Cooperatives Quality: evidence from Greece

The study of the role and contribution of ISO 9000 QMS to the corporate strategic development and organisational change and performance improvement of the Greek Agrocoops, as well as the identification and analysis of the drivers and constraints of this system’s effective implementation and efficient use has and/or should have been the subject of increased attention in recent times, as the majority of these organisations face increasing financial and business operating problems over the last three decades, as it was identified in a collective work of Papageorgiou et al, published in “Syneteristiki Poreia” (volumes of years 2000-2003) and the re-configuration of their organisational practices and activities, referring to any management system adapted and applied – e.g. the ISO 9000 QMS, is considered a must for their business survival in the words of Arvanitoyiannis (2001). As a result of the aforementioned facts and due to his current professional status, the researcher decided to focus his DBA research on issues relating to the role and contribution of the quality management systems - and more particularly of the ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems - to the achievement of Greek Agricultural Cooperatives’ corporate strategic goals and organisational performance improvement through the improvement of their business processes. The critical examination of the ISO 9000 – QualityManagement Systems’ implementation process and use purpose by the Agricultural Cooperatives sector in Greece is the broad and general Topic of my Doctorate Research. It is mainly connected with the following two current issues: - on one hand, with the reanimation of the ongoing dialogue and debate concerning the perspectives of the Agricultural Cooperatives in Greece and the future status of the 15% of the country’s active population, which is occupied in the broader agricultural sector (Bank of Greece, 2002), and - on the other hand, with the ever increasing public concern, interest and demand for safer, healthier and quality enhanced food products and services all over the world (ICAP, 2002 and Arvanitoyiannis, 2000)

Clustering tales from the Greek construction sector: lessons from experience

The idea of increasing regional and national economic competitiveness through the implementation of cluster strategies is not something new. In each business sector, in each country, the creation of clusters has been used to capitalise on sector characteristics and address country specific productivity needs. While clusters have met with significant success in many context, the Greek context and in particularly the Greek Construction sector has not been so fruitful. This paper, through the development of a conceptual framework, questionnaires with 92 firms and interviews with 10 key firms, sought to investigate the critical success factors for the creation of a cluster within the challenging context of the Greek construction sector. Using evidence of good practicefrom other European countries facing similar challenges and the empirical data, the findings indicated a series of factors which firms could adopt, mitigate against or manage to help improve the potential success of the cluster. The findingstherefore have important implications for interventions not only by the state and local authorities that will encourage construction firms to participate in a cluster, but also by the managers/owners/practitioners for the creation of the required foundations for their participation in an environment where competitors cooperate

Incentives for the adoption of e-government by Greek municipalities

Purpose: The research aims to identify the incentives that play an important role in the evolution of e-government in Greece at local scale and its actual development level. It also investigates the factors and the perceived barriers that affect the development of local egovernment in Greek Municipalities, as well as the benefits they derive from it. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research is based on a survey that was conducted through a questionnaire to all 325 Municipalities of the country and includes data from 109 Municipalities that participated in the quantitative approach. Findings: While e-government is spread at a relatively satisfactory level, it appears that only a few Municipalities are performing well. Results highlight also the two main incentives that motivate Municipalities to adopt e-government: The first is the improvement of the efficiency of information exchange with the external environment and the second is managing internal issues-relationships in conjunction with the existence of prominent IT departments. Amongst the main factors that affect e-government adoption by Local authorities, budgetary constraints stand out, while the lack of personnel specialized in Information Technologies is identified as common obstacle. Practical Implications: Findings suggest that an integrated approach to e-government is needed in order to enable organizations to minimize failures and to overcome barriers and counter risks. The capacity to align e-government applications with the increasing and evolving needs and requirements of the citizens is the key to optimizing the benefits of eGovernment at local scale. Originality/Value: There is no similar empirical research in the context of Greece; hence, it seems important to increase the knowledge about the drivers of e-government adoption, especially in the public sector at the local scale.peer-reviewe

SMEs e-business behaviour: a demographics and strategic analysis

The aim of this research was to understand the strategic uses of e-business systems and technologies by classifying companies and particularly small and medium businesses according to demographics as well as e-business behavior variables.The study was based on data from a large quantitative survey of European E-business W@tch for the period 2007 using questionnaire interviews (N=409). We employed two-step cluster analysis, multinomial logistic regression and stepwise descriminant analysis as the most appropriate methods for our analysis. The findings revealed six clusters associated to e-business adoption. The six groups differ in terms of demographic characteristics as well as e-business applications they use. We found that the following clusters exist: (a) Leaders: large companies that extensively use ebusiness in a strategic manner (b) innovators: use e-business in an way that allows them to innovate and differentiate from other companies (c Beginners: small and medium companies across all sectors that only recently start to use e-business (d) Unready Adopters: micro and small companies that lag behind (e) Late Adopters: small-size companies but larger that the Unready Adopters, that appear not to be interest in the advances of ICTs and (f) Laggards: micro companies with little use of e-business.The results of our survey can positively contribute to managers aiming to take advantage of technological advances in electronic business as well as to any researcher who study e-business management and applications

Evolution of the Governmental Accounting Reform implementation in Greek Public Hospitals: Testing the institutional framework

