Offshored Service Cost Model as a Key Post-Transition Challenge

Business process offshoring has been dynamically growing worldwide in the last few years, facilitated by the corporate need for operational expenses reduction, overcoming skilled workers shortage and the potential for operations optimization. At every stage of organizational changes, there are various challenges the service offshoring managerial community constantly struggles with. Th e paper presents the offshored service cost model that can be adjusted and applied for service budgeting, valuation and control, for it has been identified as the most common challenge affecting Polish service off shoring corporations in the post-transition period. Th e need for strengthening this area of knowledge was identified through empirical research and the case study conducted in this work serves for presenting the authors’ insights on cost modelling for offshored business services

Offshored Service Cost Model as a Key Post-Transition Challenge

Business process offshoring has been dynamically growing worldwide in the last few years, facilitated by the corporate need for operational expenses reduction, overcoming skilled workers shortage and the potential for operations optimization. At every stage of organizational changes, there are various challenges the service offshoring managerial community constantly struggles with. Th e paper presents the offshored service cost model that can be adjusted and applied for service budgeting, valuation and control, for it has been identified as the most common challenge affecting Polish service off shoring corporations in the post-transition period. Th e need for strengthening this area of knowledge was identified through empirical research and the case study conducted in this work serves for presenting the authors’ insights on cost modelling for offshored business services

Inter-organisational asset management: linking an operational and a strategic view

Interconnections and interdependencies are increasing globally. The formation of inter-organisational relationships is a result of the wide-ranging phenomenon of networking. When traditional organisational boundaries are blurred, many challenges arise in coordination and management. They can, however, be addressed by emphasising inter-organisational cost and asset management, a concept novel to the literature. We also claim that companies are able to realise concrete benefits from such joint actions, especially in the long-term. The main objective of the paper is to demonstrate the benefits of inter-organisational asset management on the operational and strategic level with our asset management models. Two focal conclusions emerge. Firstly, we exemplify, and prove, that companies can create economic value collaboratively on either, the operational or the strategic level. Secondly, the cause-and-effect relationship between operational decisions and strategic outcomes is highlighted by integrating the two levels of inter-organisational asset management. Managerial implications can be drawn from both

Using the life-cycle model with value thinking for managing an industrial maintenance network

The objective of this article is to create a general life-cycle model for maintenance decision making in different industries at the item level. The need for network-level tools will increase, as inter organizational collaboration is emphasized more and more. Previous life-cycle models have mostly viewed the matter from the perspective of just one company, but our model takes the different members of maintenance networks into account. We have also integrated value thinking with life-cycle accounting, as it is crucial for companies to perceive which elements increase the value of each member in their network. The value-based life-cycle model introduced in this article has been mainly developed to support the future planning of maintenance operations. In addition, it can be designed how additional value can be reached through future maintenance and how this value can be equitably shared between the network partners

納税者の行為と納税者以外の者の行為――重加算税が課せられる行為と共同事業者の行為の対比を契機として――（一）

As companies have recently gotten more interested in utilizing the increasingly gathered data and realizing the potential of data analysis, the ability to upgrade data into value for business has been recognized as an advantage. Companies gain competitive advantage if they are able to benefit from the fleet data that is produced both in and outside the boundaries of the company. Benefits of fleet management are based on the possibility to have access to the massive amounts of asset data that can then be utilized e.g. to gain cost savings and to develop products and services. The ambition of the companies is to create value from fleet data but this requires that different actors in ecosystem are working together for a common goal – to get the most value out of fleet data for the ecosystem. In order that this could be possible, we need a framework to meet the requirements of the fleet life-cycle data utilization. This means that the different actors in the ecosystem need to understand their role in the fleet data refining process in order to promote the value creation from fleet data. The objective of this paper is to develop a framework for knowledge management in order to create value from fleet data in ecosystems. As a result, we present a conceptual framework which helps companies to develop their asset management practices related to the fleet of assets.Jako, że przedsiębiorstwa w ostatnim czasie zaczęły bardziej interesować się wykorzystaniem wzrastającej ilości danych i zdały sobie sprawę z potencjału analizy danych, uznano, że zdolność do przekształcenia danych w wartość dla przedsiębiorstwa jest dla niego korzystne. Przedsiębiorstwa zdobywają przewagę konkurencyjną, jeśli są w stanie wykorzystać dane floty, które są generowane zarówno wewnątrz, jak i na zewnątrz przedsiębiorstwa. Korzyści płynące z zarządzania flotą opierają się na możliwości uzyskania dostępu do ogromnych ilości danych o aktywach, które można następnie wykorzystać np. w celu uzyskania oszczędności a także rozwoju produktów i usług. Celem przedsiębiorstw jest tworzenie wartości z danych floty, ale wymaga to, aby różne podmioty w ekosystemie współpracowały ze sobą we wspólnym celu – aby uzyskać najwyższą wartość z danych floty dla ekosystemu. Aby było to możliwe, potrzebne są ramy, aby spełnić wymagania dotyczące wykorzystania danych o cyklu życia floty. Oznacza to, że różne podmioty w ekosystemie muszą zrozumieć swoją rolę w procesie rafinacji danych floty w promowaniu tworzenia wartości z danych floty. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest opracowanie ram zarządzania wiedzą w tworzeniu wartości z danych floty w ekosystemach. Jako wynik przedstawiono koncepcyjne podstawy, które pomagają przedsiębiorstwom rozwijać praktyki zarządzania aktywami związane z flotą aktywów

