Majidul Islam, Ashrafee Tanvir Hossain and Lokman Mia
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of strategic alliance (SA) and innovation on organizational sustainability using data from North American organizations listed in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of strategic alliance (SA) and innovation on organizational sustainability using data from North American organizations listed in the Dunn-Bradstreet database. While organizational economic sustainability could be achieved in several ways, this research investigates the relationship of engagement in SA, product life cycle (PLC) and innovation with organizational sustainability from the perspective of the strategy-based balanced scorecard (BSC) that incorporates the mix of financial as well as environmental and social concerns in an environment.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports the results of an empirical study investigating the above relationships in Canadian and American organizations listed in the Dunn & Bradstreet database. The authors analyze the responses to the survey consisting of the questions about firm’s internal process, external environment, strategy, BSC perception and corporate performance of the companies who indicated that they use the BSC.
Findings
Consistent with the authors’ predictions, results show that there are positive and significant relationships between PLC and SA, between innovation and sustainability, and between innovation and SA (though positive but not significant), thus providing support for the hypotheses. Though the methodology the authors applied is acceptable in management accounting research, the authors recognize that there are limitations of this study and further studies are necessary before the results can be generalized.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence encompassing the areas of SA, innovation and performance leading toward sustainability.
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Yi‐Feng Yang and Majidul Islam
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the influence of transformational leadership (TL) on job satisfaction by using the business perspective of the balanced scorecard.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the influence of transformational leadership (TL) on job satisfaction by using the business perspective of the balanced scorecard.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an empirical study of the top four life insurance firms in Taiwan – Cathay, Nan Shan, Shin Kong, and Cumshaw Post Company – that held more than 50 percent of Taiwan's overall market share. The sales employees of these four firms were selected for empirical testing, since in these firms, emphasis is placed on leadership and on how the employees' job satisfaction is reflected in the reduction of internal process costs.
Findings
Consistent with earlier predictions, the authors attained significant results, but they did find that group maintenance, group goal achievement behaviors, and their complementarity truly helped enhance employee job satisfaction. This suggests that group maintenance and group goal achievement behaviors, including their complementarity, will provide a more accurate prediction of the relation between intrinsic and extrinsic components of employee job satisfaction and achieving the objective of an internal business advantage.
Research limitations/implications
Only four firms have been examined in this study. It would be worthwhile to see whether the inclusion of other firms would show similar results. When these four firms are placed in a dynamic environment, TL is a key source for providing an internal business advantage: employee capability to react positively to change provides a very important advantage. Although the integration of both TL and change‐oriented action by the TL and employees to provide employee job satisfaction has not been tested before, it would be useful for future researchers and practitioners to do so.
Originality/value
This paper is of both theoretical and empirical value. Theoretically, it has tried to make use of the business perspective of the BSC. Empirically, this paper has demonstrated the influence of TL in gaining an internal business advantage. There is a dearth of research on how firms successfully integrate the business perspective of the BSC to gain an internal business advantage. The paper investigated the effects on intrinsic and extrinsic components of employee job satisfaction of group direct behaviors as motivated by transformational leadership (TL), including examining group maintenance, group goal achievement, and the interaction between the two (their complementarity).
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Behavioral aspects and positive attitudes toward the balanced scorecard (BSC) could be a determinant factor in the success of BSC implementation. In the study we use the…
Abstract
Behavioral aspects and positive attitudes toward the balanced scorecard (BSC) could be a determinant factor in the success of BSC implementation. In the study we use the contingency theory framework to examine whether adopting a planned strategy improves employees’ buying into the BSC and helps to maximize the benefits of BSC implementation by enhancing corporate performance. We hypothesize that employees’ attitudes and perceptions toward the implementation of the BSC are contingent upon the type of strategy the firm is employing and the suitability of deploying the BSC with this strategy in place. We use a path model that draws an association between the firm's strategy and employee attitudes toward BSC implementation and employs OLS regression to test the association between the variables. We also examine whether employees’ positive attitudes help to improve a firm's performance as proxied by the customer, internal processes, learning and innovation, and financial perspectives of the BSC. We sent a mail survey to Canadian and US firms to collect the necessary data in order to conduct this study.
Conforming to our expectations, we find that firms that carefully plan their strategic objectives are more likely to have a positive impact on their employees’ perception of the BSC. A deliberate strategy – or planned strategy – as defined by Mintzberg (1978) is associated with higher levels of BSC awareness, perceptions of BSC ease of use, perceptions of BSC usefulness, and intentions to use the BSC. We also find that higher perceptions of BSC ease of use are positively associated with aspects of a firm's performance, such as from the customer, internal processes, and learning and innovation perspectives. Hence, we conclude that firms implementing the BSC need to take into consideration that the successful implementation of the BSC requires careful planning to ensure that the firm's strategic objectives are well formulated, in agreement with BSC measures, and effectively communicated to BSC users.
Majidul Islam and Jeffrey Kantor
The concept of the market economy is gaining ground in China. So also, with the growth of international business partnerships and collaboration with the West, is the significance…
Abstract
Purpose
The concept of the market economy is gaining ground in China. So also, with the growth of international business partnerships and collaboration with the West, is the significance of management accounting. The purpose of this paper is to provide some background for the development of management accounting practices in China.
Design/methodology/approach
As enterprises gain more autonomy, management accounting techniques such as capital budgeting, cost of capital concept, just‐in‐time inventory, inventory model concept, cost‐volume‐profit analysis, total quality management and others will become more important. This paper examines the development of management accounting practices in China from the perspective of transitional economies.
Findings
Evidence suggests that the national culture and values practiced for centuries by Chinese business influence the concerted efforts for information dissemination and developing management accounting practices. Because of the lack of understanding of western management accounting practices, the pace of development of Chinese management accounting practices might be slow for now.
Research limitations/implications
The paper attempts to analyze the development of management accounting practices in Chinese business by looking at the background and contemporary thoughts; however, the value of the paper could be raised if the results were tested empirically, though discussion was aligned to empirics from other research and existing literature.
Practical implications
This paper argues the necessity of recognizing the significance of culture‐based management accounting systems and practices, but also of realizing that, since the Chinese government opened its doors to foreign investment, international standards and practices have a major role to play.
Originality/value
This paper attempts to analyze the challenges that China, a transitional economy, faces and what factors it seriously needs to consider for developing much needed management accounting practices. It also examines the evolution of management accounting systems in China, with their distinctive features, in order to provide a better understanding of their development.
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Yu‐Jia Hu, Yi‐Feng Yang and Majidul Islam
A literature review has revealed that a sales manager's transformational leadership has a positive impact on the job satisfaction of salespeople, while job satisfaction has…
Abstract
Purpose
A literature review has revealed that a sales manager's transformational leadership has a positive impact on the job satisfaction of salespeople, while job satisfaction has significant influence on salespeople's work behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the transformational leadership of sales managers and the job satisfaction of salespeople.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was designed as a quantitative study, and the population was identified as salespeople in the consumer product industry in Taiwan, resulting in 123 individual surveys for analysis.
Findings
The findings supported the hypothesis that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between sales managers' transformational leadership and sales associates' job satisfaction. The result identified the predictors of sales managers' transformational leadership on the sales associates' job satisfaction through regression analysis.
Originality/value
The balanced scorecard (BSC) was originally intended to solve problems related to the historical nature of financial measures in accounting approaches. The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to this literature by focusing on a major issue that has been less investigated, namely, the linking of the BSC perspective to the empirical investigation of leadership behaviors using statistical and technical tools and to predict employee satisfaction. The paper suggests applying Kaplan and Norton's BSC, which includes the perspectives of financial, customer, internal business, and innovation and learning measures to consider the effects of leadership behaviors on employee job satisfaction.
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Franz Willi Kellermanns and Majidul Islam
Activity‐based costing is widely used in managerial accounting as a cost measurement instrument. Accounting practices can differ widely between countries. Recognizing differences…
Abstract
Activity‐based costing is widely used in managerial accounting as a cost measurement instrument. Accounting practices can differ widely between countries. Recognizing differences and similarities in seemingly identical practices between countries provides the opportunity for improvement and allows us to draw managerial implications in light of the increasing internationalization of companies. This paper compares US and German activity‐based costing. The paper establishes differences based on purpose, cost concepts, construction and cost allocation, and quantity and quality of cost information. It then proceeds by using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to formulate propositions concerning the acceptability of the systems by managerial accountants in the USA and Germany.
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Majidul Islam, Yi‐Feng Yang and Lokman Mia
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between a company's customer‐related performance and its learning and growth capabilities.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between a company's customer‐related performance and its learning and growth capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
Four banks in Taiwan – Citibank, Chinatrust, Taipei Fubon Bank and Taiwan HSBC – have recently applied the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) perspective to their customer service. This research was designed to use the data of these sample banks and analyze it to build the theoretical relationship.
Findings
The results reveal that a company's customer‐related performance is positively associated with the interactions of its Human Resource Service Capability (HRSC), Information Technology Service Capability (ITSC) and Marketing Service Capability (MKSC).
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence that when an organization establishes and raises levels of company learning and growth capabilities by using HR‐service capability, IT‐service capability, and MK‐service capability, conjoint effects of these result in a favorable interaction relationship and thus can help achieve a higher level of customer‐related performance.
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Ibrahim M. Aly and Majidul Islam
Business research identified communications apprehension as a problem for improving communication skills. Research has indicated that communication skills are very important to…
Abstract
Business research identified communications apprehension as a problem for improving communication skills. Research has indicated that communication skills are very important to employers in hiring and promotion decisions. This study provides empirical evidence as to whether the accounting program has contributed toward lowering the level of communications apprehension on two groups of accounting students: those who are entering the program and others who are exiting the program. Findings show that there is no significant difference between the level of communications apprehension between the groups when they entered the program and the time when they exited the program, raising a question of the potency of the accounting program in alleviating the communications apprehension of accounting students. Some remedial measures have been suggested.