Postgraduate taught 

Corporate Governance & Accountability MSc

Management Accounting for Sustainability and Strategic Decision Making ACCFIN5266

  • Academic Session: 2024-25
  • School: Adam Smith Business School
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
  • Typically Offered: Semester 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: No
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No

Short Description

While providing a thorough introduction to the techno-managerial dimensions of strategic calculations and rationalisations underpinning organisational performance in competitive and dynamic environments, this course critically explores how such strategic calculations and rationalisations implicate the global sustainability agenda, especially concerning social and ecological justice issues.

Timetable

Teaching will be:

10 x 2 hours weekly workshops/lectures.

4 x 1 hour tutorials.

 

For asynchronous learning, the course delivery is facilitated by a blended approach that supplements the in-class activities with online pre-recorded lectures/discussions and other supporting materials. The course learning and teaching are also supported by a textbook specifically designed for the course.

Excluded Courses

None

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

Assessment

Course Aims

The course is designed to cultivate a techno-managerial as well as critical understanding and appreciation of the fundamental concepts, theories, frameworks, and techniques used in strategising within competitive environments. It focuses on how organisations enable and enact strategies in the domains of competitive markets, organisational hierarchies, points of production and supply chains, and global sustainability. Students will explore, understand, appreciate and critically examine the evolving dynamics of strategic decision-making, including competitive positioning, strategic pricing, strategic performance management, strategic management control, organisational resilience, quality costing, flexible manufacturing, and strategic cost management. In doing so, the course will also explore the sustainability implications of these strategic themes.

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

After successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

1. Explain the historical, contextual, and epistemic factors that underpinned the development of strategy discourses, strategy consultancy, and strategic management accounting.

2. Distinguish between strategic management accounting, sustainability driven management accounting, and other forms of accounting.

3. Critically assess the effectiveness of traditional management accounting methods in highly dynamic competitive environments and recognise the significance of strategic management accounting applications.

4. Identify and evaluate key techno-managerial and conceptual developments in strategic management accounting, focusing on their implications on the global sustainability agenda.

5. Appreciate the commonly used techno-managerial frameworks in relation to strategising in the market, strategising the organisational hierarchy, strategising the points of production and supply chains, and strategising sustainability.

6. Explore and explain how specific strategic management accounting frameworks and techniques are applied to strategic themes such as market positioning, performance management, management control, organisational resilience, quality, flexibility, cost management, and sustainability.

7. Work collaboratively in a group to develop team working skills by producing a combined piece of coursework.

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.