Management Accounting Adoption in Small Businesses: Interfaces with Challenges and Performance

Purpose While companies worldwide are largely comprised of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a significant amount of management accounting (MA) research focuses on larger organisations, thus leaving MA practice in SMEs relatively under-researched. This paper aims to examine MA adoption (MAA) and its interfaces with MA challenges and business performance from a small business perspective. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 502 small businesses is investigated with an embedded mixed methods research design comprised of qualitative content analysis, factor analysis and analysis of variance. Findings Up to 78% of small businesses are facing MA challenges that stem from organisation, systems, personnel and/or resources. Based on the present findings, MA challenges do motivate small businesses to at least consider investing in MAA as small businesses facing challenges are more likely to acquire systems and services than those reporting no issues at all. Hence, small business managers seem to not only recognise where their challenges lie, but also seek ways to improve the situation through MAA. The analysis also reveals that companies with the highest MA know-how have the best average solvency, suggesting that small businesses indeed benefit from MAA. Interestingly, the performance at medium levels of know-how declines while investments increase, revealing a “decreasing solvency phenomenon”. Potential explanations are, e.g. the MA not fitting the company’s exact needs, or information usability and use being limited by poor MA understanding. Originality/value The originality of the research lies in exploring the interfaces between MA challenges, MAA and small business performance using distinctive embedded mixed methods research design.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Profitable working capital management in industrial maintenance companies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of working capital management on profitability in industrial maintenance service companies. Design/methodology/approach – Analytical modeling has been used as the research method. Finnish industrial maintenance companies have been analyzed on the basis of their financial statements. Findings – We reveal a significant negative correlation between the cycle times of operational working capital and the return on investment of industrial maintenance companies. Light fixed assets and good profitability of the maintenance sector emphasize the importance of working capital management. Large maintenance service companies seem to achieve competitive advantage over small and medium sized maintenance service providers through both fixed assets- and working capital-related economies of scale, and through the fact that large maintenance service providers often focus on providing services mostly for their host companies. Research limitations – The scarcity of large enterprises in the market in question precludes the use of a more extensive sample in the analysis. Practical implications – In the industrial maintenance service business, more attention should be paid to active management of working capital. We can conclude that this holds true especially in large industrial maintenance service enterprises. Originality/value – We contribute to the unexplored perspective of industrial maintenance companies. Previous studies of industrial maintenance companies have not addressed working capital management, which gains more and more attention under the volatile economic circumstances of the present day. Keywords - Industrial maintenance services, Profitability, Working capital, Flexible asset management model Paper type - Research pape

Appeasing company owners through effective working capital management

In the dynamic financial climate of the present day, companies should be aware of the potential of effective working capital management in reacting to market transformations. It is important to include the company owner’s viewpoint in the research perspective. In this paper, we study the connection between working capital management and the return on equity. The managerial and financial perspectives of flexible asset management are integrated through analytical modelling. We conclude that the return on equity can be improved by shortening the cycle time of operational working capital. Both the interest rate of debt and the debt-to-equity ratio are taken into account in order to study the effects of dynamic financial conditions. Changes in the financial conditions could be compensated through effective management of working capital

The missing link between maintenance contracts and flexible asset management

The paper shows how additional value can be created in maintenance collaboration through integrating the features of flexible asset management into maintenance contracts. We expand the traditional typology of maintenance contracts and introduce a new contract type, flexible asset management contracts. Also value sharing in the new contract type is discussed. Our logic for sharing the value is based on reaching for win-win situations in industrial maintenance collaboration. Finally, we present scenarios which prove that significant financial benefit can be achieved through adopting these novel contracts. In the dynamic and challenging operating conditions of the present, companies should actively search for this kind of possibilities for closer collaboration with their customers and suppliers