A comparison of New Zealand and British product costing practices

The results of a mailed survey designed to compare product-costing practices employed by
New Zealand (NZ) and United Kingdom (UK) manufacturing companies is reported. The study’s
main findings are that, when company size is removed as an explanatory factor, there appear to be
few systematic differences in the product-costing practices of the two countries, although there is a
suggestion of marginally less sophisticated product-costing practices in NZ. Widespread use of
theoretically deficient costing practices in both countries adds to the growing evidence of a time
lag between the theory and practice of management accounting. D 2001 University of Illinois. All
rights reserved.