Management Accounting Research最新文献

{"title":"Political control and internal governance in state-owned enterprises: Evidence from party-building reform in China","authors":"Fangjun Wang ,&nbsp;Jiyuan Li ,&nbsp;Mark Anderson ,&nbsp;Junqin Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100923","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100923","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Previous research finds that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that are subject to agency problems associated with political control operate less efficiently than other companies. Other research suggests that internal governance can mitigate agency problems. We combine these lines of research and examine whether the degree of cost stickiness in Chinese SOEs increases or decreases with implementation of party-building reform. Party-building reform elevates the status of the Party Decision Committee (PDC), an internal group of managers and staff representatives empowered to represent party interests. A more influential PDC may enhance political control while, at the same time, a stronger PDC may serve an internal governance role that mitigates agency-related problems. Our results provide evidence that cost stickiness is significantly lower in SOEs after implementation of party-building reform, supporting an internal governance effect as opposed to a political control effect of the PDC on management decision-making. Our evidence indicates that the reduction in cost stickiness occurs when the PDC is more independent from managers and more actively engaged in governance. Further analysis shows that the effect of PDC internal governance is more pronounced in firms where agency problems are apparently greater, traditional governance mechanisms are weaker and political influence is lower, supporting our main results.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51429,"journal":{"name":"Management Accounting Research","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100923"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143419839","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The mobilisation of self-created workplace artifacts for management accountants’ identity work","authors":"Ferdinand Kunzl","doi":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100915","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100915","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates how self-created workplace artifacts complement management accountants’ identity work towards managers. Analysing qualitative data collected in three organisations, I illustrate how self-created artifacts can support management accountants in establishing identity-compatible interactions with managers through (1) mediating interactions and (2) formalising the division of tasks. Moreover, I suggest that producing artifacts that are both occupations-generic and speaking (Cacciatori, 2012) can support management accountants in establishing such identity-compatible interactions. By introducing self-created artifacts as an additional resource for identity work, this paper nuances our knowledge of how management accountants navigate towards the achievement of (fragile) identity aspirations. Moreover, it improves our understanding of the dynamics between workplace artifacts and management accountants’ identity (work), emphasising how artifacts can play a central and active role in this regard.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51429,"journal":{"name":"Management Accounting Research","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100915"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2024-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143420338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using emphasis frames to embed values in the interpretation of multiple performance criteria","authors":"Patricia Martyn ,&nbsp;Breda Sweeney ,&nbsp;Anne M. Lillis","doi":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100914","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100914","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In addressing the well-understood challenges of goal congruence and management of multiple competing performance criteria, prior literature points to the importance of management controls that emphasise ethics and values. However, we lack insight into how potentially abstract values are mobilised and become central in influencing managers’ interpretation of performance criteria and inducing goal congruent behaviours. We propose emphasis frames as a pivotal psychological process bridging the chasm between abstract organisational values and instrumental performance criteria. Drawing on a single case study, we identify two theoretically important precursors to goal congruence: (i) creation of overarching points of reference, and (ii) connection of these points of reference to performance criteria through active emphasis framing. We augment this primary case with a literal replication (a similar firm in the same industry). We find that the two case firms have similar mission statements and similar critical areas of performance. We identify emphasis frames in both cases but they differ in nature. The main contribution of this paper is to unpack the microprocesses (rituals and cues) and psychological states (resonance) that the firms use to focus attention on critical performance areas, while at the same time drawing attention back to the important goals that underpin but are potentially under-specified in those criteria. Furthermore, we observe the operation of these mechanisms from the perspective of managers charged with competing performance demands. In so doing, we provide insight into how these mechanisms influence the deliberations of managers. Finally, the study informs practising managers on how values can be effectively mobilised to induce goal congruent behaviour by facilitating reference to underlying goals in interpreting competing performance priorities in day-to-day managerial work.