Understanding the Changing Role of the Management Accountant in the Age of Industry 4.0 in Germany

Currently, business processes are undergoing a transformation through digitalization. In the course of this development, “Industry 4.0” also has an impact on management accounting and IT systems. By promising technical development and improvement of management accounting processes, the conventional roles are challenged and the introduction of new occupational fields is prognosticated. However, in theory and practice, the impact of industry 4.0 (I4.0) on management accounting has not been considered adequately so far. Against this background, the primary goal of this study is to investigate the implications of I4.0 on management accounting by means of a triangulation approach. The results of expert interviews, a literature review and an analysis of job advertisements provide an overview on the development of competencies of Management Accountants (MA) in Germany. The results have highlighted a closer cooperation of MA and Data Scientists. Additionally, there will be a shift from traditional analysis towards statistical analysis methods

Factors influencing business continuity readiness of the Western Cape government

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2020The research was focused on business continuity management as a key discipline towards building a resilient Western Cape Government. It provided an opportunity to identify existing business continuity processes to determine the level of preparedness of the Western Cape Government to ensure continued business due to a disruption. The inability of the public sector to manage and facilitate sound business continuity processes in anticipation of disruptive events have placed it in a position where it would be unable to deliver services to citizens and stakeholders. As the current business environment was continuously evolving, Government as an organization was therefore not immune to change and disruption, whether generated internally or externally. For government to be resilient it required the holistic management of risk but also the ability to adapt and respond to change with a limited impact on the delivery of services. Business Continuity was the core to building and improving organizational resilience. It had been a proven methodology that organizations should embrace as part of a holistic approach to the management of risks and threats. Legislation and/or policies have been drafted for the public sector to guide with the management of risks. As an organ of state and part of the public sector the Western Cape Government was therefore obliged to manage risks in a way that ensured that government was able to continue to render a service both internally and externally with as little impact as possible. Business continuity management identified the priorities of an organization as well as prepared solutions to address disruptive threats. The aim of the study was the exploration of the state of business continuity within the Western Cape Government. The objectives of the study were to: Identify current business continuity processes; Evaluate current business continuity processes; Critically analyse existing business continuity documentation; and Identify the links between business continuity and resilience. The research questions were focused on getting departments to express how business continuity was facilitated; clarity in respect of processes; input source of business continuity documentation; as well as determining whether departments acknowledged the benefits of having business continuity management towards building a resilient Western Cape Government. Previous work reinforced the importance of having sound business continuity processes in place. From the literature it would appear that business continuity in the public sector was fairly new and developmental in nature. Previous work also recognized that each and every organization was unique and as such the process should be aligned with the core functions and/or mandates afforded by legislation and/or policies. The research approach deemed most appropriate for this particular study was the Interpretivist approach. Not only was this approach value laden but it allowed for the exploration of the theory and obtaining of rich in-depth data from the participants. It also allowed for the contextualization of the problem as it related to the business continuity processes within the Western Cape Government. The research method was qualitative using interviews and document analysis as the most suited research instruments to elicit qualitative data required to render the research process as valid. It was concluded that having sound business continuity processes in place would greatly support organizations with the management of disruptions. Business continuity should be a proactive plan to avoid and mitigate risk associated with disruption of operations and needed to be managed in a way that objectives were met. Further to this it should be noted that the resilience maturity of the Western Cape Government remained reactive and concerted efforts towards becoming proactive should be considered

Principles in Patterns (PiP) : Evaluation of Impact on Business Processes

The innovation and development work conducted under the auspices of the Principles in Patterns (PiP) project is intended to explore and develop new technology-supported approaches to curriculum design, approval and review. An integral component of this innovation is the use of business process analysis and process change techniques - and their instantiation within the C-CAP system (Class and Course Approval Pilot) - in order to improve the efficacy of curriculum approval processes. Improvements to approval process responsiveness and overall process efficacy can assist institutions in better reviewing or updating curriculum designs to enhance pedagogy. Such improvements also assume a greater significance in a globalised HE environment, in which institutions must adapt or create curricula quickly in order to better reflect rapidly changing academic contexts, as well as better responding to the demands of employment marketplaces and the expectations of professional bodies. This is increasingly an issue for disciplines within the sciences and engineering, where new skills or knowledge need to be rapidly embedded in curricula as a response to emerging technological or environmental developments. All of the aforementioned must also be achieved while simultaneously maintaining high standards of academic quality, thus adding a further layer of complexity to the way in which HE institutions engage in "responsive curriculum design" and approval. This strand of the PiP evaluation therefore entails an analysis of the business process techniques used by PiP, their efficacy, and the impact of process changes on the curriculum approval process, as instantiated by C-CAP. More generally the evaluation is a contribution towards a wider understanding of technology-supported process improvement initiatives within curriculum approval and their potential to render such processes more transparent, efficient and effective. Partly owing to limitations in the data required to facilitate comparative analyses, this evaluation adopts a mixed approach, making use of qualitative and quantitative methods as well as theoretical techniques. These approaches combined enable a comparative evaluation of the curriculum approval process under the "new state" (i.e. using C-CAP) and under the "previous state". This report summarises the methodology used to enable comparative evaluation and presents an analysis and discussion of the results. As the report will explain, the impact of C-CAP and its ability to support improvements in process and document management has resulted in the resolution of numerous process failings. C-CAP has also demonstrated potential for improvements in approval process cycle time, process reliability, process visibility, process automation, process parallelism and a reduction in transition delays within the approval process, thus contributing to considerable process efficiencies; although it is acknowledged that enhancements and redesign may be required to take advantage of C-CAP's potential. Other aspects pertaining to C-CAP's impact on process change, improvements to document management and the curation of curriculum designs will also be discussed

