Firm‐ and Individual‐Level Determinants of Balanced Scorecard Usage*/DÉTERMINANTS DE L'USAGE DU TABLEAU DE BORD ÉQUILIBRÉ AU DOUBLE ÉCHELON ORGANISATIONNEL ET INDIVIDUEL

The factors influencing the organizational as well as the individual decision to utilize the balanced scorecard (BSC) approach have not been widely researched. In the first part of this paper, we study BSC adoption at the organizational level while utilizing a multifaceted perspective of socio‐psychological, economic, and resource‐based influences; specifically, we investigate the perceptions of desirability, urgency, and feasibility of BSC adoption. Our findings show that customer norms, competitor norms, and organizational resources are significant predictors of BSC adoption. In the second part of the paper, we discuss individual‐level aspects of utilization decisions. Here, we explore the impact of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and awareness on the intentions to use the BSC approach. Our findings show that both awareness of BSC capabilities and perceived ease of use are significantly related to perceived usefulness. However, only perceived usefulness is significantly related to intentions to use the BSC. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Facilitating co-production in public services: management implications from a systematic literature review

Drawing on the results of a systematic literature review of empirical studies, this paper sheds light on six broad factors that facilitate the initiation and implementation of co-production in public services. The factors are classified into two overarching categories: organizational factors, including organizational arrangements, professional roles, and managerial tools; and procedural factors, including participant recruitment, participant preparation, and process design. For each set of factors, the paper provides a series of management implications. It concludes with additional observations for practice.     

Corporate foresight and innovation management: A portfolio-approach in evaluating organizational development

The transition from a traditional industry-driven economy to a knowledge-based economy requires new concepts and methods for companies to sustain competitive advantage. Here, academia has identified corporate foresight and innovation as key success factors. While, content-wise, the contribution of futures research methods to the innovation process has already been researched, this study strives to explore the status quo of organizational development stages of both concepts. To do so, we developed a portfolio-approach, the so-called ‘Future-Fitness-Portfolio’, which enables companies to qualitatively compare amongst others and identify organizational improvement potential. In addition, we conducted expert interviews to explore future organizational development trends in corporate foresight and innovation management. As our research revealed, five strategic clusters can be identified within the portfolio. Consequently, we propose specific strategies for each individual cluster. We conclude that there will be two main organizational development trends for corporate foresight and innovation management in the future: in traditional industries with conventional business models and long product-life-cycles, companies will follow a different development path than companies in dynamic industries with innovative business models and short product-life-cycles.     

Youth-led social change: Topics,engagement types,organizational types,strategies, and impacts

This paper provides a framework for evaluating youth-led social change. The framework considers: seven topics (e.g., environment, human health and safety, and education); nine engagement types (e.g., volunteerism, research and innovation, and political engagement); six organizational types (e.g., advisory body, social enterprise, and individual); three strategies (socialization, influence, and power); and three scales of impacts (individual, community/inter-organizational, and national/international). Using this framework, empirical research provides evidence of how youth – defined as young people 15–24 years of age – have been agents of change in Canada over the 35 years from 1978 to 2012. A media content analysis of 264 articles, combined with frequency and chi-square tests, were completed to study the factors and the relationships among them. The results show a strong relationship between the impact and the strategy, topic, engagement type, and organizational type. The results also show a strong relationship between the strategy and the impact, engagement type and organizational type. The findings have implications for youth leaders and those who advocate for, work with, support, and educate them, and for those interested in evaluating social change efforts.     

Independent Movement or Government Subcontractor? – Strategic Responses of Voluntary Organizations to Institutional Processes

The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that can explain differing responses of voluntary organizations to the pressure of homogenization that follows from interaction with public authorities. The paper is theoretically based on institutional organization theory and resource dependence theory, and empirically on research on voluntary organizations in the social sector. It is asserted that the following factors may explain voluntary organizations' ability to maintain autonomous in relation to public organizations: the characteristics of the organizational field, the focal organization's relations to the dominating organization in the field, organization characteristics and intra–organizational processes and strategies.     

