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1 – 7 of 7Denis Travaillé and Gérald Naro
This paper aims to focus on the role of management control function in the strategies of corporate social responsibility adopted by companies. Since the years 1980/1990…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on the role of management control function in the strategies of corporate social responsibility adopted by companies. Since the years 1980/1990, multidimensional models appeared that give an integrated or balanced representation of performance. In parallel, facing the challenges of sustainable development (SD) and taking them into account in the management of companies, the concept of overall performance has developed. But, at the same time, research based on neo-institutional sociology suggests on the contrary the existence of a loose coupling between a management control oriented towards the search for legitimacy and the internal practices of management control.
Design/methodology/approach
The study took place between 2010 and 2015. In 2010, the authors conducted a primary exploratory survey of a sample of 40 management controllers. The study was continued in 2015 by a survey of 60 management accountants. The questionnaires were administered electronically. Sorting and cross-sorting, along with tests of independence based on the χ2 test, were carried out.
Findings
The results of the surveys have allowed us to observe the absence of significant links between proactive strategies displayed by companies in SD and the missions and instruments of management control. These latter would focus solely on measurement, monitoring and reporting of an exclusively economic and financial performance.
Research limitations/implications
This is an exploratory study among French controllers. This study could be deepened by an international survey of a larger sample and by case studies with different managers involved in SD steering.
Practical implications
The study highlights the need to involve management controllers in steering SD.
Social implications
While the literature in management control highlights the role of management accountants in the strategic alignment of SD, this study has shown the weakness of this role.
Originality/value
The article shows the weak involvement of management controllers in the implementation of SD, while the latter would want to become more involved in the steering of SD.
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Keywords
Gérald Naro and Denis Travaillé
The aim of this paper is to confront the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) with Simons’ levers of control model and to discuss its role in the various phases of the strategic process. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to confront the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) with Simons’ levers of control model and to discuss its role in the various phases of the strategic process. The authors examine the role of the BSC as a tool of interactive and diagnostic control by making a distinction between its design phase and its phase of use.
Design/methodology/approach
An action research approach, based on two cases, was used to investigate the role of the balanced scorecard in strategic processes.
Findings
The results show that the BSC generates a process of collective elucidation favouring the forming of emergent strategies and a process of control of the change favouring the collective representations on the strategy. The BSC thus seems to be a relevant tool for interactive control during its implementation stage. On the other hand, the authors’ observations also show the failure of the BSC as a system of diagnostic control and of interactive control during its using stage. Ultimately, it is shown that the model of Simons provides the BSC with a relevant theoretical framework to clarify the practice of strategic control.
Research limitations/implications
The study highlights the interest of field studies, and more particularly, processuals and longitudinal approaches, in management accounting research.
Practical implications
The study of two cases underlines the strategic contribution of the BSC by highlighting its role in building a strategy.
Originality/value
The field study allows us to observe how the design of a management control tool such as the BSC occurs during the strategy‐forming phase.
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Samuel Moretti Bernardo, Rosley Anholon, Olivio Novaski, Dirceu Silva and Osvaldo Luiz Gonçalves Quelhas
The purpose of this paper is to identify what are the main causes that lead strategies to decline at execution phase.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify what are the main causes that lead strategies to decline at execution phase.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopted the strategy of survey with the 69 Brazilian businessmen. The questionnaire was developed from 16 causes pointed out in the literature and the results analyzed using Cronbach’s α coefficient, multidimensional scaling, exploratory factor analysis and Pearson correlation coefficient.
Findings
The results of statistical analysis showed that the main causes are primarily associated to leaders’ defaults during execution strategies, lack of support and feedback of senior management, no involvement of the teams during the strategies formulation, failure of communication on the strategic objectives in all organizational levels, and others.
Research limitations/implications
The 69 businessmen work in different sectors and there may be specific causes for each sector. The research presented by this paper did not have objectives to analyze specific sectors of the economy.
Practical implications
The results are extremely important and useful for managers during the implementation phase of the strategies and researchers in the field of business strategies.
Originality/value
There are no research with the same focus and objective presented by this paper about Brazilian companies.
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Keywords
Roots of global Terrorism are in ‘failed’ states carved out of multiracial empires after World Wars I and II in name of ‘national self‐determination’. Both sides in the Cold War…
Abstract
Roots of global Terrorism are in ‘failed’ states carved out of multiracial empires after World Wars I and II in name of ‘national self‐determination’. Both sides in the Cold War competed to exploit the process of disintegration with armed and covert interventions. In effect, they were colluding at the expense of the ‘liberated’ peoples. The ‘Vietnam Trauma’ prevented effective action against the resulting terrorist buildup and blowback until 9/11. As those vultures come home to roost, the war broadens to en vision overdue but coercive reforms to the postwar system of nation states, first in the Middle East. Mirages of Vietnam blur the vision; can the sole Superpower finish the job before fiscal and/or imperial overstretch implode it?
Mesdames et Messieurs les invités, Chers membres, Il m'a rarement été possible d'ouvrir un de nos Congrès en un endroit aussi riche en traditions que celui où nous nous trouvons…
Abstract
Mesdames et Messieurs les invités, Chers membres, Il m'a rarement été possible d'ouvrir un de nos Congrès en un endroit aussi riche en traditions que celui où nous nous trouvons aujourd'hui. Rempli d'émotion, je vous souhaite la bienvenue à Athènes.
The French, and increasingly French libraries, are online on the networks. French print publishing is in trouble. Online full text is one of the promising developments in the…
Abstract
The French, and increasingly French libraries, are online on the networks. French print publishing is in trouble. Online full text is one of the promising developments in the forefront of network development. Despite some small but stubborn problems such as copyright and pricing, online full text may represent a way out of their problems for the publishers. One new Minitel service and the general direction of the largest French publisher may indicate an impending marriage of the two sets of problems, and of their possibilities.
Tatjana M. König, Theresa B. Clarke, Maria Hellenthal and Irvine Clarke III
This study utilizes social communication theory as the framework to examine the influence of personality on young word-of-mouth (WoM) and electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) audiences…
Abstract
Purpose
This study utilizes social communication theory as the framework to examine the influence of personality on young word-of-mouth (WoM) and electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) audiences across the US, France and Germany and explores relationships between personality traits and cultural dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
An adaptation of the consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII) scale measured WoM influence in an online review context. After pretesting and validating the consumer susceptibility to online review influence (CSRI) scale in Luxemburg, hypotheses were tested, and research questions were explored in a multi-group structural equation model based on French, German and US samples.
Findings
Personality traits are negatively linked to CSRI as well as to CSII across the three countries. Overall, the stronger the personality traits, the weaker the online and offline WoM influence seems. In contrast to France, results for the US and Germany show that young people are either more susceptible to WoM or to eWoM influence. Results imply tendencies for a potential interaction effect between power distance and openness to new experience on WoM and partially on eWoM.
Practical implications
Earned media is more effective among audiences with weaker personality structures. Stronger personalities may prefer to serve as senders of WoM and eWoM (influencers). The non-uniform results between WoM and eWoM susceptibility across the countries favor earned media strategies optimized on a country basis and psychological targeting when communicating online review results.
Originality/value
This study expands knowledge of individual (personality traits) and country similarities and differences across France, Germany and the US and how they affect earned media (WoM and eWoM) influence.
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