6 CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
This exploratory comparative survey of general management accounting textbooks provides several insights into strategic management accounting. Strategic management accounting clearly has the character of a patchwork rather than a framework. It has not been integrated into textbook literature as a coherent and consistent framework (Hypothesis 2), or even as a term (Hypothesis 1). We note especially that the synthesis of strategic and cost orientation has not been effectively achieved by the textbook sample. However, the majority of techniques and concepts that we attribute to strategic management accounting are commonly accepted and conveyed by the texts. Of these various concepts, we identify core concepts of strategic management accounting. These common patterns in the numerous international patchworks can be interpreted as a vantage point for a further, more comprehensive definition of strategic management accounting.
In the German-language area, “controlling” implies a more thorough strategic emphasis than does “management accounting” in U.S. textbooks. This emphasis is reflected by a higher percentage and prominence of textbook pages that relate to concepts of strategic management accounting, and by a stronger strategic orientation towards these concepts (Hypothesis 4). This phenomenon seems stable over time, as recognized by an earlier review of management accounting textbooks (Franzen (1987, 620)). In contrast, texts from the English-language area are relatively more cost oriented, confirming the suspected operational emphasis.
