Abstract:

The article presents a case study used as a research method applied in the process of educating the students in the fields of controlling and managerial accounting. The main purpose of this work is to present examples of this method’s application in student education at the Faculties of Management of two Polish universities.

In the introduction, based on literature overview, the choice of a case study method as an effective educational method in the field of management has been justified. Particularly, the results of recent studies, published in 2015, concerning analysis of the publications in accounting education journals have been presented.

Subsequently, exemplary application of the case study method in educating the finance and accounting students at the Faculty of Management of the Gdansk University, which referred to constructing a model of the standard costing, was presented. The case analysis involved a medium-sized enterprise from the upholstered furniture production industry. The scope of the conceptual work necessary to construct a model of the standard costing was discussed. Development of a managerial pattern of the profit and loss account in the methodology of standard variable costing system, with application of flexible budgets, was the project’s ultimate effect.

The next section presents an example of the case-study method application that was implemented during realization of a dissertation on constructing a computer-aided model of the product costing, using the assumptions of activity-based costing. The model was constructed for a medium-sized enterprise from a confectionery industry. The scope of the analytical work, the design, and the computer modelling, which the student needed to do in order to carry out calculations using the ABC method, were indicated. The model’s structure, that is, the defined resources, the activities, and the cost objects, as well as its numerical characteristics have also been described.

The article’s conclusion discusses the benefits the students achieve by analysing an enterprise with attention to the possibilities of developing and implementing a standard costing system and an activity-based costing system. Additionally, the learning effects resultant from independent development of standard costing models and the models of activity-based costing and profitability assessment have been indicated as well.

Keywords:

Case studies, student studies, diploma thesis, educational effects, managerial accounting, standard costing, activity-based costing, project design.