Managerial Accounting

The 5th edition of Managerial Accounting: Concepts and Empirical Evidence, by Dr. Lawrence A. Gordon (the Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Managerial Accounting in the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland) and published by McGraw-Hill, is leading the way in showing the impact of the new information economy on managerial accounting. Although maintaining its grounding in economic concepts, this new edition of the book has explicitly integrated discussions on the Internet, e-commerce, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and Internet-based (often called dot-com) firms into such managerial accounting topics as profit planning, activity-based costing, pricing decisions and performance measures. For example, in the chapter on financial performance measures, the reader finds a discussion on how the traditional link between accounting earnings and market value needs to be reconsidered for Internet-based firms. In addition, relevant websites are provided on the inside of the back cover of the book. Furthermore, supplementary material is easily accessed and downloaded via the Internet. Like earlier editions, the fifth edition of the book is still intended to be a text with a "research flavor." As such, the book is primarily intended for a first-year MBA/MS course in managerial accounting. The book is also appropriate for a first course in managerial accounting for talented undergraduate students. By focusing on the book's more quantitative material (including Appendices), strategy/organizational change material, and the references to empirical studies, the book would be appropriate for a graduate level, as well as undergraduate level, advanced managerial accounting course. Earlier editions of the book have also been very successfully utilized in executive development programs and the new edition should be even more appropriate for such use due to its emphasis on the new information economy. For more information about this book, check out the author's home page at the University of Maryland (http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/accounting/lgordon/).