INDUSTRIAL-INNOVATION AND PARALLEL ACCOUNTING DEVELOPMENTS

In this paper, we examine parallel accounting developments that have t aken place in the late 1980s and early 1990s to complement and support the changing manufacturing environment. As a background to understand ing the process of change that has taken place in accounting, we use t he industrial innovation model, recognizing that it also has evolved [ 6]. Material obtained from an ongoing research programme that is aimed at examining the development and deployment of new accounting techniq ues and practices is presented and discussed. This material suggests t hat several comparable features of contemporary industrial product inn ovation are also present in accounting innovation activity. These feat ures include, inter alia, a multidiscipline team involvement and impro ved dialogue between lead 'users' and 'suppliers'. The improved dialog ue cart result in useful feedback on new innovation trajectories. The importance of top management support for innovations in accounting can not be underestimated if the innovations are to be successfully develo ped, implemented and become 'good currency'. There is evidence that ac counting innovations are taking place in a rich yet complex environmen t of multi-inputs, increased mutual understanding of all the key playe rs and with extended use of parallel rather sequential processes of de velopment. A particular focus of the paper is the way that ideas assoc iated with activity based costing have been widened and deepened to fa cilitate business process redesign.