This paper investigates the Italian contribution to the development of management accounting. The old tradition of Italian accounting studies is known all over the world. It is probable that the most famous event in this field in the Middle ages was the discovery of the double-entry bookkeeping system, attributed to Fra Luca Paciolo, who in 1494 in Venice, published the famous book “Summa”. However, at the end of the nineteenth century, other authors such as Besta, Zappa, D’Ippoloito and Amodeo gave a clear message, and pushed for the development of accounting. In particular, the branch was devoted to setting-up techniques to control the firm in giving the right information during the decision process. In Italy in the 1930’s there was a long debate on the role and systems for financial accounting. In the end, the ‘sistema del reddito’ (income system), that was developed by Zappa, was generally adopted, replacing the older “sistema patrimoniale” (patrimonial sytem). Thanks to the hard work of these authors, it was not long before, a parallel system for management accounting, separated by the financial system, was defined for obvious reasons of control. There was however even more contributions from the Italians, even if sometime they arrived a little later compared to their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. Some examples can be seen in the studies on budgeting and forecasting, business plans, variance analysis, non-financial performance, processes and activities and firms’ values to name just a few. After discussions on these themes, an Italian case study of the FNM railways will be presented, along with a synthetic analysis of some relevant steps of its management accounting system from the beginning in 1877 to present day.

The origins of management accounting in Italy. Analysis of the case study of the Ferrovie Nord Milano.

ROFFIA, Paolo
2002-01-01

Abstract

This paper investigates the Italian contribution to the development of management accounting. The old tradition of Italian accounting studies is known all over the world. It is probable that the most famous event in this field in the Middle ages was the discovery of the double-entry bookkeeping system, attributed to Fra Luca Paciolo, who in 1494 in Venice, published the famous book “Summa”. However, at the end of the nineteenth century, other authors such as Besta, Zappa, D’Ippoloito and Amodeo gave a clear message, and pushed for the development of accounting. In particular, the branch was devoted to setting-up techniques to control the firm in giving the right information during the decision process. In Italy in the 1930’s there was a long debate on the role and systems for financial accounting. In the end, the ‘sistema del reddito’ (income system), that was developed by Zappa, was generally adopted, replacing the older “sistema patrimoniale” (patrimonial sytem). Thanks to the hard work of these authors, it was not long before, a parallel system for management accounting, separated by the financial system, was defined for obvious reasons of control. There was however even more contributions from the Italians, even if sometime they arrived a little later compared to their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. Some examples can be seen in the studies on budgeting and forecasting, business plans, variance analysis, non-financial performance, processes and activities and firms’ values to name just a few. After discussions on these themes, an Italian case study of the FNM railways will be presented, along with a synthetic analysis of some relevant steps of its management accounting system from the beginning in 1877 to present day.
2002
Management accounting, italian studies on accounting, railways
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/147
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