Purpose – In an attempt to promote efficiency, effectiveness and economy in health service production, the Greek government imposed in 2003 an accrual basis financial and cost accounting system in all public hospitals of the National Health System (NHS). The purpose of this study is not to investigate thoroughly the accounting reform implementation and adoption in specific organizations, but rather to obtain an overall idea of the reform adoption process in Greek public hospitals by identifying major areas of non-compliance with the mandatory legislative accounting framework and various organisational contingencies that influence the level of reform adoption within a broad institutional framework. Design/methodology/approach – Our analysis is based on the results of an empirical survey that took place during 2009. For the purposes of this survey, a compliance index is constructed and applied on a sample of 94 Greek public hospitals using a structured questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with six public hospital Financial and Accounting executives. Findings – The empirical evidence reveals that the level of accrual basis financial and especially cost accounting adoption in Greek public hospitals is realized only to a limited extent. In particular, results show that the relationship between the institutional isomorphic pressures and accounting reform implementation process is restricted by organizational capability factors (i.e., the quality of existing Information Technology systems, the education level of finance and accounting staff, the extent of reform related training, and the professional support of consultants). Research limitations/implications – Although this study takes into consideration the work of previous researchers in the health care area, it acknowledges that empirical research on the subject in the Greek environment is limited. Therefore this study should be viewed as an initial step to address this limitation. Originality/value – This study draws on the information systems change, management accounting innovation, and public sector reform literatures to contribute to the current knowledge in public sector accounting by examining a number of factors that are expected to influence the implementation and adoption process of accrual and cost accounting practises in the Greek public healthcare sector within a broad institutional framework. Contribution - This study contributes to the international literature of New Public Management (NPM) initiatives in public health sector by providing, to our knowledge, the first large cross-sectional assessment of accrual accounting reform adoption and implementation in Greek public hospitals. Additionally, the empirical evidence of this study can enhance researchers’ and managers’ understanding of major implementation processes and challenges and thus help them refine models of effective implementation process and improve systems and processes on similar future projects.Accrual Accounting, Public Sector Accounting, Compliance Index, Public Hospitals, Isomorphism.

Virtual public administration: improving public administration procedures through project management

The best way to contribute electronic and mobile Government is by creating a public administration network in virtual communities. This is essentially the definition of Virtual Public Administration (VPA). A virtual community (a good example of which would be the well acclaimed virtual reality world Second Life), could potentially provide the platform to offer improved public administration services. Arguably, the quality of these services to citizens and businesses in virtual communities are more competitive than in reality. Therefore, the social, economic and technological impact is more inquiring because we could potentially offer to the end users more motivation to join these communities. Furthermore the success of the VPA is based on the virtual project management application. Our paper examines, theoretically and empirically, how VPA could potentially contribute to better public administration services and how effective project management application could facilitate the proposed transition. The research strategy is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches. In that respect pertinent data is been collected through both semi structured interviews and questionnaires, with executives and others, in the Greek and UK public administration sector. Preliminary theoretical results demonstrate the improvement achieved by integrating time in virtual and real worlds and by testing impact to the quality of service provided by public sector to citizens/businesses. To that end, our study provides both qualitative (statements of directors, observations) and quantitative (metrics) examples related to these improvements. Three UK based councils have agreed in principle to participate to the study. Furthermore, in Greece the General Inspector of Public Administration, the National University of Athens and others has also agreed to participate. Our paper concludes with the contribution of our work along with some interesting avenues for further research

The culpability of accounting practice in promoting bribery and corruption in developing countries

Bribery and corruption are increasing in the developing countries. It has been estimated that some $400 billion of bribe is paid to political elite in developing countries. Such huge amounts of money cannot be successfully executed without the active involvement of multinational companies (MNCs) from the Western countries. This paper examines the processes involved in the misapplication of accounting practice from the perspective of anti-social criminal practices. It analyses the implication of accounting practice in the construction of MNCs bribery and corruption activities. The paper locates MNCs enterprise culture and accounting practice within the broader dynamics of global capitalism to argue that the drive for higher profit at almost any cost is not constrained by accounting rules, laws and even periodic regulatory actions. The paper uses publicly available evidence to illuminate the role of accounting technology in concealing and facilitates MNCs corrupt practices in developing countries. Evidence is provided to show that to secure and retain business in developing countries and to gain competitive advantages MNCs have engaged in bribery and corruption. The paper also makes suggestions for reform

Investigating the Governmental Accounting Reform of Greek National Health System (ESY): Some preliminary Evidence

During the last decades, several countries worldwide have introduced financial management reforms as an important part of the New Public Management (NPM) initiative at one or more levels of government sector, by replacing or transforming their traditional budgetary cash accounting systems towards business-like accrual accounting. Following the example of this upcoming managerial trend, the Greek government introduced in 1997 an accrual based accounting system (ABAS) and double-entry book-keeping method in all public hospitals. The hospital sector is one of the areas where NPM reforms have been introduced in search of higher efficiency in service production. The purpose of this paper is twofold. Our first goal is to provide an overview of the government sector reform initiatives in Greece and to present evidence regarding the adoption rate of the new accounting system by the Greek public health sector. The second goal of our research is to present the perceived usefulness of the accounting information provided by the proposed accounting reform as well as the implementation problems encountered in implementing ABAS. Our analysis is based on the results of an empirical survey that took place during 2008. For the purposes of this survey, a structured questionnaire was prepared and sent to the Finance Directors of 132 Greek public hospitals.Accrual Accounting, Public Sector Accounting, Public Hospitals, New Public Management.