Responsibility Accounting Inspiration For Segment Reporting

The 50s and 60s of the twentieth century was a period of significant diversification of the economic activities. As a result of that, big companies called conglomerates appeared. The biggest problem with them was efficient management. The system of central management did not work properly. In response to this the concept of decentralization was created. It assumed the transfer of decision-making powers to lower level of the organizational structure and increase the independence of separated areas of the company. The implementation of the decentralization concept also required modification of an existing information system in the company. In response to this responsibility accounting was established. The heart of it were separate areas of the company called responsibility centres. This modificated information system provided top management regular internal reports about economic situation in each of separated centres using multi-block income statement. The emergence of large companies resulted in problems not only with efficient management but also the assessment of the economic situation by external users, in particular, the company investors. They also noticed the value of the responsibility accounting. However, the fact that the investors began to demand the disclosure of such information as a part of financial statements, was the first step towards the creation of segments reporting.