Mechanisms for embedding sustainability into organisational strategic decision-making: technology as an enabling mechanism

There is a growing need for businesses to shift toward a more sustainable strategic focus if they are to positively impact the societies within which they operate and remain viable businesses in the future. This is becoming increasingly acknowledged amongst South African organisations, however the challenge they face is in refocusing their strategic goals to be sustainably oriented. In order to tackle this challenge many organisations internationally and locally are starting to utilise information technology based tools and technological platforms as a mechanism for embedding sustainability into their business – tracking their impact and linking sustainability goals to their performance management structures using dashboards to visually represent this data. The intention of this research has been to explore the drivers of this organisational shift towards sustainability, internally and externally, the changes that are being implemented (the content of these strategic changes) and the processes organisations are implementing to become more sustainable. The specific focus is on the tools and technology they are utilising to enable this shift towards sustainability. This research takes the form of a qualitative cross case analysis of six organisations and utilises Pettigrew's framework for strategic change that looks at three parts of a change process: the context, content and process, to attempt to answer the question: How do technology platforms, and the ability for organisations to gather, monitor and manage organisational data relating to sustainability indicators result in more sustainable strategic decision-making within South African organisations? The results of this research demonstrate the link between quantifying activities and deeper integration of sustainable activities within the organisation. The role technology plays, based on the analysis of six South African companies, is frequently dependent on the driver of the quantifying activity and the degree to which the data has an effect on the broader business targets

Principles in Patterns (PiP) : Piloting of C-CAP - Evaluation of Impact and Implications for System and Process Development

The Principles in Patterns (PiP) project is leading a programme of innovation and development work intended to explore and develop new technology-supported approaches to curriculum design, approval and review. It is anticipated that such technology-supported approaches can improve the efficacy of curriculum approval processes at higher education (HE) institutions, thereby improving curriculum responsiveness and enabling improved and rapid review mechanisms which may produce enhancements to pedagogy. Curriculum design in HE is a key "teachable moment" and often remains one of the few occasions when academics will plan and structure their intended teaching. Technology-supported curriculum design therefore presents an opportunity for improving academic quality, pedagogy and learning impact. Approaches that are innovative in their use of technology offer the promise of an interactive curriculum design process within which the designer is offered system assistance to better adhere to pedagogical best practice, is exposed to novel and high impact learning designs from which to draw inspiration, and benefits from system support to detect common design issues, many of which can delay curriculum approval and distract academic quality teams from monitoring substantive academic issues. This strand of the PiP evaluation (WP7:38) attempts to understand the impact of the PiP Class and Course Approval Pilot (C-CAP) system within specific stakeholder groups and seeks to understand the extent to which C-CAP is considered to support process improvements. As process improvements and changes were studied in a largely quantitative capacity during a previous but related evaluative strand, this strand includes the gathering of additional qualitative data to better understand and verify the business process improvements and change effected by C-CAP. This report therefore summarises the outcome of C-CAP piloting within a University faculty, presents the methodology used for evaluation, and the associated analysis and discussion. More generally this report constitutes an additional evaluative contribution towards a wider understanding of technology-supported approaches to curriculum design and approval in HE institutions and their potential in improving process transparency, efficiency and effectiveness

HOW BIG DATA WILL BE AN ADDED VALUE TO SCM?

It is the era of digital information technology where almost everything is going smart. Thus, organizations move towards digitalization that cause the emergent of Big Data. Analyzing big data is the big challenge today. Being smart puts the world under a big challenge to adapt, change, and upgrade systems to analyze the Big Data using the high technology. Challenges are growing with the market and appears in different forms. Many of these challenges can be hard or difficult to handle on your own if you are a small to medium size business without the help of supply chain management system. The main objective of this paper is to contribute and examine these research questions: What are the Big Data Analytical tools used in SCM? In addition to the Impact of Analyzing Big Data on Supply Chain Management? The methodology used was a systematic review over the existing literature including Big Data, supply chain, SCM, and the impact of BD analytical tools on SCM. Data collected and unsystematically interpreted and the findings summarized in a subjective way that describes and discusses the literature from a contextual or theoretical point of view. Big data can tremendously affect the supply chain units and can add values to the overall supply chain operations by improving the processes to be more effective and efficient based on the analysis results. Big data analytics become a core differentiation factor for any organization that acquire it in the last few years

