The development of a strategic control framework and its relationship with management accounting

Management accounting systems have been criticised for being excessively focused on shortterm performance. As a result long-term strategic direction and goals may have been neglected. To help overcome this problem it has been suggested that organisations should adopt strategic management accounting techniques and management control systems which are orientated towards the achievement of strategic goals. This paper argues that integration with strategic control would significantly enhance the relevance of management accounting systems. In developing such an approach this paper first integrates the salient features of the extant strategic control models in a framework that recognises the needs of the current business environment. And second, it examines how strategic control could be used as the basis for developing management accounting systems that have a stronger strategic focus

Sample Selectivity and the Validity of International Student Achievement Tests in Economic Research

Critics of international student comparisons argue that results may be influenced by differences in the extent to which countries adequately sample their entire student populations. In this research note, we show that larger exclusion and non-response rates are related to better country average scores on international tests, as are larger enrollment rates for the relevant age group. However, accounting for sample selectivity does not alter existing research findings that tested academic achievement can account for a majority of international differences in economic growth and that institutional features of school systems have important effects on international differences in student achievement.economic growth, international student achievement tests, sample selection, educational production

School autonomy: necessary but not sufficient

School autonomy has become increasingly significant in the politics of education, as well as a central feature of education systems’ reform policies in Australia and globally. This review examines the spectrum of evidence on the impact of school autonomy on student academic achievement, and the features of autonomy that improve or constrain achievement, and discusses the implications of these findings for future policy. There is no definitive or simple conclusion from assessing the impact of autonomy on student achievement, but neither does the evidence reject the contribution of autonomy. Rather, the evidence points to autonomy as a key and necessary component of a mature and high-performing system, as it is in other areas of public administration. However, the wider institutional context matters, and parallel policies like accountability and leadership development need to be in place. Crucially, and counter to popular conception, more rather than less systemic support is needed for the potential of school autonomy to be realised

An integrated framework to assess financial reward systems in construction projects

Motivation is a major driver of project performance. Despite team member ability to deliver successful project outcomes if they are not positively motivated to pursue joint project goals, then performance will be constrained. One approach to improving the motivation of project organizations is by offering a financial reward for the achievement of set performance standards above a minimum required level. However, little investigation has been undertaken into the features of successful incentive systems as a part of an overall delivery strategy. With input from organizational management literature, and drawing on the literature covering psychological and economic theories of motivation, this paper presents an integrated framework that can be used by project organizations to assess the impact of financial reward systems on motivation in construction projects. The integrated framework offers four motivation indicators which reflect key theoretical concepts across both psychological and economic disciplines. The indicators are: (1) Goal Commitment, (2) Distributive Justice, (3) Procedural Justice, and (4) Reciprocity. The paper also interprets the integrated framework against the results of a successful Australian social infrastructure project case study and identifies key learning’s for project organizations to consider when designing financial reward systems. Case study results suggest that motivation directed towards the achievement of incentive goals is influenced not only by the value placed on the financial reward for commercial benefit, but also driven by the strength of the project initiatives that encourage just and fair dealings, supporting the establishment of trust and positive reciprocal behavior across a project team. The strength of the project relationships was found to be influenced by how attractive the achievement of the goal is to the incentive recipient and how likely they were to push for the achievement of the goal. Interestingly, findings also suggested that contractor motivation is also influenced by the fairness of the performance measurement process and their perception of the trustworthiness and transparency of their client. These findings provide the basis for future research on the impact of financial reward systems on motivation in construction projects. It is anticipated that such research will shed new light on this complex topic and further define how reward systems should be designed to promote project team motivation. Due to the unique nature of construction projects with high levels of task complexity and interdependence, results are expected to vary in comparison to previous studies based on individuals or single-entity organizations

Spectral boundary conditions and solitonic solutions in a classical Sellmeier dielectric

Electromagnetic field interactions in a dielectric medium represent a longstanding field of investigation, both at the classical level and at the quantum one. We propose a 1+1 dimensional toy-model which consists of an half-line filling dielectric medium, with the aim to set up a simplified situation where technicalities related to gauge invariance and, as a consequence, physics of constrained systems are avoided, and still interesting features appear. In particular, we simulate the electromagnetic field and the polarization field by means of two coupled scalar fields $\phi$,$\psi$ respectively, in a Hopfield-like model. We find that, in order to obtain a physically meaningful behaviour for the model, one has to introduce spectral boundary conditions depending on the particle spectrum one is dealing with. This is the first interesting achievement of our analysis. The second relevant achievement is that, by introducing a nonlinear contribution in the polarization field $\psi$, with the aim of mimicking a third order nonlinearity in a nonlinear dielectric, we obtain solitonic solutions in the Hopfield model framework, whose classical behaviour is analyzed too.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur

TAX SYSTEMS IN WEST BALKANS COUNTRIES – BETWEEN SIMPLICITY AND EFFICIENCY

There are two main features characterized every tax system: simplicity and efficiency. These features converge not necessarily with each other. The simplicity of a tax system is related and implies the simplicity of tax calculation. In other site this characteristic is a very important element regarding tax collection and also affects the transparency among different economics activities. But how much these system are efficient? The efficiency of a fiscal system is related particularly with the characteristic of a tax as an instrument for implementation of different economic policies, incitement of economic development, achievement of particular structural changes, etc. In this framework the paper aims to perform a comparative analyze of fiscal systems for different West Balkans Countries. The main objective of the paper is to analyze how much the tax systems of these countries reflect the simplicity and transparency, and in the other site, how much those serve as a mechanism of economic development. In this approach the paper effort to explain, if the tax systems are considerate only as an instrument of budget revenue collection, or these system have considerate also as an incentives targeted economic development of these countries.Tax System, simplicity, efficiency

Regional patterns in the achievement of the Lisbon Strategy: a comparison between polycentric regions and monocentric ones

Polycentrism is a common feature of European urban systems. Lately, the concept has assumed a more normative relevance and it has been often considered as a pre-requisite for a more sustainable and balanced development across Europe. However, the effects of polycentrism on other main European Strategies (such as the Lisbon Strategy, aimed at increasing European competitiveness and social cohesion) are not so clear. Therefore, the paper tries to highlight the relationships between a regional polycentric development and the achievement of the Lisbon Strategy’s targets. Referring to a sample of 75 regions belonging to France, Germany, Italy and Spain, we have first measured the extent of polycentrism, by estimating through OLS the slope of the rank-size distribution of cities within each region. Then, we have performed a principal component analysis (PCA) in order to highlight the main features characterising the performance of each region according to Lisbon Strategy’s targets. Looking at the correlations between the extent of polycentrism and the achievement of the Lisbon Strategy’s targets, we have found that the former is significantly correlated both with the spread of manufacture and with low investments in human capital and innovation.the Lisbon Strategy, polycentrism, rank-size distribution, PCA