Nieuwe Ronde, Nieuwe Kansen: Ontwikkeling in Management Accounting & Control

Arnick Boons (1957) is part time Professor in Management Accounting & Control at RSM Erasmus University. He obtained a PhD in financial management at Erasmus University Rotterdam (2000). At the same time he joined Deloitte as a consultant on financial management issues. His consultancy practice includes cost- and performance management assignments mainly in the public sector. His academic research and teaching interests are in the area of costing problems, customer value management and operational excellence. In this inaugural address he discusses recent developments in the area of management accounting and control, and in particular he explores the implications of customer value management for the design of management accounting and management control systems. The central theme of the accounting research programme of ERIM concerns the economic and behavioral aspects of organizational governance structures. These structures comprise the (1) external institutional and regulatory environment of the organization and (2) the organization's internal control arrangements. Special attention is devoted to the analysis of interactions between external and internal governance arrangements. While current research projects mainly focus on the private sector, i.e. listed companies and their governance and control arrangements, new initiatives are taken to study the public sector, with a special focus on health care governance.In this inaugural address I take a bird’s eye view on the recent developments in the disciplines of management accounting and management control during the past two decades. Three stages are distinguished and clarified: the accounting stage, operational excellence and, finally, the customer intimacy phase. Subsequently I concentrate on the issue of customer value management.The point of departure for this elaboration is the calculation of customer value. Starting from a very simple formula I try to penetrate into the underlying world of antecedent and interrelated variables which have a proven impact on customer value. After a short survey of the empirical knowledge gathered until this moment I wind up with a conceptual framework for future research. Concerning the issue of the impact of customer intimacy on the design of management control systems my conclusion is that the central question to be answered is the question concerning the prevailing image of man. Is it possible to adhere to the traditional image (‘all man are equal’) in stimulating organizations towards more innovative behaviour? Which comes down to target setting,defining and measuring performance. Or is it necessary to introduce a different image of man in which diversity and uniqueness is emphasized (‘all man are unique’) stressing selfcontrol as a means for achieving congruence. Or is a middle ground called for

Nieuwe Ronde, Nieuwe Kansen: Ontwikkeling in Management Accounting & Control

Arnick Boons (1957) is part time Professor in Management Accounting & Control at RSM Erasmus University. He obtained a PhD in financial management at Erasmus University Rotterdam (2000). At the same time he joined Deloitte as a consultant on financial management issues. His consultancy practice includes cost- and performance management assignments mainly in the public sector. His academic research and teaching interests are in the area of costing problems, customer value management and operational excellence. In this inaugural address he discusses recent developments in the area of management accounting and control, and in particular he explores the implications of customer value management for the design of management accounting and management control systems. The central theme of the accounting research programme of ERIM concerns the economic and behavioral aspects of organizational governance structures. These structures comprise the (1) external institutional and regulatory environment of the organization and (2) the organization's internal control arrangements. Special attention is devoted to the analysis of interactions between external and internal governance arrangements. While current research projects mainly focus on the private sector, i.e. listed companies and their governance and control arrangements, new initiatives are taken to study the public sector, with a special focus on health care governance.Accounting;Control;Management;Customer Value Management.;Accounting Stage;Operational Excellence;Customer Intimacy Phase