The Drive for Quality - the Impact on Accounting in the Wine Industry

Abstract

There is a substancial literature on the accounting procedures needed to track down the costs of quality control and quality failure. In a drive for improved quality the changes in the process of production or service delivery will also give rise to new accounting needs. In this article we take one example of an industry, wine production, where in most countries there has been a movement towards expanding higher quality production. We report on interviews with wine producers in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Spain, and identify a variety of ways in which a more sophisticated approach to accounting has become necessary as a result of the drive for quality.