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Article
Publication date: 1 October 2002

Li‐cheng Chang, Stephen W. Lin and Deryl N. Northcott

The NHS in the UK has recently adopted a new Performance Assessment Framework (PAF), aiming to provide a broader view of performance within the NHS. The PAF is not only a…

6344

Abstract

The NHS in the UK has recently adopted a new Performance Assessment Framework (PAF), aiming to provide a broader view of performance within the NHS. The PAF is not only a multi‐stakeholder approach reflecting various stakeholders’ interests across six dimensions, but is also used by the Government as a strategic management tool to link national strategies with local operation activities. The Government claims that the PAF is a “balanced scorecard” approach. This study discusses the concepts of the BSC underlying the NHS PAF.

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Journal of Management in Medicine, vol. 16 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-9235

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Article
Publication date: 4 September 2017

Mahmood Ahmed Momin, Deryl Northcott and Mohammed Hossain

This paper aims to investigate the greenhouse gas (GHG)-related disclosure trends, content and strategies of the eight most high GHG-emitting Chinese power companies, over a…

899

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the greenhouse gas (GHG)-related disclosure trends, content and strategies of the eight most high GHG-emitting Chinese power companies, over a period when government pressure to manage GHG emissions increased.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from the 2000-2009 annual reports, corporate social and environmental responsibility reports and websites of eight Chinese power companies. Content analysis results were supplemented with excerpts from documents written in English or Chinese. Legitimacy theory informed the interpretation of the findings.

Findings

GHG-related disclosures increased from 2002 when the Chinese Government ratified the Kyoto Protocol and promulgated stringent environmental regulations. However, some expected types of GHG-related disclosure were absent or rare. Disclosure practices were found to be underpinned by reputation management objectives and reflected a symbolic rather than substantive legitimation strategy.

Research limitations/implications

This study extends the literature on GHG-related disclosures by carbon-intensive firms and points to the need for future research to examine such disclosures in different countries to appreciate the variety in practice.

Practical implications

While the Chinese Government appears to have driven the emergence of GHG-related disclosure practices, companies can effect improvement by expanding the scope and content of what they disclose. Also, the growing emphasis on website disclosures may present challenges in ensuring the reliability and assurance of GHG disclosures.

Originality/value

This is the first study to examine GHG-related disclosure practices by Chinese power-generating companies, a sector crucial to managing the GHG effects of China’s significant economic growth.

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Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 13 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

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Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 February 2024

Jari Huikku, Elaine Harris, Moataz Elmassri and Deryl Northcott

This study aims to explore how managers exercise agency in strategic investment decisions (SIDs) by drawing on their knowledgeability of the strategic context. Specifically, the…

969

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore how managers exercise agency in strategic investment decisions (SIDs) by drawing on their knowledgeability of the strategic context. Specifically, the authors address the role of position–practice relations and irresistible causal forces in this conduct.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examine SID-making (SIDM) practices in four case organisations operating in highly competitive markets, conducting interviews with managers at various levels and analysing company documents. Drawing on strong structuration theory, the authors show how managerial decision makers draw upon their knowledge of organisational context when exercising agency in SIDs.

Findings

The authors provide insights into how SIDM behaviour, specifically agents’ conduct, is shaped by a combination of position–practice relations and the agents’ comprehension of their organisation’s context.

Research limitations/implications

The authors extend the SIDM literature by surfacing the issue of how actors’ conjuncturally-specific knowledge of external structures shapes the general dispositions they draw on in exercising agency in practice.

Originality/value

The authors extend the SIDM literature by surfacing the issue of how actors’ conjuncturally-specific knowledge of external structures shapes the general dispositions they draw on in exercising agency in practice. Particularly, the authors contribute to this literature by identifying irresistible causal forces and illuminating why actors might not resist in SIDM processes, despite having the potential to do so.

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Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 20 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

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Article
Publication date: 19 March 2020

Fadi Alkaraan

This paper aims to examine the adoption of conventional and emergent analysis techniques in Strategic Investment Decision-Making (SIDM) practices in large UK manufacturing…

2314

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the adoption of conventional and emergent analysis techniques in Strategic Investment Decision-Making (SIDM) practices in large UK manufacturing companies. It aims to update the current knowledge on SIDM practices in large manufacturing companies. The research question underlying this study: Are recently developed analysis techniques (i.e. those that aim to integrate strategic and financial analyses) being used to evaluate strategic investment projects?

