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This study examines the association between the use of strategic management accounting (SMA) practices and competitive advantage and the moderating role of four aspects of organisational culture – teamwork orientation, outcome orientation, innovation orientation and attention to detail orientation – on this association. Online survey data were collected from 408 accountants in Australian business organisations, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data. The results indicate a positive association between the use of SMA practices and competitive advantage with such an association positively moderated by one cultural dimension, teamwork orientation. Specifically, the findings indicate that the positive effect of SMA practices on competitive advantage is dependent upon the fit between the use of SMA practices and teamwork orientation with more (less) teamwork-oriented organisations exhibiting a stronger (weaker) association between the use of SMA practices and competitive advantage.

This study examines the impact of environmental activity management (EAM) on triple bottom line (TBL) performance and the role that sustainability strategies play in mediating these relationships. Data were collected using a survey of Australian managers and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings indicate that each of the three levels of EAM – Environmental Activity Analysis, Environmental Activity Cost Analysis, and Environmental Activity Based Costing – influence-specific aspects of performance, either directly and/or indirectly through environmental and social sustainability strategies. The findings suggest that managers could enhance their use of EAM practices through the use of sustainability strategies in order to enhance performance. This study provides empirical insight into the impact that EAM practices and environmental and social sustainability strategies have on all three aspects of TBL performance.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of organisational fairness on the association between the emphasis on budgets and budget difficulty with budget value and job stress. Data were collected using an online survey questionnaire with 515 responses from middle and lower-level managers in Australian business organisations. The results indicate that organisational fairness fully mediates the association between budget difficulty with both budget value and job stress. Organisational fairness was not found to mediate the association between the emphasis on budgets with budget value and job stress. Rather, the emphasis on budgets was significantly negatively associated with job stress, implying that a greater emphasis on budgets is desirable in alleviating job stress. The findings have important implications for practice.

This study examines the mediating role of the fairness of performance appraisal on the association between the extent of use of strategic performance measurement systems (SPMSs) with SPMS effectiveness.

Data were collected using an online survey distributed to 656 Australian middle and lower level managers.

The findings reveal that informational fairness mediates the association between SPMSs (link to value drivers and the use of multidimensional performance measures) with performance-related outcomes; procedural fairness mediates the association between SPMSs (link to strategy and the use of multidimensional performance measures) with staff-related outcomes and distributive fairness mediates the association between the use of SPMSs (all three types) with both performance and staff-related outcomes.

The study provides a unique insight into the importance of fairness (the distributive, informational and procedural fairness of the performance appraisal system) in mediating the associations between the extent of use of SPMSs and SPMS effectiveness. The findings contribute to the human resource management (HRM) “black box” literature by providing an insight into the behavioural mechanism through which a specific human resource management practice (i.e. the SPMS) influences organisational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the characteristics of strategic performance measurement systems (SPMSs) influence the effectiveness of such systems. Specifically, the study examines the association between the following three strategic performance measurement approaches with the effectiveness of SPMSs: the use of multidimensional performance measures, the use of performance measures that are linked to value drivers, and the use of performance measures that are linked to strategy.

Data were collected using a mail questionnaire distributed to a random sample of 800 Australian manufacturing and service business units.

The use of multidimensional performance measures is found to positively influence the effectiveness of SPMSs.

Organisations need to strive to design their SPMSs in a manner which considers the achievement of both performance- and staff-related goals, with the findings suggesting that managers need to focus on a broad set of performance measures relating to the four dimensions of the BSC (financial, internal, customer, and learning and growth measures).

This study contributes to the literature by examining the important role that SPMSs play in the achievement of organisational process outcomes. The incorporation of a measure of organisational process effectiveness, and the subsequent identification of the performance-related outcome and staff-related outcome dimensions, provides future researchers with an alternative approach to analyse SPMS effectiveness and provides managers with an insight into how to adjust their SPMS to improve their organisational processes.

Grounded in DiMaggio and Powell’s (1983) institutional isomorphism perspective of institutional theory, the purpose of this study is to examine the influence of institutional pressures on the performance measurement system (PMS) within banks and financial institutions.

A survey was used to collect data from 71 banks and financial institutions operating in Australia.

Four institutional pressures, the normative pressure “corporate change” and the coercive pressures “economic and financial legislation”, “socio-economic political pressures” and “banking regulations” were found to be associated with the use of multi-dimensional performance measures. In addition, the coercive pressure “economic and financial legislation” and the normative pressure “corporate change” were associated with the use of financial, internal and learning and growth performance measures. Finally, the use of internal and learning and growth measures was positively associated with the coercive force “socioeconomic-political pressures”, and the use of financial measures was associated with the coercive pressure “banking regulations”.

Given the recent global financial crisis, the study offers a reference within the contemporary performance measurement literature in relation to the influence of institutional pressures on the PMS within banks and financial institutions.

While prior research has focused on manufacturing organisations, this study deepens our understanding of the institutional environment of banks and financial institutions and how specific coercive, mimetic and normative forces influence the PMS.

This study focuses on the role of green human resource management (GHRM) practices through providing an empirical insight into the mediating role of the use of environmental performance measures (EPMs) in the association between Simons’ (1995) positive levers of control (beliefs and the interactive use of controls) with environmental and organisational performance.

A survey questionnaire was distributed to 577 chief financial officers within Australian manufacturing organisations who were randomly chosen from the OneSource online database.

The use of operational EPMs is found to mediate the association between the use of the positive levers of control with two of the four dimensions of environmental performance (resource usage and stakeholder interaction), and non-financial performance (through stakeholder interaction). In addition, the use of management EPMs mediates the association between the use of the positive levers of control with the regulatory compliance dimension of environmental performance. The findings highlight the importance of GHRM practices, in particular, the need for managers to focus on the positive levers of control and using operational EPMs and management EPMs to a greater extent.

The study contributes to the limited empirical research examining GHRM practices, highlighting the importance of EPMs and integrating such measures with internal control mechanisms, specifically beliefs and the interactive use of controls.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the contingency-based literature examining the effectiveness of the intensity of control, which represents the combined use of Simons’s (1995) four levers of control: beliefs, boundary, diagnostic use of controls and interactive use of controls. Specifically, the study examines the association between the intensity of control with multidimensional performance measures (financial, customer, learning and growth, quality and internal business processes) and organisational performance (cost, delivery and flexibility).

A survey questionnaire was distributed to either the chief financial officers or financial controller within 645 Australian manufacturing organisations identified in the Onesource online database. Structural Equation Modelling was used to analyse the association between the intensity of control with multidimensional performance measures, and the association between multidimensional performance measures with organisational performance. The mediating effect of multidimensional performance measures on the association between the intensity of control and organisational performance was tested using the bootstrapping with bias-correct confidence intervals method.

The intensity of control is associated with the extent of use of multidimensional performance measures with the latter found to mediate the association between the intensity of control and performance (cost, delivery and flexibility). Additional analysis suggests that the extent of use of financial and quality measures mediates the association between the intensity of controls and cost performance; the extent of use of internal process and quality measures mediates the association between the intensity of controls and delivery performance; and the extent of use of internal process measures mediates the association between the intensity of controls and flexibility performance.

The findings imply that management should employ a broader perception towards the use of performance measures both as a means of supporting the implementation of controls and facilitating enhanced organisational performance.

The study addresses the concern raised that the existing management control systems (MCSs) literature remains “piecemeal” due to the lack of recognition of the interdependency between different controls and the inability of researchers to examine MCSs as a holistic package. Specifically, this study provides insights into how the combined use of the four levers of controls and multidimensional performance measures can enhance specific aspects of organisational performance.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of the fairness of the performance evaluation system on the association between the controllability of financial and non-financial measures and managerial performance.

Data was collected using an online survey questionnaire, with 220 responses received from middle and lower-level managers in Australian manufacturing organisations. Covariance-based structural equation modelling using software AMOS 25 was applied to analyse the data. Specifically, Anderson and Gerbing’s (1988) two-step approach was followed with confirmatory factor analyses first conducted to ensure that the measurement model was valid and reliable before running the structural model.

The findings reveal that the influence of managers’ controllability of performance measures on managerial performance is enacted through their perceptions of fairness. Specifically, the impact of controllability of financial (non-financial) measures on managerial performance is enacted through managers’ perceptions of distributive (interpersonal) fairness.

The empirical findings contribute to the literature investigating the empirical consequences of managers’ controllability of performance measures on performance evaluation processes, with the results revealing that the controllability of both financial and non-financial performance measures is positively associated with managerial performance via managers’ perceptions of different dimensions of fairness. Such results suggest that organisations, most of which do not prioritise the use of controllable performance measures in the design of their performance evaluation systems, need to reconsider the importance of the controllability of both financial and non-financial measures in the performance evaluation processes.

This study uses the survey method to examine the associations between the three levels of environmental activity management (EAM) (environmental activity analysis, environmental activity cost analysis and environmental activity based costing) with environmental management systems (EMSs), and assesses the effectiveness of these EAM practices and EMSs by examining their associations with both environmental and financial performance. While this study is unable to assert causality, the findings provide an important insight into the need to integrate EMSs and EMA practices, specifically EAM. In addition, the findings provide an initial insight into the relationship between the extent of use of these practices and organisational performance (environmental and financial).

Data was collected using a mail survey of 659 manufacturing organisations identified from the Onesource on-line database. A total of 140 completed questionnaires were returned (21.2%), 72 (10.9%) following the initial mail-out, and a further 68 (10.3%) from the follow-up mail-out.

In respect to the association between EAM and EMSs, this study provides empirical evidence to support the integration of EAM practices with the use of EMSs, suggesting the relationships between the two is bi-directional. In respect to the association between EMSs with environmental and financial performance, while the extent of use of EMSs is not associated with financial performance, there is strong evidence supporting the positive association between EMSs with environmental performance. Further, while there are minimal results regarding the direct association between the three EAM practices and environmental performance, a cyclical relationship between EAM and financial performance is identified.

This study contributes to the literature by providing an empirical insight into the relationship between the extent of adoption of EMSs and the use of EMA. The focus on the relationship between EMSs and EMA is pertinent owing to the sparse research on EMA practices and the “importance of using such [EAM] practices and integrating them within the organisation rather than using them on an ad hoc basis” (Phan et al., 2018, p. 657). This study also contributes to the literature by examining the effectiveness of both practices in respect to their association with environmental and financial performance.