Search results

The purpose of this paper is to focus on circumvolutions taken by the accounting standard-setting process in French-speaking African countries which have delayed convergence toward IFRS standards and to identify how different factors shape accounting standards in a context in which post-colonial hysteresis interact with globalization.

This study uses archival data and interviews with key individual actors. Two case studies from two successive periods are contrasted: the design of the OCAM accounting standards in the 1970s, and the development of the SYSCOA/OHADA accounting standards during the 1990s before the partial adoption of IFRS.

The study shows the convergence toward international accounting standards in French-speaking African countries emerged from a complex, multimodal process mingling competition with collaboration and negotiation. They have followed a different path from most English-speaking African countries, where convergence to IAS/IFRS took place earlier and faster. The evidence indicates the significance of the interaction between the ex-colonization and the indigenous accounting standards, the importance of key actors and the level of the educational institutions.

No African written sources were located. Most of the sources used were French.

The paper includes implications for the standards setting in developing countries. The examination of the development of accounting rules in French-speaking African countries between 1960 and 2010 shows the complexity of the accounting standards’ diffusion dynamic.

This study provides novel insights over a 30-year period of accounting standards in French-speaking African countries. This research explains why IFRS have not yet adopted in French-speaking African countries as it was in English-speaking African countries.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the processes involved in implementing a full costing method – the unité de valeur ajoutée (UVA) (added value unit) method – as well as to explore the uses made of it.

Firms that adopted the UVA method between 1995 and 2009 were studied by means of semi‐structured interviews with individuals concerned in the firm and with the external consultants. The interviews, which lasted two to three hours, were conducted both during the implementation process and several months later. Secondary data in the form of all the documentation regarding the initial setting up and updating of the method were also collected.

The main advantages of the UVA method are the fine breakdown of costs, facilitating decision making, and its modest use of resources. Generally, it was adopted by small firms with a “defensive” strategic behaviour. The success of its implementation was largely a result of the strong involvement of management. Nevertheless, it found limited use as a management tool compared to the activity based costing (ABC) method, owing to the small size of the firms that adopted the UVA method.

This research paper is the first to examine the various stages of setting up the UVA method of cost accounting method, by collecting data from users on two occasions, separated by an interval of eight years.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between strategy, structure and environmental uncertainty, and the design and the use of performance measurements systems. The paper provides empirical evidence on the contextual factors associated with the use of financial and non‐financial measures, process and outcome measures and the deployment of innovative performance measurement systems in manufacturing business units.

A questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 200 Canadian manufacturing organizations. Respondents were asked to indicate to which extent they use different measures. They also had to mention if they had adopted an innovative performance measurement approach such as the balanced scorecard. The questionnaire also included questions to classify organizations as prospectors, defenders or analyzers and to measure the levels of decentralization and perceived environmental uncertainty.

The results show that there is a significant association between strategy, organizational structure and environmental uncertainty and the use of non‐financial and process measures. They also indicate that there is an association between strategy and environmental uncertainty and the deployment of innovative performance measurement systems.

Since the 1990s, performance measurement has become an important issue for both academics and practitioners. The professional literature has suggested that managers should design innovative performance measurement systems such as balanced scorecards that include financial and non‐financial measures and also process and outcome measures. This paper provides a better understanding of the factors that affect the implementation of innovative performance measurement systems.

The paper presents one of the few studies that provide a better understanding of the contingent factors that influence the design and the use of innovative performance measurement systems.

Institutional investors use the information disclosed by listed companies to analyze the performance of their investments. The purpose of this paper is to open the “black box” of the construction of financial disclosure by analyzing the internal reporting systems of firms with reference to the information disclosed.

Using indexes, the quality of the financial disclosure and the internal reporting systems are measured, and analyzed with a view to finding some links between them. It is expected that the quality of disclosure is dependent on the quality of the internal reporting.

Complex interactions between internal reporting and financial disclosure are revealed, which leads to the identification of a typology of practices. The dependence of the relationship may be troubled by the willingness of the firm to communicate, or by the internal methods of control. According to the various cases, different levels of usefulness of the information for the investor are expected.