Design/methodology/approach

The research evidence underpinning this study was made up of primary and secondary data, quantitative and qualitative. Firstly, a survey consisting of a mailed formal standard questionnaire was conducted where each respondent is required to answer the same questions based on the same system of coded responses. Secondly, qualitative data was collected using the annual reports of selected companies. Disclosures were used as supplementary source of information using the explanatory notes and parenthetical disclosures accompanying companies’ financial reporting. Sources for these disclosures included management discussions, analyses of company strategy and risk and forward-looking reports regarding future performance and growth opportunities (such as mergers and acquisitions activities). Accordingly, companies’ disclosures were used in this study as an alternative method to semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data. More recently, companies such as Rio Tinto have prepared strategic annual reports for 2017 against the UK Corporate Governance Code (version 2016).

Findings

The choice and use of financial analysis techniques and risk analysis techniques depend on the type of project being evaluated. Decision makers in large UK companies do not appear to use emergent analysis techniques widely. Pre-decision control mechanisms have significant influence on SIDM practices. This includes the changes of internal and external contextual factors, including organisational culture, organisational strategies, financial consideration, comprising formal approval governance mechanisms, regulatory and other compliance policies interact with companies’ internal control systems. Companies incorporate non-financial factors alongside quantitative analysis of strategic investments opportunities. Energy efficiency and carbon reduction are key imperatives of companies’ environmental management. These factors viewed by decision makers as significant factors relevant for compliance with legislation as well as maintaining companies’ legitimacy issues, sustainable business, experience with new technology and improved company image.

Research limitations/implications

High risk, ambiguity and complexity are key characteristics embedded in SIDM processes. Macroeconomic issues remain crucial factors in scanning and screening investment opportunities, as reported by this study. The early stage of SIDM processes requires modelling under macroeconomic scenarios and assumptions of both internal and external parameters. Key assumptions include: projections of economic growth; commodity prices and exchange rates, introduction of technological and productivity advancements; cost and supply parameters for major inputs. SIDM practices rooted on comprehensive knowledge and experience of the industry and markets to draw subjective judgements about the riskiness of prospective projects, but these are rarely formalized into their SIDM processes. Findings of this study, however, remain within the context of UK companies. This study has its own limitations due to its time, location, respondents and sample selection, the size and the sector of the selected companies and questions addressed. Findings of this study raise a call for future research to examine SIDM processes in different settings to explore the relative impact of various organisational control mechanisms on SIDM practices. Also, to examine the influence of contextual factors (such as national culture, political, legal and social factors) on organisational control mechanisms. SIDM practices and processes have received significant attention from researchers, yet there is a lack of evidence in the literature about how companies approach strategic decision-making regarding divestments of some of their strategic investments. This type of strategic decision-making is not less important than other types of SIDM practices.

Practical implications

SIDM practices reflect the art and science of steering and controlling organisational resources to achieve a desired strategy. To understand the factors that shape SIDM practices and align them to organisational strategy, more attention is required to the choice and design of pre-decision controls and to the important role of strategic management accounting tools over the more traditional financial analysis techniques that have formed the focus of much prior empirical research.

Social implications

Key environmental issues viewed by decision makers as significant factors relevant for compliance with legislation as well as maintaining companies’ legitimacy issues and company image.

Originality/value

Despite their perceived importance in this study, quantitative accounting controls may fail to connect with the kind of investment decision-making required to bring strategic success. Indeed, it has been widely noted that financial evaluation techniques are inadequate for assessing strategic investment proposals; they can only function as a guideline, as SIDM practices involve so many uncertainties, risks and judgements. A key insight from this study is that the achievement of integration between the firm’s strategic investment projects and the overall organizational strategy forms a critical pre-decision control on managerial behaviour at an early stage in SIDM practices. As many strategic investment decisions are one-off, non-repeatable decisions, the information needed to support their evaluation is likely to be similarly unique. Sound SIDM practices require the support of a large amount of varied information, a significant proportion of which is collected and analysed prior to potential capital investment projects being considered, such as information related to strategic goal setting, risk-adjusted hurdle rates and the design of appropriate organisational decision hierarchies.

