Book excerpt: The International Management Accounting Conference 4 was held in August 2007 in Kuala Lumpur to discuss issues pertaining to the role of accounting in liberalized economy. From the conference, it was clear that liberalized economy does impact the direction, nature and practices of accounting. In response to these challenges, accounting must play a proactive and relevant role to sustain the competitiveness of companies in the business environment. Therefore it is the intention of the conference organizers to share the issues, problems and challenges in sustaining competitiveness in liberalized economy with a larger audience through the publication of this book. The book is organized in the following themes:  Cost and Information Management  Performance Measurement  Strategic Alliance The articles included in this book were selected from the papers reviewed and presented at the International Management Accounting Conference 4. The articles were written based on research findings of studies conducted in several countries including Malaysia, New Zealand, Indonesia, UK, India, Saudi Arabia and Botswana. Therefore they are expected to have high academic value, each complete with literature review, methodology, data analysis and references. Even though that is the case, the papers have been carefully chosen and edited for mass readers. This book is suitable for researchers, academicians, graduate students, and practitioners with interest in business, economics and accounting: