operational and management control. The SAS ABC software® is also fully integrated with the text, ensuring students' success at using modern cost accounting technology.
  • Excel Tutorials (available on the Online Learning Center): An excel tutorial is offered for each chapter in Word format, and with the 6th edition, also in Camtasia format. This resource provides a context-based means for students to hone their Excel skills. In many cases, the Excel tutorial is linked to Self-Study Problems included at the end of the chapter. The tutorials cover a wide variety of Excel topics, from elementary to the intermediate level, and some at the advanced level. The tutorials are self-contained in that there is little need for instructor intervention other than to provide student access to the files which are available on the Online Learning Center.
  • Brief Exercises (10-12 per chapter): These provide a valuable resource for the instructor to ask short (and straightforward) questions, most of which require a short calculation. These can be used to assess student preparation of the material or to begin the class discussion with some focused questions on the chapter material. In contrast to the questions, the brief exercises focus on calculation; in contrast to the exercises, they can be used in class without prior assignment to the students.
  • Excel Solutions Manual (available on the Online Learning Center): An Excel version of the Solutions Manual is provided for all end-of-chapter problems and exercises. This manual is provided in two versions: an instructor version and a student version. The former contains, for each assignment, background information as well as both data inputs and a worked-out solution/model. The student version contains full solutions for half of the exercises and problems in the text—these are identical to those included in the instructor's file. For the remaining assignments, students are given only background information and data related to the assignment. For these items students are required to create their own model or solution. Thus, instructors now have the flexibility to have assignments for which students prepare Excel solutions to any exercise or problem in the text. Because all input data are provided to students, data-entry errors on the part of students are minimized--all students begin each spreadsheet assignment with the same set of data (and background information) as the instructor does. At the instructor's discretion, completed spreadsheets can be printed or posted to the Web for access by students.
  • Cases and Readings Supplement: The authors have gathered and used many cases and readings in teaching their own courses, and have developed new approaches for using cases in the cost management course (the authors have presented an overview of these cases and methods for many years in conjunction with a CPE session offered each year prior to the AAA annual meeting). These cases and readings are collected in a supplemental manual, Cases and Readings in Strategic Cost Management, available free in digital form to adopters of the text. These cases and readings give instructors an opportunity to explore strategic issues in practical situations. They also provide excellent material to integrate the more contemporary ways of teaching accounting: group work, written exercises, and presentations.
  • Ability to Use for Upper-Level Courses (or the basic MBA managerial accounting course): Many chapters now include thought-provoking assignments based on articles published recently in the Harvard Business Review. These assignments further reinforce in the mind of students the strategic nature of the material covered in the chapter to which the reading is assigned. As such, they serve to emphasize the real-life importance of strategic cost management.

To obtain an instructor login for this Online Learning Center, ask your local sales representative. If you're an instructor thinking about adopting this textbook, request a free copy for review.