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Article
Publication date: 19 September 2016

Elaine Pamela Harris, Deryl Northcott, Moataz Moamen Elmassri and Jari Huikku

In the field of strategic investment decision making (SIDM) a body of research has grown up via international case studies and organisation-based fieldwork. However, there has…

5489

Abstract

Purpose

In the field of strategic investment decision making (SIDM) a body of research has grown up via international case studies and organisation-based fieldwork. However, there has been little systematic theorisation around SIDM processes and practices. The purpose of this paper is to show how strong structuration theory (SST) can be employed to guide how future SIDM studies are conducted and theorised.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw upon the concepts from SST to reanalyse prior empirically based work. The authors apply SST-informed analysis to four SIDM case studies selected from the total of 18 published over the period 1970-2016 to explore the utility of SST compared with other approaches.

Findings

The analysis highlights the role of agents’ knowledgeability and position-practice relations in SIDM, which has largely been neglected by prior studies. The authors demonstrate the potential of SST to inform meso-level theorising by applying it to four published case studies. Whilst the authors argue for the adoption of SST, the authors also identify key methodological and conceptual issues in using SST in SIDM research.

Research limitations/implications

The examples and recommendations could assist management accounting researchers, particularly those engaged in case studies and organisational fieldwork, to build knowledge via the improved comparison, integration and theorisation of cases undertaken by different researchers in different contexts.

Originality/value

The authors offer a bridge between SST concepts and case study evidence for theorising, carrying out and analysing case study and field research on SIDM.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 29 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

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Article
Publication date: 1 October 2005

Deryl Northcott and Sue Llewellyn

This paper aims to bring greater clarity to the debate on the merits (or demerits) of relative performance evaluation through a broad assessment of current UK National Health…

3824

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to bring greater clarity to the debate on the merits (or demerits) of relative performance evaluation through a broad assessment of current UK National Health Service (NHS) benchmarking. It seeks to examine whether benchmarking is being used dynamically to disseminate best practice in healthcare, or whether it is primarily a government tool to enforce static competitive performance standards.

Design/methodology/approach

Draws on recent literature and government pronouncements. It charts the development of the health care policy discourse that articulated a move from the internal market of the early 1990s to the metrics approach of New Labour.

Findings

Benchmarking is one of the private sector‐grown “managerialist” tools whose application and significance is rapidly increasing in the UK public sector. Despite its prevalence, the nature (competitive or comparative), the process (based on indicators or ideas) and the outcomes (standards or “best practice”) of benchmarking in public services remain unclear. The findings reveal that benchmarking requirements, imposed by government policy, are articulated in terms of comparative ideas – benchmarking with the stated objective of “sharing best practice”, but are operationalised and disseminated in the form of indicator league tables with standardised benchmarks for performance. Hence, there is an apparent “articulated policy – implemented practice gap”. Concludes that, whilst benchmarking is a highly desirable policy instrument, its practical relevance to health care improvement is still in doubt.

Originality/value

The findings are relevant to both NHS policy‐makers and to NHS actors who must engage with the processes and outcomes of benchmarking practices.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. 12 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

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Article
Publication date: 12 June 2007

Fadi Alkaraan and Deryl Northcott

This paper seeks to explore how aspects of pre‐decision control mechanisms impact managerial decision‐making behaviour with regard to strategic investment projects.

5594

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to explore how aspects of pre‐decision control mechanisms impact managerial decision‐making behaviour with regard to strategic investment projects.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopted a mixed‐method research approach. Research evidence was collected using a questionnaire survey of 320 large UK companies and eight semi‐structured follow‐up interviews with financial directors who responded to the questionnaire.

Findings

The study offers insights into the use and impact of pre‐decision control mechanisms such as: organizational strategy and operating objectives; expectations regarding the involvement of organizational personnel; formal approval procedures; financial evaluation requirements; pre‐determined hurdle rates; established authorization levels and the influence of managerial intuition.

Originality/value

This study adds to prior understandings of capital investment practice by employing mixed methods to examine how pre‐decision controls shape the outcomes of strategic investment decision making. Pre‐decision controls have received little attention within the prior literature, which focuses primarily on project financial analysis.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 4 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

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Article
Publication date: 22 March 2011

Deryl Northcott and Janine Smith

The purpose of this paper is to draw on the perspectives and experiences of New Zealand board members to propose a balanced scorecard (BSC) for use in measuring and managing the…

3364

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to draw on the perspectives and experiences of New Zealand board members to propose a balanced scorecard (BSC) for use in measuring and managing the performance of boards.

