Cost Management: A Strategic Emphasis, by Blocher/Juras/Smith is dedicated to answering the question: Why Cost Management? It answers this question by providing cost-management tools and techniques needed to support an organization’s competitiveness, improve its performance, and help the organization accomplish its strategy.

The text is written to help students understand the broader role of cost accounting in helping an organization succeed – and not just the measurement of costs. While the text does include coverage of traditional costing topics (e.g., job-order costing, process costing, service-department cost allocations, and accounting for joint and by-products), its primary strength is the linkage of these topics, as well as more contemporary topics, to an organization’s strategy.

And with Connect, an easy-to-use homework and learning management solution that embeds learning science and award-winning adaptive tools to improve student outcomes, instructors receive a course solution that includes high quality content and assessment paired with assignments that help students build the skills they need to succeed.

About the Author

Edward J. Blocher is an emeritus professor of accounting at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His undergraduate degree (economics) is from Rice University, his MBA from Tulane University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Blocher has presented regularly on strategic cost management at the national meetings of both the American Accounting Association (AAA) and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA).

Paul E. Juras is the Vander Wolk Professor of Managerial Accounting and Operational Performance and Chair of the Accountancy and Law Division at Babson College. Previously he was a professor of accountancy at Wake Forest University. He earned both his BBA and MBA at Pace University and his Ph.D. from Syracuse University. He is a certified management accountant (CMA) and has a certified public accountant (CPA) license from New York.

Steven D. Smith is an associate professor of accountancy and the Kristine V. and Randy J. Vest Fellow in the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University (BYU). Previously he was an assistant professor of accountancy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned B.S. and MAcc degrees from BYU and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University. He is a certified management accountant (CMA).