Mayada Abd El-Aziz Youssef and Habib Mahama
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) in mediating the relationship between enterprise resource planning (ERP) and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) in mediating the relationship between enterprise resource planning (ERP) and three sets of management accounting practices (MAPs): budgeting, costing and performance evaluation. It also examines the extent to which the usage of ERP affects the intensity of the application of various MAPs.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling (SmartPLS 3) is used to analyze data collected from a cross-sectional survey of 82 firms in the UAE. The results indicate that the constructs are valid and reliable and that the model supports the research hypotheses.
Findings
The findings confirm the positive effect of the extent of using ERP systems, as a construct of modules, on the extent of applying three sets of MAPs. They also show that the extent of the use of BI&A systems partially mediates the relationship between the extent of the use of ERP systems and intensity of applying each of the three sets of MAPs.
Practical implications
The results encourage organizations to adopt BI&A to reap the full benefits of ERP.
Originality/value
In contrast to the extant research that presumes a direct influence of ERP on MAPs, this study investigates if the extent of the use of BI&A mediates the presumed relationship between the extent of the use of ERP and intensity of applying each of the three sets of MAPs.
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Mayada Abd El-Aziz Youssef, Esam E. Moustafa and Habib Mahama
This study aims to investigate the mediating role of management control system (MCS) characteristics in the relationship between state type, reflected through societal…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the mediating role of management control system (MCS) characteristics in the relationship between state type, reflected through societal institutions (SIs), and two sets of management accounting techniques (MATs), namely, performance measurement techniques (PMTs) and cost measurement techniques (CMTs).
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data from a cross-sectional survey of 136 firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Findings
The findings show a direct positive impact of state-type construct on MCS characteristics, and that MCS characteristics partially mediate the reported significant relationships between state type and the use of PMTs. While the findings show a similar positive relationship between state type and CMTs, MCS characteristics do not mediate this relationship.
Research limitations/implications
Although these results are affected by limitations associated with the survey method used, they are useful in explaining the necessary conditions supporting the use of MATs in general and performance measurement techniques in particular.
Practical implications
The study uses a cross-section of companies in the UAE, an attractive global investment destination, as its sample. The results can help investors better understand the choice of MATs in the UAE and its relation to MCS characteristics.
Originality/value
This study contributes to management accounting literature by determining the mediating role of MCS characteristics on the relationship between state type and the choice of two sets of MATs, whereas existing literature assumes a direct relation between the two.
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Habib Mahama, Tarek Rana, Timothy Marjoribanks and Mohamed Z. Elbashir
Government reforms have seen shifts from rules-based to principles-based risk regulatory governance. This paper examines the effects of principles-based risk regulatory reforms on…
Abstract
Purpose
Government reforms have seen shifts from rules-based to principles-based risk regulatory governance. This paper examines the effects of principles-based risk regulatory reforms on public sector risk management (RM) and management control practices in public sector organizations (PSOs).
Design/methodology/approach
The principles-based regulation focuses on providing autonomy to PSOs while maintaining control over their actions without direct intervention. This resonates with Foucault's notion of how modern forms of governments operate. The research is informed by Foucault's concept of governmentality. The authors conducted a qualitative field study of an Australian PSO, gathering and analysing data from interviews, focus groups, and archival documents.
Findings
The findings show the capillary modes by which principles-based risk regulatory regime penetrates and works with management control practices in pursuit of regulatory goals within the PSO the authors studied. In addition, the authors find that the principles-based approach (focusing on autonomy) and rules-based approach (focusing on control) are not opposites in kind and effect but rather, autonomy should be understood as a central pillar of control. Furthermore, the findings show how cultural controls and formal controls are not in conflict but are interconnected in RM practices, with cultural controls providing control architecture for RM and formal control translating the control architecture into routines. Finally, the study provides insights into how enterprise risk management (ERM) provides capabilities for and routinizes RM practices in a PSO and the management control systems (MCS) that enabled this to occur.
Originality/value
The paper provides novel insights into how MCS are infiltrated, mobilized and deployed to enact principles-based risk regulatory reforms. These insights are useful for regulators, practitioners and researchers.
