Privatisation and Franchising of British Train Operations

The Railways Act 1993 privatised the British railways industry resulting in the separation of ownership and control of the railway infrastructure (track, signals and stations) from that of passenger train operations. The Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), a major train operator, was unable to meet its contractual obligations shortly after successfully re‐tendering for its second franchise. By referring to the organisational form and structure of the franchising process, this paper discusses the main financial and operational problems that specifically contributed to the collapse of GNER. In particular, the paper argues that the fragmented structure of privatised train operations, the lack of industry coordination and the inherent problems of franchising an essential transport service explain the demise of GNER and have undermined the general objectives of railway privatisation. Overall, the paper highlights that privatisation of train services has failed to deliver both travelling benefits for the public and financial benefits to the state.     

The ins and outs of outsourcing and insourcing: what have we learnt from the past 30 years?

This paper explores recent experience with outsourcing of public services. It highlights how approaches to outsourcing have evolved during the past 30 years, moving through phases of competitive tendering, partnership working, strategic commissioning, prime contracting and, more recently, insourcing. The paper finishes with 10 lessons for commissioners and service providers which can be drawn from these experiences.     

Respect for experience and organisational ability to operate in complex and safety critical environments

The role of experience has been shown to be critical for risk management. Yet, few studies have conceptualised and explained the organisational processes that determine how experience informs risk management. We present a case study examining how experience informs the risk-based decisions of employees in a safety critical industry. Data were gathered through 28 semi-structured interviews in a power utility. Experience contributed significantly to risk-based decisions, particularly those involving complex or dynamic risks, across all functional and hierarchical divisions. Further, collective experience between organisational divisions and a widespread respect for experience promoted the sharing of experiential knowledge. This deepened the extent to which experience was incorporated into risk-based decisions and facilitated coordination between operational and strategic risk management. Respect for experience and collective experience are important contributors to organisational ability for adaptive and coordinated behaviour in complex and high risk environments.     

Accountants for the Public Interest: strategy implementation and performance measurement for a nonprofit organization

This case describes strategic issues and the operations of Accountants for the Public Interest (API), a national organization that is dedicated to making volunteer accounting services available to financially disadvantaged individuals and nonprofit organizations. API is a well-known nonprofit organization that receives financial support from the accounting profession. In addition to discussing strategic decisions facing API, the case covers performance measurement topics commonly integrated in managerial and cost accounting courses. API's Board of Directors (BOD) must make important strategic planning and implementation decisions during a period of change. One Board member has suggested using performance measures to assess API's progress in implementing strategy and achieving goals. Students are asked to develop financial and nonfinancial measures relevant to API's strategy and to show how their suggested measures would appear in a balanced scorecard. Whether CPAs should be obligated to provide volunteer accounting services to the community is another issue that the case requires students to address.     

The Competitive Intelligence Unit at Deloitte

The goal of competitive intelligence is to acquire information that can be used to make strategic decisions that further the objectives of the firm. Using publicly available information, this case describes the Competitive Intelligence Unit at the Big 4 accounting firm Deloitte and the techniques that the unit used to obtain strategic information about the plight of the consulting firm BearingPoint, a firm that Deloitte subsequently purchased in March 2009. This case can be used in an advanced undergraduate accounting theory, assurance, or capstone accounting course. It raises several interesting questions: What are acceptable and unacceptable competitive intelligence gathering techniques? Does competitive intelligence gathering by accounting firms serve the public interest?     

