The role of attribution theory in control systems

In this paper we develop a revised model of the management control process in light of attribution theory. Attribution theory describes how people seek and use information to structure and to control their social environment. We examine how and why people cognitively interact with feedback information contained in performance reports in making expectancy and variance investigation decisions. We also discuss conflicts that a superior and a subordinate may have due to different attributions used to explain behavior.     

Farmers' Market consumers: a Scottish perspective

Farmers' Markets in Scotland have gradually developed since 1999 as an alternative retail outlet for consumers. Throughout the UK, shoppers have become increasingly concerned about the quality and safety of their food and as a result seek healthier, locally grown organic and non‐organic produce. Thus, the growth of Farmers' Markets is directly related to consumer demand for fresh foods, direct from source, with the high quality of products being a primary reason for shopping. Farmers' Markets are not only seen as a place to buy ‘good food’ but also as a means to express consumer values associated with food choices. Scottish Government efforts to revitalize rural economies through local enterprise initiatives is evidenced by funding the initial establishment of the Scottish Association of Farmers' Market (SAFM), formed in 2000 by market organizers to further their development. The benefits of fresh local produce for Scottish consumers, the revival of a sense of community and the concept of ‘new consumption spaces’ tied to locality means the rural economy benefits from the increase in activity and profits through direct sales. This research investigates consumption habits at farmers' markets through the use of attitudinal theories along with food behaviours and motivations for purchasing. The results demonstrate that a positive attitude is important but the influence of others and barriers are not. Consumers are particularly motivated towards resource conservation and there are distinct differences in attitude between urban and rural shoppers. This research provides a unique insight into the attitudes that influence and motivate Farmers' Market consumers in Scotland.     

Management Accounting Practices in the U.S. and Japan: Comparative Survey Findings and Research Implications*

In recent years, the success of Japanese firms in the global market has prompted efforts to understand the sources of their competitive advantage. It has been suggested that one such source is the Japanese firms' management accounting systems, and a number of articles have claimed that important differences do exist between U.S. and Japanese firms in this area. However, these claims have tended to be supported by anecdotal, rather than systematic, evidence. The objective of this article is to contribute further insights into similarities and differences between U.S. and Japanese firms' management accounting practices. Exhaustive searches of published surveys in the U.S. and Japanese literatures (much of which is in Japanese) provided the basis for U.S.-Japan comparisons on six aspects of management accounting practices. In turn, these comparisons were used for deriving implications for future research. Two major limitations of extant research and, thus, directions for future research are identified. First, future research needs to go beyond the simple use or non-use of techniques to investigate more detailed aspects of technique use. Second, since management accounting is only one component of a firm's total management system, attention also needs to be devoted to the organizational context, process, and goals of a firm's management accounting practices.     

Lessons from management–union partnership in teacher performance appraisal in the New South Wales public education system

Performance appraisal is frequently seen as one of the hallmarks of the ‘new managerialism’ in public sector human resource management. It is also commonly represented as a device for individualizing the employment relationship. Yet even appraisal offers scope for employee voice/participation, both individually and collectively, and for varying degrees of management–union cooperation. This study examines an unlikely case of management–union partnership in performance appraisal – that applied since 2000 to teachers in Australia's largest public schooling bureaucracy, the NSW Department of Education and Training, whose teachers have a long history of union solidarity and industrial militancy. The experiment can be seen as a union retreat from confrontationism, a concession to managerialism, and a resignation to the dominance of individualism over collectivism. However, we argue that it has also widened the scope for both union and employee voice at workplace level.     

Current trends in hospital mergers and acquisitions

Healthcare reform will impact hospital consolidation in three key areas: Payment rates will decrease, indirectly encouraging consolidation by forcing hospitals to find new ways to reduce costs and increase negotiating clout with suppliers and payers. The cost of doing business will increase as hospitals spend more on compliance, technology, and physician employment. The ACO model will encourage hospital network formation by rewarding integrated healthcare systems that can reduce costs and improve quality.     

Antecedents of participative budgeting

This paper has four purposes. First, it analyzes 47 published studies on participative budgeting. Almost all of these studies focus on the effects of participative budgeting and not on its causal antecedents. Second, to provide insight into these antecedents, we report the results of a survey which identifies reasons why managers participate in setting their budgets. Third, we report how these reasons are associated with four theoretical antecedents—environmental and task uncertainty, task interdependence and superior-subordinate information asymmetry. The results indicate that participative budgeting is most important for planning and control, specifically vertical information sharing and co-ordinating interdependence, and that specific reasons for participative budgeting are correlated with three of the antecedents. Finally, directions for future research on participative budgeting are presented.     

Effects of alternative sample space representations on the accuracy of auditors' uncertainty judgments

Elicitation of an auditor's uncertainty judgment for an account requires a focus on either possible audit values or possible book value misstatements. These alternative sample space representations are formally equivalent in that they differ by a known constant (i.e. book value). However, findings in the psychological literature suggest that such a framing variable may affect auditors' information processing when uncertainty judgments are elicited. This paper describes an experiment which measured the effects of alternative sample space representations on the accuracy of auditors' uncertainty judgments. In contrast with the psychological literature, significant judgment accuracy differences were not detected. Potential reasons for and implications of this result are discussed.     

Some effects on information load on search patterns used to analyze performance reports

This paper contains a framework within which to describe how the amount of information in a performance report impacts on a manager's report analysis process. Generally, the data collected from experienced managers as they analyzed performance reports were not completely supportive of the framework based hypotheses. An explanation is presented to account for the discrepancies. Future research could use this explanation to describe further how managers analyze performance reports.