Design/methodology/approach

The views of 35 board members were elicited via semi‐structured interviews. The interview evidence was analysed using a multi‐step coding process to arrive at key themes on the functions, characteristics and outcomes of effective and ineffective boards. These themes were then used as a basis for proposing an appropriate structure and content for a BSC that reflects board members' perceptions of key factors driving board performance.

Findings

New Zealand board members see behavioural measures of board performance as generally more useful than operational and financial measures. Further, strong relationships and strategic clarity are seen as both drivers of good performance and key outcomes of effective boards. Consequently, the proposed BSC incorporates multi‐dimensional outcome (i.e. lagging) measures. It also recognises the importance of including subjective measures, rather than focusing on readily quantifiable measures that board members perceive as less informative.

Research limitations/implications

This paper provides insight into the perspectives of practising board members and informs the literature on board effectiveness. The proposed BSC adds to the performance management literature in regard to evaluating and managing the performance of boards. However, further studies are now required to test its practical utility.

Practical implications

The proposed BSC provides a potentially useful tool for evaluating the performance of boards of directors.

Originality/value

Few studies of board effectiveness have accessed the views and experiences of practising board members as this study does. Also, little prior research exists on the potential for applying a BSC approach to measuring and managing board performance.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

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Article
Publication date: 30 March 2012

Deryl Northcott and Tuivaiti Ma'amora Taulapapa

This paper aims to examine the use of the balanced scorecard (BSC) as a performance management tool in the public sector. Drawing on a New Zealand study of local government…

15834

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the use of the balanced scorecard (BSC) as a performance management tool in the public sector. Drawing on a New Zealand study of local government organzations (LGOs), it seeks to identify issues and challenges in implementing the BSC in public sector contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

A postal questionnaire was used to solicit public sector managers' views on the usefulness of the BSC and the factors that support or impede its implementation in practice. Follow‐up interviews with selected respondents allowed for more in‐depth exploration of managers' experiences of BSC use and outcomes.

Findings

The findings reveal low rates of BSC adoption amongst the studied LGOs. Further, perceived BSC utility is dominated by performance measurement and reporting, while the performance management role of the BSC remains relatively under‐exploited. This study identifies users' perceptions of the key challenges impeding BSC implementation in the public sector, and highlights their significance for both practice and theory.

Research limitations/implications

This paper highlights the need for improved theorisation on several issues that present particular challenges in public sector BSC practice: modifying the BSC dimensions, designing measures that capture important qualitative outcomes, identifying the “customer” and/or achieving a genuine multi‐stakeholder approach, and mapping BSC causality relationships.

Practical implications

Improved awareness of the factors perceived to lead to successful and unsuccessful BSC implementation may enhance the uptake and utility of the BSC for measuring and managing performance in public sector organisations.

Originality/value

This study examines BSC use in local government, where it has been relatively under‐researched. It adds to prior studies by specifically examining the factors that support and impede the effective implementation of the BSC in public sector contexts.

Details

International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3558

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Article
Publication date: 15 August 2016

Lee D. Parker and Deryl Northcott

The purpose of this paper is to identify and articulate concepts and approaches to qualitative generalisation that will offer qualitative accounting researchers avenues for…

6339

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify and articulate concepts and approaches to qualitative generalisation that will offer qualitative accounting researchers avenues for enhancing and justifying the general applicability of their research findings and conclusions.

Design/methodology/approach

The study and arguments draw from multidisciplinary approaches to this issue. The analysis and theorising is based on published qualitative research literatures from the fields of education, health sciences, sociology, information systems, management and marketing, as well as accounting.

Findings

The paper develops two overarching generalisation concepts for application by qualitative accounting researchers. These are built upon a number of qualitative generalisation concepts that have emerged in the multidisciplinary literatures. It also articulates strategies for enhancing the generalisability of qualitative accounting research findings.

Research limitations/implications

The paper provides qualitative accounting researchers with understandings, arguments and justifications for the generalisability of their research and the related potential for wider accounting and societal contributions. It also articulates the key factors that impact on the quality of research generalisation that qualitative researchers can offer.

Originality/value

This paper presents the most comprehensively sourced and developed approach to the concepts, strategies and unique deliverables of qualitative generalising hitherto available in the accounting research literature.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 29 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

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