商务英语毕业论文范文

　　Kaplan and Cooper (1998, pp. 301-306) state that the integration with ERP systems allow all managerial processes, including budgeting, what-if analysis, and transfer pricing to be also based on activities rather than only dollars. Activity-based budgeting gives companies the opportunity to authorize and control resources based on accurate demand information. Accuracy increases because activity-based budgeting is based on facts, and less upon power, influence, and negotiating ability. Furthermore, the activity-level focus of budgeting leads to more accuracy in forecasting the demands for all direct and, especially indirect activities.

　　At the same time as Kaplan and Cooper’s (1998) important book, Davenport (1998, p. 122) wrote “the business world’s embrace of enterprise systems may in fact be the most important development in the corporate use of information technology in the 1990s.” Davenport (1998, p. 127) expected companies to change with the implementation of ERP systems:

　　In addition to having important strategic implications, enterprise systems also have a direct, and often paradoxical, impact on a company’s organization and culture. On the one hand, by providing universal, real-time access to operating and financial data, the systems allow companies to streamline their management structures, creating flatter, more flexible, and more democratic organizations. On the other hand, they also involve the centralization of control over information and the standardization of processes, which are qualities more consistent with hierarchical, command-and-control organizations with uniform cultures.

　　The paradox with ERP systems – streamlined, flatter, and more flexible and democratic (i.e., more control at the frontline) and centralization of control over information and the standardization of processes (i.e., more control at the centre) -- makes Davenport (1998, p. 131) ask how will ERP systems affect companies? Another equally relevant question would be, how will ERP systems affect management accounting? Taken together, Kaplan and Cooper (1998) and Davenport (1998) suggest that ERP systems will change companies, but these researchers do not specify the nature of these changes. They certainly do not explicitly specify how ERP systems will impact on management accounting. Nevertheless, it is possible to infer that changes will occur to management accounting from the integration among cost management, financial reporting, performance measurement, and all other systems. Thus, it is not surprising that there has been some exploratory research prompted by Kaplan and Cooper (1998) and Davenport (1998) on the impact of ERP systems on management accounting.