Introduction - management accounting's role in improving corporate performance; form over function - toward an architecture of costs, C.J. McNair; what "drives" cost? a strategic cost management perspective, John K. Shank and Vijay Govindarajan; accountability and knowledge workers - a potential unifying theme for managerial and auditing research, Jacob G. Birnberg and Vicky B. Heiman-Hoffman; activity-based costing problems - the British experience, I. Cobb et al; organizational effectiveness and competitive analysis - an analytical framework, Y. Lillian Chan and Bernadette E. Lynn; control system effects of budget slack, Leslie Kren; a tenure-adjusted model of performance measurement to encourage long-term organizational priorities, Richard J. Palmer et al; a transaction cost explanation of the use of subunit budgeting by S&Ls, John W. Hill and Linda Ruchala; judgemental issues affecting the setting of noninvestigation intervals, Jefrey Cohen and Laurence Paquette; do sunk cost effects generalize to cost accounting students?, Paul Harrison and James Shanteau; cost control for an employee health-care programme, Hung Chan; managing health-care costs under diagnostically related groups, Peter Chalos; a framework for the modern internal audit function, Edmund J. Boyle.