A Maturity Model for Management Control Systems

Corporate management in today’s international companies has become increasingly complex. To cope with the growing challenges, information technology (IT)-based management control systems (MCSs) covering reporting, planning, and consolidation have been deployed. Despite their tradition in management research, the ‘right’ setup of MCSs is still challenging. Maturity models (MMs) are an established instrument to identify strengths and weaknesses of certain domains. As existing MMs rather focus on single MCS domains, neglect an IT perspective and miss a sound methodical foundation, this paper outlines an empirically and algorithmically constructed MCS MM. The model consists of three partial MMs for reporting, planning, and consolidation, which are integrated into one holistic MCS MM. The five levels of the MCS MM guide MCS evolution from a basic, mandatory/external-driven MCS (level 1) to a balanced MCS (level 2), and a comprehensive MCS (level 3). Ultimately, MCSs show a strong strategic focus (level 4) and leverage the potentials of modern IT (level 5).     

考虑通信质量的网络最小主控集生成算法

无人移动平台无线ad hoc网络在实际应用中经常会出现由于电磁环境、干扰等因素导致通信质量不稳定的情况，在上述条件下传统的基于节点覆盖度的最小主控集（MCS）生成算法难以获得具有较好稳定性、健壮性的最小主控集。为此，提出了一种考虑通信质量的网络最小主控集生成算法，将链路的通信质量纳入网络最小主控集构造的考虑因素，使网络拓扑与链路通信质量特性保持一致；并通过对候选节点集及拟覆盖节点集的压缩，有效控制了网络最小主控集的节点数目。仿真表明,对敏感于通信质量的应用,该算法较基于节点覆盖度算法能取得更好效果。     

金融海啸成因与对策的深度思考

从政治、经济和文化三维视角对金融海啸的成因作深度分析,这场金融危机是政治后遗症埋下的导火索,是世界经济周期的自然表现,文化颓废观构成了金融海啸的助动器。结合中国的实际从经济、政治、文化三方面应对金融海啸的长久之策是：经济层面上应进一步深化市场化改革的步伐和范围;政治层面上,近期要正确处理好政府同市场的关系,从中长期来说,中国政府应该从制度层面提升市场经济的宪政地位;文化层面上应实现中西文化的深层次交流,树立起具有普世价值的核心价值观。     

财务管理制度文化探讨

财务管理制度文化在社会经济中发挥着越来越重要的作用,本文从财务管理制度文化的内涵、特征及作用几个方面加以研究,探求改善我国当前财务管理制度文化建设的途径和方法.     

Fairtrade Towns as Unconventional Networks of Ethical Activism

The 2008 financial crisis exposed the dark side of the financial sector in the UK. It brought attention to the contaminated culture of the business, which accommodated the systemic malpractices that largely contributed to the financial turmoil of 2008. In the wake of the crisis there seems to be a wide consensus that this contaminated culture can no longer be accepted and needs to change. This article examines the ills of the UK financial market, more specifically the cultural contamination problem, which was uncovered by the 2008 financial crisis, in order to explore its genesis and the suitable solutions for it. In this regard, the article analyses the ethical finance sector from theoretical and practical perspectives in order to assess its role in addressing the cultural contamination problem of the UK financial market.     

The role of national culture in financial literacy: Cross-country evidence

This paper examines the effect of national culture on adult financial literacy levels in 12 countries. Contrary to earlier financial literacy studies, our results are directly comparable across countries given that we use the standardized OECD/INFE financial literacy survey data and Hofstede's, 2001, cultural dimensions to capture financial literacy and national culture. In line with the financial socialization theory, we find that uncertainty avoidance positively influences financial literacy, while individualism negatively influences financial literacy. We conclude that national culture affects financial literacy and that it is important to account for cultural dimensions in future international financial literacy research.     

The Cultural Impact of Workflow Management Systems in the Financial Services Sector

The implementation of information systems is increasingly resulting in significant changes to the host organisation's culture. In particular, the workflow management system (WFMS) is one new technology that, because of its tendency to have a direct impact on the organisation and execution of work, has the potential to significantly modify an organisation's culture. This qualitative research investigates the nature of the relationship between WFMS and organisational culture, in the UK financial services sector. The research concludes that WFMS have the potential to modify culture in a positive way by improving the organisations' customer orientation, flexibility and quality focus.     

