Mathew Tsamenyi and Nana Yaa Antwi-Gyamfi
Entrepreneurship.
Abstract
Subject area
Entrepreneurship.
Study level/applicability
This case is suitable for graduate-level programmes in business management, as well as for executive education programmes.
Case overview
Mabel Simpson, the sole proprietor of the award-winning mSimps fashion accessories house in Ghana, must choose from among three options for scaling up her business: an offer from a private investor for GHS 100,000 in exchange for 51 per cent stake in mSimps; or 30 per cent stake for half the amount; an offer from a fashion industry expert for GHS 10,000 in exchange for 30 per cent ownership; or a restructuring of her business model and value chain to enable her release cash to grow her business organically.
Expected learning outcomes
Students should be able to: understand the interplay of choice and trade-offs in business management and apply theory-driven frameworks in making optimal choices and analytically assess instances of tension between the art (e.g. passion, emotional stakes, psychological and other influences on business management philosophies) and science (e.g. the need for business skills, use of effective models and the quest for production efficiency) of business management.
Supplementary materials
Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
Subject code
CSS 3: Entrepreneurship
Details
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Mathew Tsamenyi and Nana Yaa A. Gyamfi
Students should be able to appreciate the exigencies of managing social enterprises in a largely profit-oriented economic domain; understand the interplay of choice and trade-offs…
Abstract
Learning outcomes
Students should be able to appreciate the exigencies of managing social enterprises in a largely profit-oriented economic domain; understand the interplay of choice and trade-offs in business management and be equipped to make optimal choices; and appraise new, creative and profit-making approaches for sustaining social enterprise.
Case overview/synopsis
Daniel Mensah and his team were to deliberate on options available for ensuring financial sustainability of HealthKeepers Network (HKN), a not-for-profit organization focused on community health and grassroots capacity development. As the economy of Ghana moved towards middle-income status, funding from global organizations had begun to decline. To ensure HKN’s continuity, Mensah needed to re-engineer HKN’s finances and consider options available for ensuring cash inflows to support the organization’s operations. Each of the available options involved specific setbacks or challenges for HKN to overcome to achieve financial sustainability. Mensah and his team were to engage in a brainstorming session analyse the available options and map the way forward for HKN.
Complexity academic level
This case is suitable for undergraduate and graduate-level programmes in business management.
Supplementary materials
Teaching Notes are available for educators only.
Subject code
CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.
Details
Keywords
Mathew Tsamenyi and Nana Yaa Antwi-Gyamfi
Entrepreneurship, Business Strategy, Leadership, Marketing and Decision-making in business.
Abstract
Subject area
Entrepreneurship, Business Strategy, Leadership, Marketing and Decision-making in business.
Study level/applicability
This case is suitable for graduate-level programmes in business management as well as executive education programmes.
Case overview
Stuart Gold, CEO of Trashy Bags is at a crossroads with respect to the future of his business. With deficits estimated at about GHS 120,000 annually, Gold is considering switching from the made-to-stock production model to a made-to-order model. Although the latter may tap into an available market and thus boost revenue, it would likely result in the displacement of the social enterprise’s loyal following and disenfranchisement of its employees’ creativity; not to mention the possibility of neglecting its mandate of repurposing plastic waste. Gold wonders if there is a case for maintaining the current made-to-stock model by driving up sales and reducing costs to eliminate the deficit.
Expected learning outcomes
Students should be able to: appreciate the exigencies of managing social enterprises in a largely profit-oriented economic domain; understand the interplay of choice and trade-offs in business management and apply theory-driven frameworks in making optimal choices and analytically assess instances of tension between the art (e.g. passion, emotional stakes, psychological and other influences on business management philosophies) and science (e.g. the need for business skills, use of effective models and the quest for production efficiency) of business management.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
Subject code
CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.
Details
Keywords
Teerooven Soobaroyen, Mathew Tsamenyi and Haresh Sapra
The purpose of this paper is to review and reflect on the contributions of the Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies’ special issue on accounting and governance in Africa.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review and reflect on the contributions of the Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies’ special issue on accounting and governance in Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
The themes and contributions from the accepted papers are identified and discussed in relation to prior research and potential for further studies.
Findings
Key aspects of boards and corporate governance (CG), audit reporting and quality and government accounting practices are revealed as mechanisms which, in some cases, did have some consequences in the African context. However, in other cases, accounting or governance mechanisms appear to be at the periphery of organizational practice and exhibit little influence on decision making and accountability.
Research limitations/implications
Whilst this paper does not provide a systematic review of the literature in the African context, it provides relating to special issue’s contributions on CG, audit and government accounting on the continent.
Originality/value
This special issue extends the burgeoning scholarship in African accounting and governance and provides directions and opportunities for future research.
Details
Keywords
Catalin Nicolae Albu, Nadia Albu, Flavius Andrei Guinea and Mathew Tsamenyi
This paper investigates the process of translating a costing tool into operational use in the context of a transitional (post-communist) economy, where local institutions…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates the process of translating a costing tool into operational use in the context of a transitional (post-communist) economy, where local institutions challenge the rationality of western methods.