Toward an integrative framework of organizational control

This paper develops an integrative organizational control model which synthesizes selected contributions of the administrative management school, organizational sociologists and organizational psychologists. The model consists of a core control system embedded in the context of organizational structure, organizational culture and the external environment. Control is defined as attempts by the organization to increase the probability that individuals will behave in ways that will lead to the attainment of organizational objectives. Control of work behavior is accomplished by the four core control mechanisms of planning, measurement, feedback and evaluation-reward. The paper presents propositions for each core control mechanism, relating its impact to work behaviors and outcomes. It also examines the manner in which the contextual factors (culture, etc.) function as control mechanisms on work behavior. Finally, the paper suggests directions for future research on the proposed model. Taken together, the model and the propositions comprise the basis for an integrative framework of organizational control.     

A meta-analysis of factors affecting acceptance of information technology in auditing

Technology advancements provide opportunities for auditors to use new tools in the audit process. This study presents a synthesis of technology-related auditing research to identify factors affecting the use of technology in auditing. We analyze 88 studies in identifying 21 factors relevant to technology acceptance in auditing based on country of origin (developed or developing), user type (external or internal), type of technology (traditional or advanced), firm size (Big 4 or non-Big 4), and publication time (before and after 2013). Our results show that the most important factors in accepting technology from an individual perspective are facilitator conditions, perceived usefulness, and understanding of ease of use. Technology acceptance factors relevant to an organizational perspective are cost-benefit technology, competitive pressure, company readiness, and matching technology-task. Results suggest that perceived usefulness and subjective norm are more important in developed countries and Big 4 audit firms, while auditors in developing countries and non-Big 4 audit firms are more influenced by perceived ease of use, facilitating conditions, and organizational factors. Adopting traditional technologies is also more influenced by understanding the ease of use, subjective norms, and top management support than advanced technologies. This study contributes to the literature by assessing technology acceptance factors in auditing and thus provides policy, practice, and research implications.     

产业链分工下产业区域转移实现的组织机理分析

由产业链跨区域分工所主导的产业区域转移成为当前产业区域转移的主要表现形式。然而在转移过程中是垂直一体化式的生产转移还是去一体化式生产转移成为新型分工下产业区域转移研究关注的重要问题之一。本文以契约理论为基础在两要素投入视角下分析要素禀赋、制度、技术因素、交易成本等对产业链分工下产业转移实现的组织机理的影响。分析发现,产业技术水平、地区要素成本差异以及契约环境是影响产业链跨区域分工及组织方式选择的重要影响因素。     

Information disclosure and the role of the accountant in collective bargaining

Building on the recent literature, this article proposes an analytical framework to better understand organizational disclosure of accounting and other managerial information in collective bargaining. Particular organizational and behavioral factors are identified for assessment of information disclosure policy alternatives. It is concluded that it seems inappropriate to generally assert that a broader disclosure of information in collective bargaining is warranted. Finally, illustrative roles for the accountant in labor relations are presented and a likely role for the future is suggested.     

Social environments and organizational accounting

The determinants of the prevalence of accountants and accounting work in organizations are discussed, starting from a view of organizational structure as created in response to environmental factors. Accounting work is seen as related to the expansion of cultural rationalization—and in particular to forms of rationalization that are not made organizationally complete or self-evident. It arises less in situations of clear vertical and horizontal bureaucratization than in those of the expansion of organizational structure without clear and definite rules of vertical and lateral differentiation.     

The influence mechanism of financial shared service mode on the competitive advantage of enterprises from the perspective of organizational complexity: A force field analysis

Financial transformation is a major organizational change that enterprises face today. Under the influence of information technologies, financial shared service mode has become a better option for enterprise financial transformation. Financial shared service mode has a positive or negative influence on the competitive advantage of enterprises under the promotion of internal and external factors. At the same time, the ever-changing complex environment makes the influence of financial shared service mode on the competitive advantage of enterprises more uncertain.Based on organizational complexity theory, this paper uses both a multi-case study approach and a force field analysis to explore the influence mechanism of financial shared service mode on the competitive advantage of enterprises and constructs the force field model of the influence mechanism. Under the premise of being influenced by the driving forces and restraining forces in the force field model, this paper focuses on the moderating forces associated with organizational complexity on the relationship between financial shared service mode and competitive advantage.The research shows, it is evident that the driving forces and restraining forces in the force field model exert dominant and restrictive effects on competitive advantage respectively through the financial shared service mode. It is vital to find that organizational complexity factors in the force filed model have moderating effect on the influence relationship between competitive advantage and financial shared service mode. Enterprises need to seek solutions to deal with organizational complexity factors under the joint influence of driving forces and restraining forces to maximize the positive influence of financial shared service mode on the competitive advantage of enterprises.     

