The influence of the accounting profession on the dissemination of costing in Great Britain & France: 1880-1950

Standard costing was developed during the early years of the twentieth century in connection with the rise of scientific management. Such research as has been carried out into the adoption of this technique suggests that European firms lagged well behind their American counterparts in its implementation. Within Europe, however, experiences were far from uniform : recent evidence seems to suggest that a number of British firms began to use the technique from the 1930s, whereas in France the technique was not adopted until after 1950. This raises two important questions : why the delay in Europe ; and why did Britain and France exhibit different experiences. This paper focuses on the second of these questions and, in particular, on the role of the accounting profession in the two: countries. While our study is far front exhaustive and any full explanation will need to take into account political social and cultural factors, it is contended that the pursuit of professional status by French accountants retarded the development of standard costs in France. By contrast, in Britain, the more advanced state of the accounting profession, and the development of a specialised organisation representing cost accountants, helped ensure that the introduction of standard costs was delayed for a much shorter period.