Peer Review

Alice's Adventures in Managerial Accounting

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Reviewed:: Jul 16, 2026 by Business

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This teaching case adapts Lewis Carroll's public-domain classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) as a narrative vehicle for introducing core managerial accounting concepts at the undergraduate level. Across seven chapters, Alice encounters and corrects accounting errors made by Wonderland characters, covering cost behaviour and the high-low method, CVP analysis and contribution margin, relevant costs and sunk costs, flexible budgets and variance analysis, predetermined overhead rates and overhead application, balanced scorecard and KPI design, and capital investment and payback analysis. Each chapter embeds numerical examples, worked calculations, and summary tables directly into the narrative, with Alice serving as the rational analyst and providing students a worked model to evaluate before addressing study questions. A complete teaching note with model answers, facilitation guidance, common student errors, and flexible deployment options is included. The case is designed for undergraduate intermediate or advanced managerial accounting courses and may be deployed chapter-by-chapter, as an end-of-module review, or as a take-home examination. The literary framing reduces student anxiety around quantitative material and increases voluntary engagement with numerical content. Note: Portions of this teaching case were developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence (Claude, Anthropic). All content has been reviewed, curated, and edited by the author, who holds full responsibility for the accuracy and pedagogical integrity of the material.

Type of Material:

Case Study

Recommended Uses:

Could be used as a textbook
Could be used for lectures
Could be used for homework
Could be used an exam study guide
Could be used as an assessment

Technical Requirements:

Internet browser

Adobe Acrobat

Google Drive access

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Explain fixed and variable cost behavior
Apply CVP and breakeven point analysis
Identify relevant and sunk costs
Complete variable analysis
Create fixed and variable budgets
Explain overhead cost allocation
Assess KPIs and performance management

Target Student Population:

College Lower Division Managerial Accounting students

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Financial Accounting
Managerial Accounting

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

This case study is easy to understand and using Alice in Wonderland as a story to present the principles is brilliant.
This case study can be used in many different ways to reinforce managerial accounting concepts.
The information and calculations are very accurate.
It demonstrates several core concepts grounded in managerial accounting.
It summarizes and integrates several concepts within the discipline.

Concerns:

None

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

The learning objectives are clearly defined.
In just a few pages, many concepts are introduced in an easy way to understand.
Prerequisite knowledge is identified and the case study demonstrates relationships between concepts.
This case study is easy to integrate into curriculum assignments.
It is very efficient and could be used to assess student learning outcomes.

Concerns:

None

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

This case study is very easy to use.
The case study is very engaging.
The student is able to learn concepts while being entertained.
It is interactive in that it contains questions throughout as knowledge checks.
It is screen reader accessible and highly usable.

Concerns:

The only thing that I am unsure of is if it meets all of the accessibility standards.

Other Issues and Comments:

I’m using this for my class!

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