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Cost engineering and costing in Hawthorn Leslie Shipbuilders, 1886–1915

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  • McLean, Tom

Abstract

This research examines cost engineering and costing in a British shipbuilding firm in the late nineteenth – early twentieth century. The firm maintained separate systems of contract accounting, costing and reporting for directors and employed internal data from these systems in performance measurement, the development of managerial incentives and the enforcement of managerial accountability. An apparent gap in the information required to manage the firm in a cyclical and highly competitive industry during a period of rapid organisational and technological change was filled by an informal and personal cost engineering system developed by the shipbuilding manager. The shipbuilding manager's cost engineering system employed a wide range of both internal and external data for use in cost management and in cost estimation, pricing and tendering. Thus cost engineering and costing developed to serve different purposes and developed in different spheres and along different trajectories.

Suggested Citation

  • McLean, Tom, 2013. "Cost engineering and costing in Hawthorn Leslie Shipbuilders, 1886–1915," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 284-296.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:45:y:2013:i:4:p:284-296
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2013.06.010
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. A. Fleming & S. McKinstry & K. Wallace, 2000. "Cost accounting in the shipbuilding, engineering and metals industries of the West of Scotland, ‘The Workshop of the Empire’, cl900–1960," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 195-211.
    2. Tom Mclean & Thomas Tyson, 2006. "Standard Costs, Standard Costing and the Introduction of Scientific Management and New Technology into the Post-Second World War Sunderland Shipbuilding Industry," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 389-417.
    3. Dekker, Henri C., 2004. "Control of inter-organizational relationships: evidence on appropriation concerns and coordination requirements," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 27-49, January.
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    5. Landes,David S., 2003. "The Unbound Prometheus," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521826662.
    6. Landes,David S., 2003. "The Unbound Prometheus," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521534024.
    7. McLean, Tom, 2006. "Continuity and change in British cost accounting development: the case of Hawthorn Ieslie, shipbuilders and engineers, 1886–1914," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 95-121.
    8. Edward Lorenz, 1991. "Economic Decline in Britain," Post-Print halshs-00483745, HAL.
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    1. McLean, Tom & McGovern, Tom & Davie, Shanta, 2015. "Management accounting, engineering and the management of company growth: Clarke Chapman, 1864–1914," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 177-190.
    2. McLean, Tom & McGovern, Tom, 2017. "Costing for strategy development and analysis in an emerging industry: The Newcastle Upon Tyne Electric Supply Company, 1889–1914," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 294-315.

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