文化与金融发展的研究综述

文化在经济发展中的作用越来越为经济学家所重视,但是关于文化对金融发展的影响的论述并不多见。本文在文化影响经济发展的基础上归纳了国内外学者对文化与金融发展关系的阐述,并简要评述了文化对中国金融发展的影响。     

组织文化、组织结构与绩效：中国企业的实证研究

研究中国企业的组织文化、组织结构和绩效之间存在的可能的关系。基于对国内294家企业实证数据的基础上,发现和睦交往型组织文化一定程度上对企业绩效具有负效应；团结一致型组织文化对于企业绩效具有正效应；而组织结构的柔性程度对于企业绩效具有促进作用。     

Environmental Innovation Strategy and Organizational Performance: Enabling and Controlling Uses of Management Control Systems

This study examines the extent to which enabling and controlling uses of management control systems (MCS) moderate the relationship between environmental innovation strategy and organizational performance. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to analyze survey data collected from top managers in 175 manufacturing and services sectors representing multinational and local organizations operating in Sri Lanka. We find that while the enabling use of MCS positively moderates the relationship between environmental innovation strategy and organizational performance, in contrast, the controlling use of MCS negatively moderates the relationship. We compare the results for the manufacturing and services sectors. As predicted, we find a significant positive moderating impact of the enabling use of MCS in both manufacturing and services sectors. However, contrary to our expectations, we find no significant moderating impact for both sectors for the controlling use of MCS. We conclude that environmental innovation strategy per se does not lead to performance improvements; however, the extent to which organizations use enabling and controlling MCS determines the relationship. We provide theoretical insights and practical implications concerning the importance of strategic alignment between managerial controls, environmental innovation strategy, and organizational performance.     

Where does ESG pay? The role of national culture in moderating the relationship between ESG performance and financial performance

This study investigates the moderating role of a country’s culture as an external contingency factor in the relationship between a firm’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and financial performance. Using ESG performance data of 4978 firms from 48 countries for 17 years, we argue that the financial return from engaging in ESG varies depending on the countries’ cultural aspects because stakeholder evaluations and appreciations for a firm’s ESG performance differ across nations. We find that a country that espouses a culture of high individualism or masculinity tends to appreciate and reflect on this more explicitly, strengthening the relationship between a firm’s ESG performance and financial performance. Contrastingly, in a country with a culture of high power distance or uncertainty avoidance, firms’ ESG efforts are less likely to be associated with financial performance. Our findings have important implications for multinational enterprises facing various cultural environments when dealing with heterogeneous stakeholder demands across countries.     

Financial reforms in Chinese banking: The impact on personal lending and operational efficiency

The Chinese financial system has historically been one of secrecy, distrust, and corruption. The process does not align with the western standards of transparency and auditing. In contrast to the transaction-based business culture of the West, Chinese business society is relationship-based (quanxi), which still seems to play a key role in the credit decision. With the growth of the emerging middle class, access to financial instruments such as credit cards, life insurance, stock purchases, and the like will play a greater role in the life of the Chinese consumer. Based on these forecasts, the authors recommend seven actions to manage financial activities in China, all of which are explored within this article.     

Organizational Culture in the Financial Sector: Evidence from a Cross-Industry Analysis of Employee Personal Values and Career Success

We assess the organizational culture in the finance industry in relation to the global financial crisis and consider the potential of cultural change to improve the financial sector. To avoid (response) biases, we build on the person–organization fit literature and develop a novel, indirect method for assessing organizational culture that revolves around relationships between employees’ personal traits and their career success in the industry or organization under study. We analyze personal values concerning the pursuit of private gain (self-enhancement values) versus personal values concerning caring for others (self-transcendence values) and consider whether employees that value self-enhancement more and self-transcendence less enjoy more career success relative to their peers when working in finance than when working in other industries. Results do not reveal any sort of cross-industry differences that would implicate the finance industry’s culture in the financial crisis. Instead, we find the opposite, namely that strong self-enhancement values and weak self-transcendence values go together with less career success in the finance industry compared to other industries. Hence, if anything, the culture in the finance industry does not seem to resonate well with professionals that seek to pursue personal gain at the expense of clients’ welfare. Implication is that cultural change has little potential to improve the financial system. Meanwhile, the method for assessing organizational culture indirectly by analyzing relationships between employees’ traits and their career outcomes has wider applicability, particularly when relying on scores or measures obtained directly from the people concerned is likely to render biased evidence.     

Language and market inclusivity for women entrepreneurship: the case of microfinance

Inclusive markets are key to fostering female entrepreneurship, and the microfinance sector has recognized and acted on this. Existing research has studied how institutions and organizational factors facilitate the process by which microfinance and other financial intermediaries tackle gender-based financial exclusion. But while the role of cultural institutions has been recognized as important, little research has systematically integrated culture in the study of gender-based financial exclusion. We posit that language is a cultural institution that influences the extent to which financial intermediaries are successful in outreaching women and supporting female entrepreneurship. Inspired by a performativity approach, we develop a set of hypotheses that delineate how a specific feature of language, gender marking in grammar, moderates the role of institutional (state capacity) and organizational (NGO status and global ties) factors in shaping microfinance outreach to women. Using the ratio of female to male borrowers in 2361 microfinance organizations from 115 countries during the period 1995–2015, we confirm that market inclusion of women depends on organizational and institutional factors, and that gender marking in grammar influences those relationships.     

