This article examines why Soviet industrial, and especially engineering products are not, as a rule, internationally competitive, although the USSR, for nearly half a century now…
Abstract
This article examines why Soviet industrial, and especially engineering products are not, as a rule, internationally competitive, although the USSR, for nearly half a century now, ranks second in world industrial and engineering output. It is ascertained that the low competitiveness is due to the low quality and technological level of the products and is a result of hasty industrialisation and the lack of a creative scientific and enterprising climate, which prevents the country from utilising efficiently its enormous potential.
Sotirios N. Denekos, Nikitas-Spiros Koutsoukis, Efstathios T. Fakiolas, Ioannis Konstantopoulos and Nikolaos P. Rachaniotis
Refugee camps are not easily welcomed by local communities. The purpose of this paper is to outline a structured approach to support the decision-making process for siting refugee…
Abstract
Purpose
Refugee camps are not easily welcomed by local communities. The purpose of this paper is to outline a structured approach to support the decision-making process for siting refugee camps in mainland Greece using multiple criteria, including local opposition. A suitability analysis generates a list of potential sites and a multiple criteria evaluation is applied. The motivation is the development of a methodology that can support choices and policies regarding the refugee camps siting problem, incorporating the need to address local opposition.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed methodology combines geographic information systems (GIS) with multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques. These are used to develop a location classification and ranking model based on related criteria and subcriteria, attributes and weights. The region of Peloponnese in Greece is selected as a case study to validate the approach.
Findings
The lack of predefined candidate sites for refugee camps necessitates, initially, tackling a site search problem to generate a pool of potential sites through a suitability analysis. Subsequently, using the GIS the pool yields a subset of potential sites, satisfying all the criteria to setup a refugee camp. Through the current analysis the suitability of the single existing refugee camp site in Peloponnese can be evaluated. Finally, a “with and without” analysis, excluding the social criterion, depicts the changes in the candidate sites pool and their scores.
Research limitations/implications
There is a lack of relevant literature taking into account the local opposition or sociopolitical implications as decision criteria. The selection of the appropriate criteria is a complex process that involves the cooperation of many experts. The main criteria, subcriteria and their attributes were determined according to existing literature and authors' informed judgment.
Originality/value
The proposed methodology can help decision-makers to setup a decision-making system and process for identifying refugee camps' sites using multiple criteria, including local opposition.
Details
Keywords
Hassan R. HassabElnaby, Ahmed Abdel-Maksoud and Amal Said
Decision-making rationality is said to be bounded by managers’ cognitive capabilities. Recent studies indicate that accounting functions evolved to augment the cognitively bounded…
Abstract
Decision-making rationality is said to be bounded by managers’ cognitive capabilities. Recent studies indicate that accounting functions evolved to augment the cognitively bounded human brain in handling complex economic exchanges. The neuroscience discipline suggests that human brains have the ability to implement “automatic” processes of positive versus negative emotional stimuli to make rational decisions. Neuroscientific evidence shows that the activations in the ventral striatum decrease with negative emotional information/motives and increase with positive emotional information/motives. The authors, hence, argue that our understanding of the decision-making rationality in financial and managerial decisions could be enhanced by using a functional neuroimaging approach.
Decision-making rationality has been focal in debt covenant violation and earnings management research. The contracting theory predicts a relationship between managers’ decisions and the proximity of violating debt covenants. However, no prior research has investigated brain activities associated with the evaluation of debt covenant violation and earnings management. Meanwhile, in another strand of research, there is an extensive prior literature concerning the consequences of managers’ decisions and the use of accounting information in relation to their evaluative style, i.e., supervisory style. The authors argue that the relationship between the proximity to debt covenants violation and earnings management incentives is contingent upon managers’ supervisory style. However, no previous research has examined the impact of the supervisory style on earnings management in the context of the proximity to debt covenants violation and other earnings management incentives.
In this research note, we argue that neuroaccounting could be relied on to examine the relationship between the proximity to debt covenants and earnings management, contingent upon managers’ supervisory style, by capturing brain activities. The adoption of the neuroscience functional neuroimaging approach in this field should contribute to the understanding of managers’ behaviors and provide implications for research and practitioners. The goal of this research note is to provide a new avenue for future research in this field.
