Ernest Anthony Lowe


Ernest Anthony Lowe was a British economist, and Professor of Accounting and Financial Management at the University of Sheffield, known for his work on management control, and management control systems.

Biography

Lowe started his career as chartered accountant and received his BSc in Economics at the London School of Economics.
In the beginning of his academic career he held appointments at the Durham University, the University of Leeds, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, and back in England mid-1960s at the University of Bradford, and then as senior lecturer in management accounting at Manchester Business School. In 1971 Lowe was appointed Professor of Accountancy and Financial Administration, and later Professor of Accounting and Financial Management at the University of Sheffield, where he held the university’s first chair in accounting.
From 1997 to 2012 he was director of the Management Control Association.

Work

Management control systems

Lowe was one of the first authors to define management control systems. In his 1972 article "On the idea of a management control system" he listed the following four reasons for the need for a planning and control system:
The term ‘management control’ was given of its current connotations by Robert N. Anthony.

Reception

David Cooper recounted
Rob Gray added:

Selected publications

Lowe, Tony, Tony Puxty, and Wai Fong Chua, eds. Critical perspectives in management control. Macmillan Press, 1989.
Articles, a selection: