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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of two formal controls, namely target rigidity and process autonomy, on team adaptability and project success in new product development (NPD) projects. Target rigidity refers to performance goals that are non-negotiable once they have been set. Process autonomy refers to the extent to which a project team is free to choose ways to achieve its goals. Team adaptability is considered a key factor that explains the relationship between formal controls and project success.

Two separate models related to resource and cost measures are analysed, since different target types may influence managerial perceptions. This study uses data collected from a survey with 113 project managers as respondents.

The findings show that target rigidity and process autonomy support team adaptability. Furthermore, team adaptability mediates the impact of formal controls on project success. The effects are more pronounced for cost targets as compared to resource targets.

Firms can increase project success by using formal controls in such a way that they allow project managers to provide their teams with motivating guidelines (target rigidity) and discretion (process autonomy) to adapt to new circumstances.

This study reveals the impact of formal controls on NPD project success through team adaptability. A balanced use of target rigidity and process autonomy may help improving NPD project success.

Our study investigates the relationships between risk management systems (RMS), strategy and organizational performance. The existing research has extensively studied the effect of strategy on organizational performance. There is also a growing body of literature suggesting that RMS positively influence the achievement of organizational objectives. However, there are only a few conceptual papers (and no empirical evidence) on the relationship between strategy and RMS. We investigate whether different strategy types (defender, analyzer, prospector, and reactor) induce different levels of RMS development and, hence, affect performance indirectly, as well as directly. We use regression analysis and survey data to test the proposed relationships. Our results confirm the direct effects of strategy type and RMS development on performance. We confirm that prospectors perform better than defenders, analyzers, and reactors across five measures of performance (profitability, sales growth, market share, new product development, and customer satisfaction). We also find that companies with more developed RMS perform better in terms of non-financial performance (measured by new product development). Contrary to the prevailing evidence, we do not find significant results for financial performance. Moreover, our findings show that there is no mediating effect of RMS development in the relationship between strategy type and performance. This implies that RMS and strategy act as independent variables, each individually affecting organizational performance.

Internal control mechanisms are fundamental to organizational governance; particularly, to the agency relationship associated with decentralization of decision rights. Management accounting and organizational literatures provide conflicting predictions on the association between decentralization and internal controls, with some research arguing that internal controls be tightened to mitigate the risks associated with greater decentralization of decision rights while other work avers that tighter internal controls defeat the purposes of decentralization. In this chapter, we argue that managers choose these two organizational design variables jointly. Capitalizing on a unique database of control practices in the purchasing and payment process within the procurement function, this chapter examines the relationship between control tightness – a critical characteristic of internal controls – and decentralization. Using a simultaneous equation model, the study finds that decentralization and internal control design are endogenously determined. Tight control is negatively associated with the level of decentralization, while decentralization has a positive effect on the tightness of control. These results reconcile the apparently contradictory results relating these two variables. The chapter also finds that decentralization and tight control mechanisms operate both independently and synergistically to improve performance.

While balanced scorecards, strategy maps, and causal linkage models have been applied extensively by profit organizations over the last two decades, a similar approach to analysis, called logic models, has been increasingly applied by non-profit and other social-purpose organizations. This chapter provides a discussion of the basics of logic models and shows their application in three different settings, which include personal improvement, the social impact of business schools, and corporate governance. The chapter also provides an extensive discussion on field research and a case study of a leading international business school, wherein logic models were applied followed by social impact measurement. Finally, the chapter includes suggestions for future research that is needed to improve the applications of logic models and social impact measurement and the success of social-purpose organizations including business schools.

The purpose of this research project is to validate the claim that recent developments in the public sector have increased the demand for and use of cost management information in public sector organizations.

The approach taken is a survey of financial managers in public sector organizations in The Netherlands.

The findings indicate that the design and use of cost management systems differs across branches. In addition, the results suggest that information from cost management systems is used to legitimate the organization's activities to external stakeholders rather than to manage public sector organizations. Finally, cost management information is used mostly by financial managers yet hardly used by political managers. The results defy claims that cost management information has become important in managing public sector organizations.

All limitations of survey research apply. The survey is based on a non‐random sample of public sector organizations in The Netherlands; findings may not be transferable to other countries.

Legal and regulatory requirements relating to the use of cost management information may not have their intended effects.

The paper responds to previous calls in literature to use quantitative research methods to generalize findings from previous case studies. Also, the paper empirically tests the use of cost management information in The Netherlands, a country with a Nordic style of public management.

This study establishes a baseline evaluation of sustainability reporting (SR) and integrated reporting (IR) practices among groups of companies globally using a combined evaluation matrix. We evaluate a sample of high performance companies (HPC), global reporting initiative (GRI) companies, international integrated reporting committee (IIRC) companies, and a control group of companies that do not belong to any of these groups. We test for high performance and compliance with a 30-point evaluation matrix for financial reporting, corporate governance, integrated disclosure, SR, and assurance developed from the standards set by GRI and IIRC. This chapter provides evidence as to the current IR and SR states, and shows that considerable variation exists even among companies that have pledged to improve reporting in this arena. The analysis also shows that companies that belong to no special group do in fact score on a level that shows that SR and IR standards are being implemented by many companies in the world, not just those in special groups like the HPC, GRI, and IIRC. Finally, this study provides direction for global regulators and professional associations, and to the management of companies that aspire to HPC status while meeting the IR and SR standards.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether narrative corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures (the provision of textual information on companies’ environmental and social performance to external stakeholders) are associated with firm value in Germany.

Based on the global reporting initiative guidelines, the paper uses content analysis to assess the value relevance of CSR disclosures of 130 German companies over four years.

The results show that CSR information is value-relevant, but the value relevance of CSR information differs among CSR categories. Specifically, the disclosure of social information is positively associated with firm value yet environmental disclosures are not.

The results confirm that management should be aware of the potential capital market effects of voluntary CSR disclosures, even though such disclosures may be directed at other stakeholders.

Germany is an interesting setting as CSR disclosures are voluntarily, even though the institutional environment appears sensitive to CSR disclosures. Despite this, little research has focussed upon the value-relevance of CSR-disclosures in Germany. In addition, the results confirm that management should be aware of the potential capital market effects of voluntary CSR disclosures, even though they are not directed at shareholders as such.

In order to shed light on the implications of the business intelligence (BI) for management accounting (MA) and decision making, this study investigates as to how the use of the BI affects the production, transmission, and reception of performance measures (PM).

To investigate the issue at hand, a case study of an Italian company is carried out. The case study method is deemed suitable to explore the complex, penetrating, and unpredictable relationship between BI and PM.

The case analysis shows that the use of the BI can affect the production of PM by leading the organization to frame PM into an indicator setting. Moreover, the BI can affect the transmission by introducing a new, “visual” approach for presenting PM to decision makers, which is also relevant in the reception as a mobilizing factor.

This study contributes to improving the understanding of BI implications for MA and decision making, which is still limited in the accounting academia. Additionally, this research adds to extant knowledge about the relationship between measurement and management; more specifically, it contributes to understanding the “fate” of PM.

Furthermore, the findings illustrated in this chapter can be relevant from a practical point of view: by showing the role that BI solutions can play in producing and transmitting PM, the study shows the potential contribution of the use of the BI in managing and overcoming problems arising in these phases, favoring the use of these measures.