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51429,"journal":{"name":"Management Accounting Research","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100914"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143429022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Controllership effectiveness and digitalization: Shedding light on the importance of business analytics capabilities and the business partner role","authors":"Xenia Boerner ,&nbsp;Martin Wiener ,&nbsp;Thomas W. Guenther","doi":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100904","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100904","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Digital technologies and related capabilities, such as business analytics capabilities (BAC), are transforming firms and management control (MC). While the development of BAC and its underlying dimensions is currently a top priority for many MC departments, it remains unclear from the existing literature how they can benefit from these capabilities in terms of controllership effectiveness. Against this background, our study examines the relationships between three core BAC dimensions (tangible BA resources, intangible BA resources, and human skills for BA) and controllership effectiveness (in terms of controllership output quality and controllership impact on management decisions), with a particular focus on the mediating effects of the business partner role of the MC department. To do so, we adopt the resource-based view and use partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze survey data from 322 large German firms. The results of our study show that all of the examined relationships are positively mediated by the business partner role, while those between tangible BA resources and both elements of controllership effectiveness, as well as that between human skills for BA and controllership impact on management decisions are even fully mediated by this role. Thus, our results highlight the importance of the business partner role in enabling MC departments to benefit from the development of the BAC dimensions in terms of improved controllership effectiveness. Furthermore, through a series of post hoc analyses, we provide empirical support for our three-dimensional conceptualization of BAC, and for the importance of the business partner role relative to the still dominant scorekeeper role. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51429,"journal":{"name":"Management Accounting Research","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100904"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142249128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Environmental management control systems and environmental innovation: Unintended consequences of the EU non-financial reporting directive","authors":"Carla Antonini,&nbsp;Jacobo Gomez-Conde","doi":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100903","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100903","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine the effect of <em>regulatory-driven</em> environmental management control systems (EMCS) on environmental innovation by exploiting the non-financial reporting Directive 2014/95/EU as a quasi-natural experiment. One explicit aim of this directive is to improve the <em>measuring, monitoring, and managing of undertakings’ performance and their impact on society</em>. A regulated context may compel managers to prioritize external regulatory requirements over their specific organizational contingencies. This shift could lead to a decrease in flexibility, which is needed to effectively accelerate environmental innovation, arguably one of the corporate flagships for enhancing environmental performance. We perform a difference-in-differences design using the EU directive as a plausible exogenous shock to EMCS and environmental innovation. Our results suggest that: (i) the directive under study increases the adoption of EMCS, (ii) <em>non-regulated</em> EMCS foster environmental innovation and, even more importantly, (iii) <em>regulatory-driven</em> EMCS have a short-term (temporary) lessening effect on environmental innovation. In further analysis we find that this lessening effect reverses from <em>t+1</em> onwards, once internal frictions are overcome, with the effect being positive in the long run.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51429,"journal":{"name":"Management Accounting Research","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 100903"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142697156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Vertical pay disparity, traditional Chinese culture, and employee productivity","authors":"Yu Flora Kuang ,&nbsp;Bo Qin ,&nbsp;Xing Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100902","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100902","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine how traditional Chinese culture interplays with pay disparity to affect employee productivity. In particular, we leverage an exogenous regulatory reform in Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to reduce vertical pay disparity (i.e., the difference between executive and average employee pay within a firm). Our results show that in a cultural context characterized by high levels of power distance and masculinity, a sudden reduction in vertical pay disparity is accompanied by a notable decline in employee productivity. Furthermore, the decline in productivity is more pronounced when employees are exposed to greater cultural traditionality. We also show that executive compensation declines after the Reform while employee pay stays unchanged. Importantly, our additional results show that neither managerial efficiency nor the departure of high-performing executives changed significantly after the Reform, and the performance effects of pay disparity are not primarily attributable to economic incentives for SOE executives or employees. Overall, our findings suggest that imposing pay restrictions without taking cultural context into account can have adverse effects on firm performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51429,"journal":{"name":"Management Accounting Research","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 100902"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141399558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Time and the sequential integration of management controls in open innovation between Unilever and its partners: A procedural perspective","authors":"Thomas Toldbod ,&nbsp;Linda Nhu Laursen","doi":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100901","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100901","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The purpose of this paper is to examine management control integration through the lens of process theory. Based on a case study of the FOODS project, an open innovation project between Unilever and its partners, we show how the integration of countervailing management controls (known as “dynamic tension” in management control literature) unfolds over time. We argue that Unilever and its partners were able to effectively integrate countervailing controls, even though we do not observe these simultaneously at the same time. The FOODS project demonstrates that shifting between countervailing management controls across the distinct phases of an open innovation process that lasted approximately three-and-a-half years allowed the partners to balance their diverse strategic and operational objectives. In that sense, countervailing management controls were integrated into the open innovation process, but over time, rather than at one moment. Whereas current management control research depicts the separation and integration of countervailing management controls as incompatible contradictions, i.e., either countervailing management controls are separated or integrated, we argue that the seeming contradictions of separation and integration of management controls can actually