The effects of ethnic culture and organizational culture on judgments of accountants

This study extends prior cross-cultural research by examining the effects of ethnic culture and organizational culture (Big 4 and non-Big 4 accounting firm affiliations) on the judgments of accountants in Fiji. The study also examines how interaction between ethnic culture and organizational culture influences the judgments of accountants. It examines the extent and the cause of differences between the judgments of Ethnic Fijian and Indo-Fijian accountants when interpreting and applying selected International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). Consistent with their ethnic cultural values, the results show that Indo-Fijian accountants are generally more conservative in their judgments than their Ethnic Fijian counterparts. This study provides empirical evidence to support the view that both ethnic culture and organizational culture have a significant effect on the manner in which accountants within a country interpret uncertainty expressions contained in the IFRSs. The results also show that organizational culture has a greater effect on the judgments of accountants than ethnic culture. The results of this study provide important insights into the factors affecting the judgments of accountants within a country and raise interesting theoretical issues.     

Matrix management: not a structure, a frame of mind

In many of the world's leading corporations, strategic thinking has outdistanced organizational capability. As business challenges have grown more complex over the past 20 years, most companies have avoided the trap of one-dimensional strategic responses-stick to your knitting, stick to the big markets. But many of them have fallen into a second, structural trap and adopted elaborate organizational matrices that actually impair their ability to implement sophisticated strategies. Keeping a company light on its feet strategically while still coordinating its activities across divisions, functions, even continents, means eliminating parochialism, improving communications, and weaving the decision-making process into the company's social fabric. Altering formal structure from the top down is a poor way to achieve these goals. It is easier to work from the bottom up, focusing on the attitudes and behavior of individual managers. The companies that have made best use of this focus-among them NEC, Philips, and Unilever-employ three techniques to capture the capabilities and commitment of each manager: 1. They communicate a clear, consistent corporate vision. 2. They use training and career-path management to broaden individual perspectives and increase identification with corporate goals. 3. They co-opt individual energies and ambitions into the broader corporate-wide agenda. The goal is to build a matrix of corporate values and priorities in the minds of managers and let them make the judgments and negotiate the deals that make strategy pay off.     

Sustainability,institutionalization and the duality of structure: Contradiction and unintended consequences in the political context of an Australian water business

This paper presents the results of a longitudinal case study of an Australian public sector water business in order to examine how, and to what extent, did the institutionalization and deinstitutionalization of internal sustainable and environmental management routines, practices and procedures occur over the period 2001 to the start of 2011. It adopts the Dillard et al. framework of institutionalization which incorporates institutional theory, Weber's axes of tension and structuration theory. In 2001, the criteria for costing and financial reporting practices and the criteria for environmental regulation and management practices were competing at the economic and political economic level, the organizational field level and the organizational level. An unintended consequence of this was no accounting for environmental costs. Environmental management criteria and practices were characterized by compliance with EPA regulatory requirements whilst financial management and costing criteria and practices were characterized by New Public Management criteria. Subsequent to 2001, an unintended consequence of the establishment of separate legislative and regulatory bodies has been the institutionalization of competing legitimating criteria with regard to water conservation, externalities, environmental regulation and financial reporting and costing. Within this context, the organizational field and the organizational level of the individual water business has been characterized by the development of new organizational practices and routines with regard to water conservation as well as unintended consequences and decoupling. At all three levels, the ontological security of agents has been evident in the development of new criteria and practices for sustainable development, whilst the routine procedures of the respective management systems were a source of ontological security to the relevant agents.     