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Jennifer Grafton, Anne M. Lillis and Habib Mahama
The purpose of this paper is to set the scene for this special issue by synthesising the vast array of literature to examine what constitutes mixed methods research, and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to set the scene for this special issue by synthesising the vast array of literature to examine what constitutes mixed methods research, and the associated strengths and risks attributed to this approach.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper takes the form of a literature review. The authors draw on extensive methods research from a diverse range of social science disciplines to identify and explore key definitions, opportunities and risks in mixed methods studies. They review a number of accounting studies that adopt mixed methods research approaches. This allows the authors to analyse variance in how mixed methods research is conceptualised across these studies and evaluate the perceived strengths and limitations of specific mixed methods design choices.
Findings
The authors identify a range of opportunities and challenges in the conduct of mixed methods research and illustrate these by reference to both published studies and the other contributions to this special issue.
Originality/value
With the exception of Modell's work, there is sparse discussion of the application and potential of mixed methods research in the extant accounting literature.
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Ahmed Abdel-Maksoud, Said Elbanna, Habib Mahama and Raili Pollanen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the importance of different components of strategic performance measurement systems (SPMS) and their deployment influence the use…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the importance of different components of strategic performance measurement systems (SPMS) and their deployment influence the use of performance information from the SPMS in making strategic decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through a survey of 143 managers of Canadian public organizations.
Findings
The findings indicate that two SPMS components, namely, the importance of non-financial performance measures and the use of operational efficiency measures, have significant positive associations with performance information use for strategy implementation and strategy assessment decisions. The extent to which SPMS models were used is found to be positively associated with performance information use for strategy implementation, but not for strategy assessment, decisions. Furthermore, the relationships between SPMS variables and strategic decision making are moderated by information systems/data limitations and management’s commitment to attaining strategic goals. Managerial skills acquired through training or experience with SPMS also contribute positively to such relationships.
Research limitations/implications
The results are affected by limitations associated with the survey method used.
Practical implications
The findings could be useful for supporting public policy, strategic decision making, public service improvement, operational efficiency, and effectiveness.
Originality/value
The study contributes to public management and performance measurement literature by investigating multiple determinants of performance information use in a cross-section of Canadian public organizations.
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Recent failures and scandals in the banking and financial services industry have served as catalysts for anxiety about operational risk. In particular, the Basel II accord…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent failures and scandals in the banking and financial services industry have served as catalysts for anxiety about operational risk. In particular, the Basel II accord emphasises the need to develop methodologies for assessing and managing this category of risk. However, operational risk is said to be an elusive and problematic concept. This paper aims to examine how certain events in the banking and financial services industry become enframed and constructed as operational risk and how such risk is managed.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on the sociology of risk literature to analyse how an “unauthorised trading” event (and associated losses) that occurred in the currency options trading desk of the National Australia Bank (NAB) was enframed and constructed as operational risk. Data are gathered through metadiscourse analysis of textual materials relating to this event.
Findings
The analysis reveals the social and institutional mechanisms underlying the construction of risk and the contested nature of risk knowledge. In particular, it highlights the significant role of media discourse in articulating risk claims and dominating public discourse about risk. It also highlights the moral character of the concept of risk and how the moralising of risk discourse leads to the creation of particular forms of subjectivities and the operationalisation of certain risk management rationalities in NAB.
Originality/value
The paper will be helpful in improving researchers' and practitioners' understanding of how, in a given field of possibilities, particular events become constructed as operational risk.
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Janine Burghardt and Klaus Möller
This study examines the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. Meaningful work is an important driver of individual performance…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. Meaningful work is an important driver of individual performance of managers, and employees and can be enabled by sufficient use of management controls. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on bibliometric analyses and a structured literature review of academic research studies from the organizational, management and accounting literature, the authors develop a conceptual model of the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work.
Findings
First, the authors propose that the use of formal management controls in a system (i.e. the levers of the control framework) is more powerful than using unrelated formal controls only. Second, they suggest that the interaction of a formal control system together with informal controls working as a control package can even stretch the perception of meaningful work. Third, they argue that the intensity of the control use matters to enhance the perception of meaningful work (inverted u-shaped relationship).
Originality/value
This study presents the first conceptual model of the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. It provides valuable implications for practice and future research in the field of performance management.