Redovisningsprincipers påverkan på investeringar
En studie av ett svenskt industribolags nya styrmodell och dess implikationer
Recent studies show that manufacturing companies to a larger extent use historical cost accounting in their internal accounts, at the expense of calculated costs. The explanation behind this is claimed to be that firms are subject to careful scrutiny by the stock market. Consequently, top management stresses the need of evaluating all parts of the firm from external accounting. However, lower management levels express a general concern that the incentive to invest in machines will decrease. This master thesis aims to investigate whether or not there is an objective reason behind this concern. Interviews with production level managers and employees have been conducted at a large manufacturing group in Sweden. The group is currently implementing a new steering model, which involves such a change in accounting principles. The thesis finds that there is reason to believe that the theoretical risks are true in reality. Even if employees at production level claim that they have never felt affected by changes of accounting principles before, the thesis argues that this change in particular will have an effect and that investments generally will decrease in the long run.