This paper is a first attempt to analyse information disclosed by firms with regards to the internal information at their disposal.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the experiences of a wholesaler with time‐driven activity‐based costing (TDABC). Three research questions are addressed: How are complex logistics operations modeled by TDABC? Does TDABC provide more accurate cost information than activity‐based costing (ABC)? How is TDABC cost information used?

Case study research was performed at a Belgian wholesaler. Interviews were conducted. The cost and activity database was analyzed.

This case study illustrates that there are logistics operations that cannot be modeled using a single cost driver, as is done with ABC. TDABC uses time equations to estimate the time spent on each activity. The results herein show how the time equations can capture the different complexities, by including different terms or interaction terms in the time equations. The database analysis clearly demonstrates that TDABC provided more accurate cost information than ABC at this case company. ABC oversimplified 64 percent of the activities, and misallocated 55 percent of all indirect costs.

This study is one of the first, investigating the experiences with TDABC. The results are derived from analyzing all activities, at a single case company.

The study illustrates the technique of TDABC and provides a real company example of time equations in logistics. The users declared the TDABC model very useful for profitability reporting and profit management. The time drivers provided insight into the causes of excessive distribution and logistics costs.

This paper complements current discussion on cost drivers and subtasks and logistics costing.

The purpose of this paper is to draw on a small‐scale study that investigated the relationships between the budget‐setting process and slack, and how budgetary, behavioural and contextual factors can affect this relationship, to reconceptualise the phenomenon of budgetary slack as a budget risk management strategy.

A case study method was employed, which enabled the researchers to investigate factors suggested by prior literature that affect slack creation. In total, nine structured interviews were conducted in a state‐owned Egyptian petroleum company, which gave the researchers a different way of thinking about the budget slack phenomenon.

The authors found that slack is created, but not perceived negatively by managers, wherever they are in the organisational hierarchy. Few factors from the literature appeared to have any effect on the creation of budgetary slack, but the covert view of budget slack as a negative behaviour, adopted by early literature was perceived by participants as unethical and inconsistent with Egyptian culture. Managers did not recognise the notion of budgetary slack, though a “contingency” was created and was seen as entirely rational and acceptable by both superiors and subordinates. These findings are consistent with more recent literature in taking a more positive view, and with risk management thinking.

The evidence from this small study in a single organisation obviously cannot be generalised to the whole population. More research is needed in different contexts in order to discover whether managers may perceive this link between budget contingencies and risk management. Also, further research may explore the ethical dimension of behaviour and its possible foundation in religious values and beliefs, to see if this influences how building “contingencies” into budgets is perceived.

If we were to stop portraying the creation of budgetary slack as a negative behaviour and accept that practitioners find it acceptable in managing budgets in an uncertain economic environment, more managers may be open about it.

The main contribution of this paper is that it proposes that what was originally described as a negative behavioural phenomenon be rethought as a positive risk management strategy. Though other authors have viewed budget slack more positively, none has made the explicit link to risk management. The authors reposition budget slack in terms of contingency planning and show how this is consistent with risk management thinking.

The aim of this paper is to confront the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) with Simons’ levers of control model and to discuss its role in the various phases of the strategic process. The authors examine the role of the BSC as a tool of interactive and diagnostic control by making a distinction between its design phase and its phase of use.

An action research approach, based on two cases, was used to investigate the role of the balanced scorecard in strategic processes.

The results show that the BSC generates a process of collective elucidation favouring the forming of emergent strategies and a process of control of the change favouring the collective representations on the strategy. The BSC thus seems to be a relevant tool for interactive control during its implementation stage. On the other hand, the authors’ observations also show the failure of the BSC as a system of diagnostic control and of interactive control during its using stage. Ultimately, it is shown that the model of Simons provides the BSC with a relevant theoretical framework to clarify the practice of strategic control.

The study highlights the interest of field studies, and more particularly, processuals and longitudinal approaches, in management accounting research.

The study of two cases underlines the strategic contribution of the BSC by highlighting its role in building a strategy.

The field study allows us to observe how the design of a management control tool such as the BSC occurs during the strategy‐forming phase.