The usefulness of accounting information for decision-making purposes in an Italian company from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century

Abstract

Introduction: Accounting history research on cost accounting theory and practice is still at an early stage in Italy for two main reasons. The first relates to the im-portance that the double-entry bookkeeping technique assumes in Italy, charac-terised by a typical financial focus, and the second to the delay with which Italy en-tered the industrialisation process. Aim: The main aim of this study is to investigate the bookkeeping accounting sys-tems of an established, southern Italian family and long-lived firm, namely Amarelli, still operating in the liquorice industry, from the late nineteenth to the early twen-tieth century to unveil whether accounting information was used by Amarelli man-agers for control and decision-making purposes. Methodological approach: We used document analysis of the reports related to the Amarelli bookkeeping system and semi-structured interviews with one of the present-day owners. Main findings: The findings highlight that the different reports in which Amarelli's bookkeeping system was articulated, and specifically the reports related to Ama-relli's industrial activity, can be regarded as a response to the necessity to calcu-late and control the ‘cost' of the different ‘processes' as well as the specific ‘per-formance' of any single activity of Amarelli, together with the overall ‘perfor-mance' of the Amarelli factory. Originality: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the accounting systems used by a food industry firm in southern Italy, an under-developed territorial area, from an industrialised point of view during 1875-1925.