Deep change. How operational innovation can transform your company

Breakthrough innovations--not just steady improvements--in operations can destroy competitors and shake up entire industries. Just look at Dell, Toyota, and Wal-Mart. But fewer than 10% of large companies have made serious attempts to achieve operational innovation. Why? One reason, contends the author, is that business culture undervalues operations--they're not as sexy as deals or acquisitions. In addition, many executives who rose through the ranks of finance or sales aren't familiar with operations--and they aren't interested in learning more. Finally, because no one holds the title Vice President of Operational Innovation, it doesn't have a natural home in the organization, so it's easily overlooked. Fortunately, all of these barriers can be overcome. This article offers practical advice on how to develop operational innovations, such as looking for role models outside your industry to emulate and identifying--and then defying--constraining assumptions about how work should be done. The author also discusses the best way to implement operational innovations. For instance, because they are disruptive by nature, projects should be concentrated in those activities with the greatest impact on enterprise strategic goals. Operational innovation may feel unglamorous or unfamiliar to many executives, but it is the only lasting basis for superior performance. Executives who understand how operational innovation happens--and who understand the barriers that prevent it from happening--can add to their strategic arsenal one of the most powerful competitive weapons in existence. In an economy that has overdosed on hype and in which customers rule as never before, operational innovation offers a meaningful and sustainable way to get ahead--and stay ahead--of the pack.     

Airport Regulation: Reflecting on the Lessons from BAA plc

This article discusses the implications of airport privatization and regulation with reference to the case of BAA plc. It concludes that regulation should be implemented in a coordinated manner which is consistent with wider policy goals and which respects the outcomes for all stakeholders. The need for countries to have a strategic airports policy to guide development towards national economic and environmental goals is highlighted. The implications of the regulation of BAA to protect public interest is both timely and topical given that the next government airports policy is due to be released in 2002 and current plans for the privatization of air traffic control. Regulation may be the only policy lever to shape a privatized and commercialised airport system and its role within a wider integrated transport strategy.     

Budget repair or budget spectacle? The passage of Wisconsin’s Act 10

Strategic planning processes use budgets to implement control and accountability. However, budgets can also be used to generate support for strategic decisions, for example by creating a political spectacle. A political spectacle is a problem engineered to have a specific political impact. This paper investigates politicians’ use of a state budget as a political manoeuvre to defend strategic decisions regarding public employee unions in Wisconsin. The analysis shows how the 2011 state budget in Wisconsin was used to create a political spectacle to generate support for eliminating collective bargaining for public workers, especially public (state) school teachers.     

Seeking convergence between history and futures research

The objective of this paper is to analyse how much the traditions of history research (HR) and futures research (FR) have in common and how they could assist each other. First, the role of time is analysed. Second, the path dependence theory, strategic decision-making, knowledge management and visionary management are discussed. Examples of the application of the latter in water and sanitation services and their long-term development are shown. Finally, some argumented views are presented on how the convergence between FR and HR could be improved.The key point of this research is the seeming discontinuity between presents, recent pasts and near futures. The traditions of HR probably make it more difficult to assess the effects of strategic decisions on the recent. If more convergence is wanted, the gap should be filled somehow. On the other hand, the core of FR research seems to concentrate more on strategic and visionary horizons while perhaps neglecting the operational horizon of the near future.     

Die Balanced Scorecard als Kennzahlensystem für Krankenkassen

The management options for sickness funds in Germany have been clearly extended over the last few years. However, apart from economic efficiency sickness funds are legally required to provide sufficient and effective health services. This complex system of strategic goals requires a comprehensive controlling system which is not implemented by many sickness funds yet. In this article a controlling system is developed which similar to the Balanced Scorecard concept incorporates quantitative as well as qualitative performance measures. Taking the legally defined system of strategic goals of sickness funds into account four partially interdependent financial goals are derived and further disaggregated into performance measures on three different levels. The article reveals that in spite of the complex system of strategic goals the development of a comprehensive controlling system for sickness funds is possible.     

Changes in the Ownership of Community Pharmacies: Policy Implications

Based on an 'independent contractor' model, most community pharmacies have traditionally been owned by self-employed pharmacists running them as small businesses. With the rapid erosion of this pattern of ownership, issues arise for public, professional and commercial policy makers. For health policy purposes, particular consideration needs to be given to options for fully utilizing the expertise of community pharmacists; securing equal access to services; and ensuring rationality and transparency in making decisions about the location of pharmacies.     

