Strategic Management Accounting

Introduction

Strategic management accounting is part of the business studies discipline and builds on knowledge acquired in management accounting, finance, accounting, microeconomics and methodology. The term strategic in the course title emphasizes the focus on optimisation in a multi-cyclic perspective. The aim of the course is to further develop the students' knowledge and skills within analysis of business economics problems, to enable them to propose optimal solutions to the owners. The course is case- and game-oriented. The methodology and theories applied in the course are generally well-known and applied in previous courses but the problems to be addressed are more complex, extensive and to some extent interdisciplinary. Excel will be used for problems related to budgeting, modelling, risk management and strategic decisions, as well as analyses in connection with a simulation game.

Course content

Part 1: Simulation game (40%)

• Marginal income/marginal cost
• Optimal adaptation with and without capacity limitations
• Strategic (multi-cyclic) problems
• Accounts modelling
• Practical use of problem-solving function

Part 2: Financial case (40%)

• Significance of working capital under value maximization
• False investments
• Modelling
• Simulation
• Relevant risk
• The relationship between risk and return under various ownership structures
• A comparison between cash flow and accounting data
• Decision trees as decision bases

Part 3: Practical use of Excel (20%)

• Financial functions
• Targeting and problem-solving function
• Regression
• If sentences
• The scenario function