Details
Keywords
A.N.M. Waheeduzzaman and John K. Ryans
Competitiveness is one of the most misunderstood concepts of the 1990s. It has drawn substantial attention from the government and business communities during the last 25 years…
Abstract
Competitiveness is one of the most misunderstood concepts of the 1990s. It has drawn substantial attention from the government and business communities during the last 25 years. Morrisson et al. (1988) noted that between 1983 and 1987, the term competitiveness appeared more than 5700 times in the titles of newspapers and magazine articles. The growth of importance and interest can also be observed from the increase in the bibliographical entries in ABI/Inform database. From 1981 to 1986, the topic “international competitiveness” increased by about 26 listings per year (a total of 159 in 6 years) and the rate increased to 45 listings per year from 1987 to 1993. Academic interest in the area has also increased and as a result, new developments contemplating conceptualization and understanding of competitiveness are taking place. However, to no one's surprise, writers from different disciplines offer a variation in perspective when describing the concept, understanding, and postulation of competitiveness.
Mahfud Sholihin, Richard Pike and Musa Mangena
The performance measurement literature suggests that companies should consider increasing the diversity of their performance measures to embrace both financial and non‐financial…
Abstract
Purpose
The performance measurement literature suggests that companies should consider increasing the diversity of their performance measures to embrace both financial and non‐financial measures. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the use of multiple performance measures which includes both financial and non‐financial measures in evaluating subordinates' performance (reliance on multiple performance measures (RMPM)) affects their performance, or whether the effect is contingent on the specificity and difficulty of the goals contained in the measures.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey to various functional managers within a single organization supported by interviews.
Findings
The effect of RMPM on subordinate managers' performance is contingent on goal specificity. However, the paper does not find the same results for goal difficulty. These findings are discussed within the context of the organization studied.
Research limitations/implications
The samples are from a single organization. Further work would be needed to examine whether the results are generalizable into other organizations and/or settings.
Practical implications
The paper provides insight on how performance measures used to evaluate managers should be designed.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature on supervisory evaluative style, performance measure diversity and goal‐setting theory.
Details
Keywords
Keita Masuya and Eisuke Yoshida
This study aims to reconceptualize performance evaluation styles and reveal their performance effects.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to reconceptualize performance evaluation styles and reveal their performance effects.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a literature review, this study conceptualizes performance evaluation styles on two dimensions: priority of budgetary targets when setting performance criteria and use of accounting information for ex-post performance evaluation. This study discusses two concepts – budget rigidity and discretionary adjustments – to explain these two dimensions, and their optimal combination is then investigated by considering environmental uncertainty. The empirical analysis uses survey data from Japanese firms.
Findings
The results indicate that suitable combinations of budget rigidity and discretionary adjustments differ depending on environmental uncertainty. As expected, a combination of lower budget rigidity and higher discretionary adjustments is optimal in an uncertain environment. Contrary to expectations, a combination of higher budget rigidity and higher discretionary adjustments is optimal in a stable environment. Moreover, higher discretionary adjustments complement budgetary targets’ motivational effects, regardless of environmental uncertainty.
Originality/value
This study’s theoretical and empirical analysis suggests that it is difficult to understand the performance implications of performance evaluation styles without recognizing their multidimensionality and interdependencies. Moreover, the results demonstrate that discretionary adjustments in budget-based performance evaluations seem to act rationally in practice.
Details
Keywords
David Marginson and Stuart Ogden
The interplay between accounting and organisational change has been a topic of considerable interest in recent years. This paper is concerned with exploring the ways in which…
Abstract
The interplay between accounting and organisational change has been a topic of considerable interest in recent years. This paper is concerned with exploring the ways in which managers’ attitudes towards budgets may be influenced by processes of organisational change. Traditionally a high reliance on accounting measures of performance has generally been associated with provoking unfavourable reactions from managers on account of the pressure they experience to meet pre‐determined budgetary targets, with concomitant dysfunctional consequences for the achievement of organisational objectives. In contrast the paper argues that processes of organisational change, particularly the increasing use of “stretch” targets and empowerment strategies, may be prompting a more positive disposition towards budgets amongst managers. Drawing on recent research evidence, and building on notions of “psychological empowerment”, the paper suggests that managers may value the existence of pre‐determined budgetary targets as an “empowerment facilitator” in conditions of uncertainty. This possibility opens up new directions in behavioural accounting research.