Sharing corporate tax knowledge with external advisers

Tax knowledge is critical for companies to comply with tax laws and engage in tax planning and avoidance. Firms rely on external advisers in handling tax issues, however, sharing corporate tax knowledge with external advisers entails both opportunities and risks. We identify four relational factors that are associated with the decision of corporate taxpayers to share knowledge with external tax advisers. Survey data from 221 corporate taxpayers reveals a novel distinction between operational and strategic knowledge sharing. The operational dimension has a functional nature, whereas the strategic dimension has a more intentional character. Accessibility to, and a positive experience with, external advisers enables operational knowledge sharing. When firms perceive specific tax benefits in relation to sharing knowledge, they are more inclined to engage in operational knowledge sharing with external advisers but less prone to strategic knowledge sharing. Instead, strategic knowledge sharing is enhanced when firms have access to, and value the knowledge of their advisers, although this latter factor plays no significant role in explaining operational knowledge sharing. A positive experience with advisers also associates with strategic knowledge sharing. We link our results to other research and discuss implications for regulators considering, or requiring, firm disclosures of corporate tax strategy.     

Strategy as stretch and leverage

Global competition is not just product versus product or company versus company. It is mind-set versus mind-set. Driven to understand the dynamics of competition, we have learned a lot about what makes one company more successful than another. But to find the root of competitiveness--to understand why some companies create new forms of competitive advantage while others watch and follow--we must look at strategic mind-sets. For many managers, "being strategic" means pursuing opportunities that fit the company's resources. This approach is not wrong, Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad contend, but it obscures an approach in which "stretch" supplements fit and being strategic means creating a chasm between ambition and resources. Toyota, CNN, British Airways, Sony, and others all displaced competitors with stronger reputations and deeper pockets. Their secret? In each case, the winner had greater ambition than its well-endowed rivals. Winners also find less resource-intensive ways of achieving their ambitious goals. This is where leverage complements the strategic allocation of resources. Managers at competitive companies can get a bigger bang for their buck in five basic ways: by concentrating resources around strategic goals; by accumulating resources more efficiently; by complementing one kind of resource with another; by conserving resources whenever they can; and by recovering resources from the market-place as quickly as possible. As recent competitive battles have demonstrated, abundant resources can't guarantee continued industry leadership.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

公共服务战略管理中的公众参与：原因、机制与意义

公共服务战略管理是战略管理途径在公共服务领域的运用,是制定公共服务战略并实施和评价战略的过程,以此更好地满足公共需求。公众是公共服务最直接的受众,应该把公众纳入公共服务战略管理的研究框架之中。同时,适当的公众参与对公共服务的有效供给及公共服务战略绩效的提高有着十分重要的作用。     

中国产险公司再保险决策的影响因素与调整机制研究--基于持续性与趋同性特征的分析

本文以2006~2017年中国39家产险公司的非平衡面板数据为研究样本,从产险公司再保险决策的持续性和趋同性特征入手,测度了固定效应和传统因素对再保险决策的解释能力,并首次探析了产险公司再保险决策的调整机制问题。本文运用方差分解方法量化了固定效应和传统因素对再保险决策的解释能力;采用分布滞后模型估计了传统因素对再保险决策的中长期影响;运用局部调整模型识别了固定效应和传统因素对再保险决策的影响机制。研究发现:受公司固定效应的影响,产险公司的再保险决策具有很强的持续性,每年主要是根据年份固定效应所代表的监管政策等宏观因素的变化做出迅速调整,而根据反映公司经营特征的传统因素的时间序列变化所做出的调整并不明显。基于上述结果,本文建议监管者应注重提升监管政策的针对性,引导产险公司在综合考量各项经营指标的基础上,把再保险作为全面风险管理、经营效率提升的一项中长期战略安排。     

