The Fiction of Sales-Mix and Sales-Quantity Variances.
指出销售组合和销售数量差异的计量存在局限，导致其可靠性存疑；一些管理者基于价格弹性认为销量是价格的函数，因此更关注价格差异，而非传统销售差异分析。
Abstract This article addresses the limitations of measurement that cause accounting of sales-mix and sales-quantity variances to be suspect. The measurement of sales-mix and quantity variances is an intriguing intellectual concept. According to the authors, some managers avoid conventional sales variance analysis on the defensible ground that sales volume is a function of sales price. Given price elasticity, they maintain that the logical consequence of, say, lower prices is higher volume. For them, price is the independent variable and volume is the dependent variable. Consequently, their primary concern is with price variances. On the other hand, the conventional methodology employed in sales variance analysis is quite simple. No matter how it may be presented to the uninitiated, it merely involves a step-down procedure that moves from actual contribution margins to budget contribution margins. Only one variable at a time is changed in each step. Each change develops a figure for another level.