Adolph Matz (April 25, 1905 – October 1, 1986) was a German/American organizational theorist, and Professor of Accounting at the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

, known for his work on

cost accounting Cost accounting is defined by the Institute of Management Accountants as "a systematic set of procedures for recording and reporting measurements of the cost of manufacturing goods and performing services in the aggregate and in detail. It includ ...

Life and work

Matz was born in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

Michael-Jörg Oesterle et al. ''Internationalisierung und Institution'' Springer-Verlag, 2005. p. 454 or

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, Germany and started his studies in Weimar Republic. In the early 1930s he came to the United States, and obtained the American citizenship in 1933. He obtained his BA in 1932 at the

, where he also obtained his MA in 1933 and his PhD in 1937. He started his academic career at the

, and became Professor of Accounting. Matz is noted for his 1946 prediction, that "completion of the first all-electronic general-purpose computing machine ould openthe future to the development of business machines heretofore undreamed of... and may well also revolutionize methods and systems of dealing with everyday business transactions." These ideas were however dismissed as "too ephemeral," and his article initially rejected.Dilys Winegrad.
Crackpot notions the story of ENIAC
" ''Penn Printout.'' March 1996. Vol 12.4. Matz died October 1, 1986, in Blue Bell, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Selected publications

* Matz, Adolph, Othel J. Curry, and George W. Frank. ''Cost Accounting: Management's Operational Tool for Planning, Control, and Analysis.'' South-Western, 1962. * Matz, Adolph, and M. F. Usry. ''Cost Accounting, Planning and Control South.'' western Publishing Co (1984). Articles, a selection: * Matz, Adolph. "Accounting as a tool for economy in German business." ''Accounting Review'' (1940): 177-185. * Matz, Adolph. "Electronics in Accounting." ''Accounting Review'' (1946): 371-379. * Adolph Matz.
A Bibliography of Cost Accounting: Its Origins and Development to 1914, 2 Vols. by M. C. Wells
" ''The Accounting Historians Journal,'' Vol. 8, No. 2 (Fall 1981), pp. 129–133.

References

External links

portrait photograph {{DEFAULTSORT:Matz, Adolph 1905 births 1986 deaths American accountants American business theorists German accountants German business theorists Wharton School alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty Writers from Karlsruhe German emigrants to the United States