Information technology and the board of directors

Ever since the Y2K scare, boards have grown increasingly nervous about corporate dependence on information technology. Since then, computer crashes, denial of service attacks, competitive pressures, and the need to automate compliance with government regulations have heightened board sensitivity to IT risk. Unfortunately, most boards remain largely in the dark when it comes to IT spending and strategy, despite the fact that corporate information assets can account for more than 50% of capital spending. A lack of board oversight for IT activities is dangerous, the authors say. It puts firms at risk in the same way that failing to audit their books would. Companies that have established board-level IT governance committees are better able to control IT project costs and carve out competitive advantage. But there is no one-size-fits-all model for board supervision of a company's IT operations. The correct approach depends on what strategic "mode" a company is in whether its operations are extremely dependent on IT or not, and whether or not it relies heavily on keeping up with the latest technologies. This article spells out the conditions under which boards need to change their level of involvement in IT decisions, explaining how members can recognize their firms' IT risks and decide whether they should pursue more aggressive IT governance. The authors delineate what an IT governance committee should look like in terms of charter, membership, duties, and overall agenda. They also offer recommendations for developing IT policies that take into account an organization's operational and strategic needs and suggest what to do when those needs change. Given the dizzying pace of change in the world of IT, boards can't afford to ignore the state of their IT systems and capabilities. Appropriate board governance can go a long way toward helping a company avoid unnecessary risk and improve its competitive position.     

Real options and games: Competition, alliances and other applications of valuation and strategy

This paper illustrates the use of real options valuation and game theory principles to analyze prototypical investment opportunities involving important competitive/strategic decisions under uncertainty. It uses examples from innovation cases, alliances and acquisitions to discuss strategic and competitive aspects, relevant in a range of industries like consumer electronics and telecom. It particularly focuses on whether it is optimal to compete independently or coordinate/collaborate via strategic alliances.     

The adoption of total cost of ownership for sourcing decisions––a structural equations analysis

This study investigates the adoption of total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis to improve sourcing decisions. TCO can be seen as an application of activity based costing (ABC) that quantifies the costs that are involved in acquiring and using purchased goods or services. TCO supports purchasing decision-makers in focusing on total value received and not simply price, and it extends ABC concepts and tools to an inter-organizational context. Based on ABC-adoption literature and focus-group discussions with senior purchasing executives, a model is developed to explain relationships among eight constructs hypothesized to explain TCO adoption: competitive pressure in customer markets, strategic purchasing orientation, top management support, functional management commitment, value analysis experience, adequacy of TCO information, success of TCO initiatives, and use of TCO-based review and reward systems. We test this model using multi-sample structural equation modeling on survey data collected from purchasing managers and plant maintenance managers. We find support for most of our hypotheses and, further, that the posited relationships are largely invariant across purchasing manager and plant maintenance manager perspectives.     

The competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy

When it comes to philanthropy, executives increasingly see themselves as caught between critics demanding ever higher levels of "corporate social responsibility" and investors applying pressure to maximize short-term profits. In response, many companies have sought to make their giving more strategic, but what passes for strategic philanthropy is almost never truly strategic, and often isn't particularly effective as philanthropy. Increasingly, philanthropy is used as a form of public relations or advertising, promoting a company's image through high-profile sponsorships. But there is a more truly strategic way to think about philanthropy. Corporations can use their charitable efforts to improve their competitive context--the quality of the business environment in the locations where they operate. Using philanthropy to enhance competitive context aligns social and economic goals and improves a company's long-term business prospects. Addressing context enables a company to not only give money but also leverage its capabilities and relationships in support of charitable causes. The produces social benefits far exceeding those provided by individual donors, foundations, or even governments. Taking this new direction requires fundamental changes in the way companies approach their contribution programs. For example, philanthropic investments can improve education and local quality of life in ways that will benefit the company. Such investments can also improve the company's competitiveness by contributing to expanding the local market and helping to reduce corruption in the local business environment. Adopting a context-focused approach goes against the grain of current philanthropic practice, and it requires a far more disciplined approach than is prevalent today. But it can make a company's philanthropic activities far more effective.     

公司上市决策与成长性资金需求

公司上市是公司成长阶段最重要的战略决策之一。理论研究表明为公司成长性募集资金是公司上市决策的主要动因。本文对创业板首批上市的宝德股份成长性进行考察,结果表明虽然宝德股份满足创业板对拟上市公司成长性指标的要求,但宝德股份上市之后无论是经营业绩还是股票市场都没有表现出高成长性,由此可见宝德股份很可能并不是为了满足成长性资金需求而选择上市。本文结果表明虽然监管机构试图使股票市场为高成长性公司提供资金促进公司高速成长,然而,股票市场财富效应等原因可能比公司成长性需求更能影响公司的上市决策。