The development of standard costing at SaintGobain, 1920-60: forty years of quarantine?

Abstract

Standard costing, conceived in the first two decades of the twentieth century in the United States, became widespread in American literature and enterprises between the two World Wars but was not introduced at Saint-Gobain until around 1960. This article investigates the circumstances behind the forty-year period separating the availability of the technique and its application in a significant French company. The time lag required by the French accounting profession to adopt the technique is put forward as the primary, though not the only, cause of this delay.

Keywords:

• Accounting History
• Accounting Techniques
• Standard Costing
• Saintgobain