Accounting for Decision Making and Control [Hardcover]

Jerold L. Zimmerman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1996

This book continues to grow in popularity with instructors because of its emphasis on teaching students to critically evaluate and solve actual business problems. Zimmerman is able to achieve this through: strong conceptual framework; business orientation focusing on how organizations work; balance between concepts & practice; and, strongest problem material available.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jerry Zimmerman (Rochester, N) is Alumni Distinguished Professor of Accounting at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Rochester. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 720 pages
• Publisher: Richard D Irwin; 2nd edition (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0256185743
• ISBN-13: 978-0256185744
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,554,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Think Management Accounting Rather Than Cost Accounting, October 24, 2002

By 

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Accounting for Decision Making and Control (Hardcover)

Too often management accounting is completely subsumed in cost accounting. Yes, they are part of the same topic, but they have somewhat different emphases. This book covers costs, but it is really more focused on how you allocated decision rights, set measurement criteria, and how you reward people to get the behavior you want. It is also very helpful in clarifying thinking about what could be going wrong if you aren't getting the behavior you wanted out of a given system of measurement and reward.

The writing is very good and the organization of the book is sound and helpful. While there are charts and graphs it is not a book full of color and pictures. It is a book with words and ideas that are helpfully supplemented as needed. But the self-study problems and cases are set off from the main text by being on different color pages. This helps in locating what you are after.

There is a wealth of thought provoking problems and short cases to help promote discussion and provoke your thinking on the topics discussed in each chapter.

Another aspect of the book I really like are the concept questions in each chapter that help you gauge your understanding of what you have just read. The solutions for these are provided in the back of the book so you can know if you are "getting it" or not.

This is a fine and very useful text.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars poorly written, bad examples and chapter material does not relate to problems, October 8, 2010

By 

Ben Marcoe (Boise Idaho) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Accounting for Decision Making and Control (Hardcover)

From a student's perspective this is a perfect example of a bad text book. For example: one of the problems I had with the text is that the chapter material did not relate to the problems at the end of the chapter. There is no solution manual available and there are no answers to any of the problems presented in the text. So--- unless you are extremely bright and somewhat clairvoyant you will probably have similar problems. In a word or two - this text has little value to someone who is trying to learn the concepts associated with accounting for decision making and control.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant author who does not know how to write a textbook, April 9, 2009

By 

Grad Student - MBA (Upper Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Accounting for Decision Making and Control (Hardcover)

I feel sorry for any student who is required to use this book for a class. The author is brilliant, but does not know how to write a text book. Over 1/2 the book is homework, and there are very few examples, most of which are not beneficial for reference with the homework.

If the author reads this, you know your stuff, but change your style of writing. Don't make the book like a John Grisham novel and then here is your homework. Learn from authors like Garrisson and Noreen in regards to writing style. I suggest your next edition (should you publish another) to be a complete re-write.