Design/methodology/approach
By mobilizing Actor–Network Theory, in particular Callon's four moments of translation, and by drawing data from an interventionist research, the paper focuses on the process of change instilled by the implementation of a costing tool in 20 Romanian construction companies.
Findings
The costing system is initially problematized as a tool for rational decision making. However, the visibility over the accounting figures generated by the costing tool instilled new roles for the cost system to manage internal and external interdependencies. First, two costing datasets were created, one for decision making and one for tax purposes, to manage the relationship with the state taxation authorities. Second, since the costing tool generated visibility over the field practices as well, engineers convinced management to drop the decision-making set of costs. The costing tool ultimately only became used for tax optimization, an originally unintended use, reflecting its translation process.
Research limitations/implications
By taking an interventionist approach, the paper contributes to theorizing accounting in transitional economies by bringing their economic idiosyncrasies into the analysis.
Practical implications
The results inform managers about the intended and unintended consequences of management accounting tools and about actors' role in shaping their use.
Originality/value
Our research responds to recent calls to study how organizations configure their control systems in a rapidly changing environment and what is the role of management accounting in these arrangements.
Details
Keywords
Mathew Tsamenyi, Trevor Hopper and Shahzad Uddin
The paper aims to examine accounting changes in the Ashanti Gold Corporation (AGC) in Ghana over 120 years from pre-colonialism to recent times and whether the framework of…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to examine accounting changes in the Ashanti Gold Corporation (AGC) in Ghana over 120 years from pre-colonialism to recent times and whether the framework of management accounting transformations in Hopper et al. (2009) is applicable.
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed data sources are used, namely, interviews, some observations of practices, historical documentation, company reports and research papers and theses. The results are categorised according to the periods and contextual factors in the Hopper et al. framework to test whether it matches the data collected.
Findings
Despotic controls with minimal management accounting but stewardship accounting to the head office in London prevailed under colonialism. Upon independence state, capitalist policies descended into politicised state capitalism. Under nationalisation, the performance of mines deteriorated, and accounting became decoupled from operations. In the early 1980s, fiscal crises forced Ghana’s government to turn to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund for loans. This period marked a gradual transformation of AGC into a foreign multinational, organised along divisional lines and currently exercises despotic control through supply chain management that renders labour precarious and is neglectful of corporate social accounting issues.
Research limitations/implications
The work challenges neo-classical economic prescriptions and analyses of accounting in developed countries by indicating its neglect of the interests of other stakeholders, especially labour and civil society. Accounting is important for development but the article infers other forms may better serve the public interest.
Originality/value
The paper tests the Hopper et al. framework with respect to a large private multinational in the commodity sector over an extended period, which differs from the case studies drawn on originally.
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Claudio de Araujo Wanderley, John Cullen and Mathew Tsamenyi
The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) possesses an inherent duality, as it has been described as a carrier of institutions (i.e. the BSC is a “management ideology” or “mode of thinking”…
Abstract
Purpose
The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) possesses an inherent duality, as it has been described as a carrier of institutions (i.e. the BSC is a “management ideology” or “mode of thinking”) and a flexibly interpretive boundary object at the same time. This study examines how this inherent duality of the BSC may influence the unfolding rationales surrounding its implementation and use.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical support for this investigation is gathered from an in-depth field study. The focal firm is a Brazilian electricity distribution company that transitioned from state to private ownership under hyper-regulation, and whose holding company experienced strategic and structural changes.
Findings
The study identified a misalignment between the characteristics of the firm (e.g. organizational logics) and the perceived BSC features. This misalignment initially produced tensions and institutional logics complexity for the organization forcing the BSC implementers to rationalize it to provide meaning regarding its implementation in the firm. The findings also show why and how the promoters of the BSC conducted its “strategy of translation” in order to disentangle and reassemble both the material and symbolic components of the BSC to facilitate its implementation and use. It was found that promoters of the BSC engaged in contextualization work, which featured two main actions: a combination of coupling and selective decoupling and a change of meaning.
Originality/value
This paper advances current understanding of the process of the unfolding rationales surrounding management accounting innovations (e.g. the BSC). The study shows that the BSC unfolds in more complex, time-related and simultaneous ways than has previously been reported in the literature. Moreover, the paper contributes by explaining how the management's rationales, relating to their historical understanding, perception of legitimation needs and social skills, contributed to the continuous unfolding of the BSC. In addition, four potentially interesting areas for further research were identified.
Details
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Mathew Tsamenyi and John Cullen
This paper sets out to introduce the special issue on management controls and new organisational forms. It summarises and reflects on themes and findings raised in the papers in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper sets out to introduce the special issue on management controls and new organisational forms. It summarises and reflects on themes and findings raised in the papers in the issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The findings reported in the paper are based on desk research and review of the papers contained in the issue.
Findings
The paper finds that management control systems can perform various coordinating and governance roles in managing new organisational forms. However, management control systems designers must be aware of the complexities of these new organisational arrangements.
Originality/value
The paper is a summary of studies exploring the roles of management controls in new organisational forms. The issues addressed in these studies are important in furthering our understanding of the changing roles of management control systems.