Details
Keywords
Chong M. Lau and Sharon L.C. Tan
This study revisits the area of reliance on budget to evaluate employee performance. It contributes in several ways. First, it updates this traditional research area making it…
Abstract
This study revisits the area of reliance on budget to evaluate employee performance. It contributes in several ways. First, it updates this traditional research area making it more relevant to the current debate on the use of financial vis-à-vis nonfinancial measures in multidimensional performance measurement systems. Second, it examines the relationship between reliance on budget and budgetary participation in a manner that is different from that used by prior studies. Instead of treating budgetary participation as a moderating variable, the study examines it as a mediating variable. Specifically, the study hypothesizes that reliance on budget as performance measures affects the extent of employee budgetary participation. Third, it incorporates the recent interest by management accounting researchers in organizational fairness into this research area. It hypothesizes that budgetary participation affects the extent of employees’ perceptions of procedural fairness, which, in turn, influences employee job satisfaction and performance. The structural equation modeling results based on a sample of 152 managers indicate that the use of budget targets for performance evaluation is positively associated with employee job satisfaction and performance. However, much of these effects are indirect via (1) budgetary participation and (2) procedural fairness.
Details
Keywords
Svetoslav Georgiev and Seiichi Ohtaki
The purpose of this paper is to answer the following three questions: what influence has the centrally planned economy and Soviet-style manufacturing had on the evolution and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to answer the following three questions: what influence has the centrally planned economy and Soviet-style manufacturing had on the evolution and implementation of quality management practices in Bulgaria’s manufacturing sector since the end of the communism; have Bulgaria and its businesses been able to embrace modern quality management philosophies such as TQM, which at times preach the exact opposite philosophies of the Soviet-style manufacturing; and if so, how advanced is the quality mindset of Bulgarian manufacturing businesses today – 24 years after the end of communism?
Design/methodology/approach
The paper relies mainly on qualitative research methods. The authors have opted for exploratory approach. Besides an array of articles from scholarly journals, books, and conference proceedings, the authors have relied on five in-depth, semi-structured interviews and one case study in the form of plant visit and observations. The authors have used a framed analytical approach for interpreting the empirical data.
Findings
The paper argues that the slow and painful transition from a centrally planned to market economy has impeded the evolution and implementation of QM practices in Bulgaria. More precisely, haphazard reforms in education, lack of highly qualified individuals due to the brain drain in the early 1990s, and the workers’ strong resistance to change have been among the main obstacles in the case of the quality movement.
Research limitations/implications
The work presented in this paper is just the beginning of a series of studies on the quality management initiatives in Bulgaria. To go deeper into the topic, the authors realize that further research in a number of different directions is required. The first direction is related to the degree of relevance of Management Sovieticus in the twenty-first century, which somehow has been completely neglected as a research topic in the last decade. The second direction lies in the aspect of the attributes of Bulgarian managers and their perception toward the importance of the role of quality today.
Practical implications
Countries with similar, political, economic, and social backgrounds – former Eastern Bloc members – can profit a great deal from the authors’ work. More than 20 years since the end of communism, both researchers and entrepreneurs, especially those from the West, have been neglecting the legacy of the centrally planned economy, which has been a major reason for the great number of business failures in the region. The authors’ work seeks to awaken those who still believe that two decades are sufficient to eradicate fully the unfortunate legacy of the command economy.
Originality/value
Little, not to say incremental, research on the quality initiatives in Eastern Europe (*except for Russia) has been conducted so far. As to Bulgaria, the investigation reveals no significant studies on quality management, especially ones published in English. Hence, the authors’ work is the first international study on the evolution and implementation of QM practices in Bulgaria.
Details
Keywords
Fan‐Hua Kung, Cheng‐Li Huang and Chia‐Ling Cheng
This study aims to investigate the relationships among budget emphasis, budget planning models, and performance, to determine whether an emphasis on the budget has indirect…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the relationships among budget emphasis, budget planning models, and performance, to determine whether an emphasis on the budget has indirect effects on performance, in the presence of other budget planning characteristics as mediators.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey was conducted and structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed models among the constructs and related hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicate that while budget planning models entirely mediate the influence of budget emphasis on the performance of management and the organization, they partially mediate the influence of budget emphasis on budget satisfaction. In addition, it is determined that differentiation strategies have a significantly positive influence on budget emphasis, budget planning models and performance.
Originality/value
The results of this study provide a reference for organizations in the design of budgeting systems. During the design process, budget planning models should consider the degree of emphasis an organization places on the budget.