Organization Design — A Set Theoretic Decision Model for the Reinsurance Enterprise

The aim of the paper is to support reinsurance executives who have to decide about an organizational framework structure for their enterprises. To provide the support a decision model is constructed that relieves the decision-makers of parts of their own modelling tasks. The model is formulated in set theoretic terms to connect it to the methodological basis of the structuralist philosophy of science and to prepare the ground for computer simulation. The central assumption of the model is that the quality of coordination is influenced by disruptive factors associated, most notably, with interdependencies between organizational units and the competence-based splitting of markets and resources. The utility creation of an organizational structure is consequently determined by its degree of success in alleviating these disruptive factors — since they cannot be avoided altogether. The outcome of the study is that critical attributes of the disruptive factors are identified and recommendations are formulated as to the organizational actions that should be taken in order to safeguard the desired attributes of these factors.     

Technological and organizational influences on the adoption of activity-based costing in Australia

The present paper examines one set of potential reasons for the paradox as to why so few firms have adopted activity‐based costing (ABC) despite the demonstrated benefits of this costing system. A cross‐sectional survey of Australian firms is used to examine the influence of seven technological and organizational factors on firms’ initial interest in ABC and their decision to adopt it or not. The organizational factors of top management support, the support of an internal champion, and organizational size were shown to be associated with initial interest in ABC. The decision to adopt or reject ABC had one organizational factor associated with it, the support of an internal champion.     

Budgetary biasing in organizations: Theoretical framework and empirical evidence

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of budgetary biasing behaviour. The findings are of both a theoretical and empirical nature. The theoretical results provide a framework containing two major parts: an explanatory model of budgetary biasing at the individual level, and an organizational model for budgetary biasing. In the empirical part of the study an attempt is made to test the usability of the framework in a relatively large firm with several profit-centers. Biasing action is found to be a result of an interplay of various inter-related factors. Overall, the framework is considered to provide a valid basis for trying to understand and interpret the budgetary biasing behaviour in the firm studied.     

Contabilidad de gestión para controlar o coordinar en entornos turbulentos: su impacto en el desempeño organizacional

This study explores management accounting systems’ (MAS) effect on organizational performance in turbulent environments. The information generated by MAS has a different impact on organizational performance depending on its main purpose of use (control or coordination) according to transaction costs theory. Data from a survey with 42 complete answers from medium sized organizations operating in the province of Cordoba (Argentina) show that MAS positively impact organizational performance in turbulent environments if used to coordinate up to a certain level. Their purpose of use is better modeled as another independent variable but not as a mediator between external factors and organizational performance. Previous case studies suggested that MAS's purpose of use was mediating between external factors and organizational performance, but this study shows that in turbulent environments the idea is not valid as managers’ decisions do not affect uncontrollable external factors (market and technology). Performance in medium sized organizations operating in Latin America improves if MAS are used to coordinate, while limiting their use for control purposes to certain and definite tasks such as cost measurement, compensation and incentive mechanisms.     

Synthesizing enterprise data through digital dashboards to strategically align performance: Why do operational managers use dashboards?

Based on a cross-sectional field study, Reinking et al. (2019) propose a complex theoretical model for understanding the characteristics of dashboards that promote use and lead to individual and organizational performance gains. This study tests the theoretical model using survey data collected from 323 middle and upper level managers with experience using corporate dashboards. The data were analyzed using components based structural equation modeling, and the results provide strong support for the external validity of the Reinking et al. (2019) theoretical model. The results show that two primary constructs, strategy alignment and interactive management control, are important factors impacting the extent of dashboard use, perceived managerial performance, and perceived organizational performance. Prior research has expressed concerns over the tendency of managers to lose sight of strategic objectives (i.e., strategy surrogation) and focus solely on performance measures. However, our results indicate that operational managers perceive that dashboards focused on specifically tailored KPIs lead to both improved managerial and organizational performance. This study contributes to management control and strategy research in two important ways. While prior research has examined strategy in the executive level context through evaluations, changes, or initiative implementations, this study investigates strategy alignment at the operational levels of the organization. Second, the results suggest that intentional strategy surrogation may have beneficial effects at the lower operational levels in an organization.     

Nursing home reform: its legislative history and economic impact upon nursing homes

This article presents a legislative history of Subtitle C of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA '87). It articulates the philosophy behind the act and describes the economic and organizational impact on the nursing home industry. Additionally, data from Connecticut nursing homes are analyzed to determine the factors that affect the costs of complying with OBRA.