Management control systems - Kenneth A. Merchant

The bestselling advanced management accounting textbook.

For Management Control or Advanced Management Accounting modules on undergraduate, postgraduate or MBA courses.

Management Control Systems, 5th edition is the latest edition of the bestselling textbook in the field of management accounting, renowned for its authorship and excellently researched material. An essential learning resource presenting a wealth of international examples from real companies, this text will help you gain a solid grasp of this important subject.

Whether or not you have a management background, the clear explanations in this textbook will introduce you to the authors' leading framework and approach, helping you understand a wide variety of performance measures and controls as well as how to use them. Its extensive range of 75 case studies grounds the concepts in reality, emphasising the difference that well-designed controls can make.

Key features

• A brand-new chapter on environmental, social and governance issues, including corporate social responsibility, reflects new initiatives and policies and their impact on today's organisations.


• Comprehensive and detailed coverage of measures that focuses not only on results, but also broader management controls, with aims other than profit maximisation.


• Updated examples and cases bring the subject to life by exploring examples of well-known businesses such as Microsoft and the implications of infamous scandals such as Carillion.


• New content considers the impacts of recent global shocks and world events and their influence on companies.

This title is recommended as a significant textbook within Bruno S. Frey and Christoph A. Schaltegger (eds), 21st Century Economics - Economic Ideas You Should Read and Remember (Springer, 2019).