complement each other. Organizations can separate countervailing management controls to achieve a unidimensional focus within a temporal zone. When we investigate these phases, it becomes clear that a significant amount of time was invested before they were able to resolve the intended control problems. However, because this separation of management controls is limited to temporal zones within the same overall process, countervailing management controls are integrated to shape the overall process over time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51429,"journal":{"name":"Management Accounting Research","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 100901"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141131983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fostering ambidexterity among R&D employees: The dilemma of performance measures and how to overcome it","authors":"Markus Wabnegg","doi":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100891","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100891","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To remain competitive in the long run, organizations need to both explore new possibilities and exploit existing competencies in their innovation efforts. The pursuit of such ambidexterity, however, makes the choice of performance measures for evaluating R&amp;D employees particularly challenging. In this paper, I investigate the effort-distorting effects of the most commonly used measures in R&amp;D (patent-based and customer-based measures) and explore ways to overcome them. Building on the dilemma that each measure supports only one crucial innovation behavior (exploration or exploitation) while undermining the other, I suggest that simply combining both measures is not sufficient to promote ambidexterity. Instead, I argue that complementing patent-based and/or customer-based measures with organic controls helps employees recognize and realize synergies between exploration and exploitation, leading them to engage in both. I find support for my hypotheses using survey data from 269 companies in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51429,"journal":{"name":"Management Accounting Research","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 100891"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142697155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The micro-foundations of corporate purpose: Performance management in dynamic environments","authors":"Cristiano Busco ,&nbsp;Elena Giovannoni ,&nbsp;Angelo Riccaboni ,&nbsp;Mark L. Frigo","doi":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100890","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100890","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper examines the micro-foundations of ‘corporate purpose’, that is the enduring reason for being of a corporation in relation to society. While the relevance of corporate purpose has been widely recognized, its practical enactment by managers at the operating level remains problematic, particularly in dynamic environments. By relying upon the field study of a leading Italian group in the food industry, and the literature on the micro-foundations of institutions, we explore the role of a performance management system (PMS) in mobilizing corporate purpose in specific practical situations at the management level, while the organization faces the demands coming from the external environment. We show that the PMS can be drawn upon by managers as a set of tools and practices through which purpose is situated at the micro-level into actions, decisions, and material artefacts that come together in a ‘social situation’. Here, the PMS enables managers to recognize a ‘situation’ for enacting different aspects of purpose through interactions, filling it with evolving meanings, while sustaining its connections with global development needs.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51429,"journal":{"name":"Management Accounting Research","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 100890"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2024-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104450052400012X/pdfft?md5=9a39c29314b879214cca4a0bbc756616&pid=1-s2.0-S104450052400012X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140407170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From distrust to trust: Balancing between forcing and fostering management control systems in a hostile cross-border post-acquisition integration","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100889","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mar.2024.100889","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Extant research contends that in a context characterised by distrust, partners do not engage in developing trust in each other, and the use of management control systems creates tensions and increases distrust. This begs the questions of whether and how trust can be promoted and management control exercised in such a context. Thus, this paper examines the interplay between management control systems and (dis)trust in a hostile post-acquisition integration of two global companies. In doing so, this paper provides a detailed analysis of the role of management control systems as well as the underlying motives and the consequences of their use in various integration processes at different organisation levels. Applying the labour–management negotiation strategy theory, this study distinguishes between two modes of implementing management control. First, in the <em>forcing</em> mode, management control systems are used to coerce and monitor employees and instil top-down organisational values in them to promote controllability. Second, in the <em>fostering</em> mode, management control systems are exercised to promote mutual benefits, learning and shared values to support cooperation. The results show that the combined use of forcing and fostering management control systems supports the development of trust in the post-acquisition context characterised by distrust. Forcing control promotes trust by providing stability, creating accountability for cooperative achievements and supporting conflict resolution, whereas fostering control develops trust by facilitating goal sharing, mutual learning and value integration. This study advances the knowledge of management control systems and the relation between (dis)trust and control in the post-acquisition integration context by demonstrating why and how managers balance between forcing and fostering controls and how these control modes, separately and in combination, interact with (dis)trust.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51429,"journal":{"name":"Management Accounting Research","volume":"64 ","pages":"Article 100889"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1044500524000118/pdfft?md5=f7d7bd240cd3ab73f52a1d840615f23d&pid=1-s2.0-S1044500524000118-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140090045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}