Assessment of the Impact of Social Responsibility on Poverty

Being one of the open social innovations of business entities, social responsibility is taking an important role in our society. It not only contributes to the improvement of the financial indicators of business entities, but also has a significant impact on the economic development of countries and the creation of well-being of the society members. The business contribution to environmental and social initiatives influences various economic processes and, at the same time, affects the level of poverty in countries. The purpose of this thesis is to review the concept of social responsibility and its content after the analysis of the scientific literature, and to assess the impact of social responsibility on poverty indicators after an empirical study. The assessment was performed by using the methods of analysis of the scientific literature, mathematical–statistical analysis, comparative analysis, correlation analysis, as well as by studying the presented statistical data at the level of the three Baltic States — Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The conducted research manifested a significant impact of the business units operating in the production sector on the employed people who are at the brink of poverty, by categorizing them by sex, age, and education. The research revealed the negative impact of the business social responsibility that is directed towards the environment field on the poverty rates of older age (65+) residents, due to the installation of new equipment and technologies. Additionally, business investments mostly affect people with secondary, and lower than secondary, education. The influence of the actual pollution amount in the production sector, to ensure the financial stability of the society, was observed. The research results are significant not only to the Baltic region, but to other economies that are seeking to reduce the poverty level in the country, by integrating the business social responsibility as well

Firm failure processes and determinants of failure in EU countries and UK regions: a quantitative analysis of SMEs.

This thesis is motivated by the fact that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are of vital importance to most European countries collectively, and to each country individually. For these reasons, understanding SME failure is an integral part of decision and policy making. Firm failure can be regarded as a multi-year process that develops over time. Yet there has been limited work in the area of quantitatively identifying and analysing SME failure processes. In particular, despite evidence from the qualitative firm failure process literature on the importance that non-financial, firm-specific characteristics have on firm failure processes, the quantitative firm failure process literature has largely ignored this aspect. Likewise, the determinants of firms' transition to failure within potential alternative firm failure processes and the importance of geographical location are often overlooked in the firm failure process literature, despite evidence in the wider firm failure literature for the contrary. For these reasons, the current evidence in the quantitative firm failure process literature is quite isolated from wider firm failure studies. This thesis aims to investigate alternative SME failure processes, the determinants of firms' transition towards failure and the importance of firms' geographical location by bringing evidence from other parts of the firm failure literature in the quantitative study of firm failure processes. The sample analysed consists of SMEs in eight EU countries, covering the period from 2004-2013. In addition to analysing the whole sample, the failure processes and failure determinants of UK failed SMEs are also investigated. The dataset of this study covers firm-specific characteristics - such as financial ratios and directors' characteristics - and information about the macroeconomic and business environment. In addition, the impact of geographical location is considered. The key results of the analysis identify the existence of four alternative firm failure processes (new firms with inexperienced boards, high growth firms, old firms, firms without board diversity) which apply across EU countries and UK regions. A number of other characteristics are also present in the alternative firm failure processes: directors characteristics are of primary importance for firm failure processes as well as firms' transition to failure. So are the age of the firm, the legal tradition of the country, the levels of business growth and the intensity of competition due to new business entrants in an area and the geographical location of firms. There are a number of contributions that this thesis makes to the quantitative firm failure process literature. First, given that the different failure processes were found to have differing determinants, the results show the importance of looking at individual firm failure processes rather than simply analysing all failed firms together. Second, this thesis is the first to quantitatively analyse the impact of directors' characteristics in the identification of the alternative firm failure processes in EU and UK firms. Third, it is the first study to investigate the determinants of firms' transition to failure within the alternative firm failure processes context where both financial distress and liquidations are considered in the definition of failure. Fourth, this thesis identifies the importance of geographical location and the existence of spatial interactions in some parts of firms' transition to failure. As such, this thesis consolidates and analyses evidence from qualitative firm failure process studies and from wider firm failure studies in the context of quantitative firm failure process. In doing so, it applies spatial panel data analysis for first time in a firm failure process study. A number of policy implications result from these findings. Given the differences in firm-specific characteristics, the differences in the determinants of transition to failure and the geographic sensitivities that the alternative firm failure processes have, policies and decisions designed to support SMEs to avoid failure should be more targeted according to the characteristics of the firm and the process towards failure with which it is mostly associated

The initial accountant competency of final year accounting students

The development of information technology towards the 4th industrial revolution era brought changes to business processes in various industries, which will eventually have an impact on jobs in the accounting field. Accountants must be adaptable and competent to work as accounting professionals. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the perceptions of final-year accounting students regarding knowledge competence, soft skills, information technology capabilities, and perceptions of readiness to enter the workforce. It also analyzed whether these competencies affect students' readiness to enter the workforce. In this study, the soft skills competencies are dimensions of intellectual, personal, organizational, internal, and communication competencies, and ethics in accounting. The data was collected using a questionnaire based Google Form given to several universities in Indonesia that were willing to distribute the forms to their accounting students. A descriptive method was used for data and confirmatory factor analysis and data processing was performed with the help of statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and partial least squares (SmartPLS) programs. The results showed that soft skills competencies had a higher score compared to accounting and information technology competencies. Furthermore, there was a significant influence between competence and work readiness of accounting students. This study provides information in the preparation of the accounting curriculum to consider various competencies following industry needs