Building a Sustainable Bank: The Case of GTBank of Nigeria

GTBank of Nigeria has, in just 20 years, developed into one of the most profitable and sustainable financial institutions in Africa. The case identifies the choices that helped the bank emerge successful from several shocks to the Nigerian financial sector and has implications for other financial institutions trying to balance sustainability and profitability. On the basis of eight years of research on the bank, we illustrate six factors that have characterized its success: (1) effective leadership, (2) a focus on people rather than strategy, (3) adopting a simple and focused strategy, (4) a culture of sustainable banking, (5) confronting effectively the external environment, and (6) exploitation of technology to accelerate the business. GTBank’s story raises questions about what makes a company sustainable and analyzes the decisions that executives need to make, often in challenging external circumstances, in order to preserve the long‐term sustainability of an organization. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

ICT,conflicts in financial intermediation and financial access: evidence of synergy and threshold effects

In this study we investigate the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in conflicts of financial intermediation for financial access. The empirical evidence is based on contemporary (or current values) and non-contemporary (or lagged by a year) quantile regressions in 53 African countries for the period 2004-2011. The main findings are: First, the net effect of ICT in formalization for financial activity in the banking system is consistently beneficial with positive thresholds. The fact that corresponding, unconditional and conditional effects are persistently positive is evidence of synergy or complementary effects. Second, the net effect of ICT in financial informalization for financial activity in the financial system is negative with a consistent negative threshold. Hence, the positive (negative) complementarity of ICT and financial formalization (informalization) is an increasing (decreasing) function of financial activity. Policy measures on how to leverage the synergy or complementarity between ICT and financial formalization in order to enhance financial access are discussed.     

农村财务信息化影响因子分析与策略创新

长期存在的村级财务不良态势,已成为新农村建设、村财务公开、平安农村建设、密切干群关系、理财创益的深层障碍。其负面影响已渗透到农村民主政治、经济建设与社会进步诸多领域。农村财务管理低效现状,信息化建设落后是一个重要原因。所以,村级财务信息化建设必须考虑到农村思想文化传统、新农村财政政策和分割的财务管理体制现状,依托金农工程等现有网络工程,开发专用性农村财务信息化软件,改革信息化培训教材,建立以农业行政部门管理为主,以财政部门的村财务信息化工作部为辅的管理体制。     

The Cultural Paradigm of the Smaller Firm

This paper presents the findings from an ethnographic study of organizational culture and shared values in four smaller firms, the outcome of which was the identification of the cultural values shared between owner–managers (OMs) and employees in each firm. The research employed Schein's conceptualization of culture as a three-layer phenomenon, consisting of surface artifacts, shared values and beliefs, and basic assumptions. The analytical technique of grounded theory was employed to process the large volume of data gathered during the extended research period. The data reveal a complex array of values in each firm, with only one firm exhibiting a homogenous culture where values are shared by all those working in the organization. In the remaining three firms, five values appear to be shared by all employees; however, this is overlaid by a pattern of subcultures differentiated by distinctive shared values. Interfirm analysis among the four firms found that the values of survival, independence, control, pragmatism, and financial prudence were shared by two or more firms. The research collectively defines these shared values as the cultural paradigm of the smaller firm.     

利用逻辑分析仪分析微机系统的数据流

本文描述通过应用HP1630A逻辑分析仪对MCS的典型状态数据流进行检测,从而对MCS的程序流进行分析,其目的在于为MCS的数据流分析提供一种可靠而有效的方法.     

Designing Green Entrepreneurship Model in Sustainable Development Consistent with the Performance of Tehran Industrial Towns

The purpose of this paper design a green entrepreneurship model in sustainable development path consistent with the performance of industrial towns in Tehran (center of IRAN). The population was the active small/medium enterprises (SMEs) with full capacity in industrial towns of Tehran, which were about 3000 active units, accounting for 20% of the companies in Tehran industrial towns. Sample size was obtained as 514, which was used in calculations. The results showed that green entrepreneurship mediates the effect of green innovation, organizational culture, competitive advantage, and social-environmental responsibility of company on the financial performance of company. There was no mediating role concerning the effect of state laws and regulations on company’s financial performance. Additionally, market turbulence moderates effect of green entrepreneurship on organization financial performance, but financial shocks do not modulate the effect of green entrepreneurship on organization finance.