Performance Measurement Information Systems: Do they Convey (Sustainable) Competitive Advantage?

Performance management information systems (PMIS) have been a ‘hot topic’ for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) for close to a decade. PMIS range from low-functionality spreadsheet-based solutions through to high-functionality business intelligence solutions. As yet, this area has not yet received sufficient academic enquiry. Our research questions concern: what are PMIS functionalities, and whether and how do they contribute to competitive advantage? We conceptualize functionality as reflected by system usability and data multi-dimensionality. We examine functionalities of the two types of PMIS: performance planning systems (for budgeting and forecasting) and performance reporting systems (for reporting results information to management). We apply resource-based theory. We hypothesize mediation chains, in which the two PMIS functionality constructs link to competitive advantage, mediated by performance management capabilities and mediated by a resource-base of organizational culture. We use partial least squares path modelling using survey data collected from senior managers of 264 Australian firms. We find support for the hypotheses. We also unexpectedly find that the two types of PMIS functionality operate in sequential, rather than parallel, mediation. The findings have implications for CIOs, CFOs and other managers responsible for development of PMIS

Assessment of Karstification Degree in the Copacabana Group for a Tailings Dam Foundation, South Andes, Peru

The world-wide occurrence of carbonate rocks is extensive, and Peru is no exception. Many mining facilities are located in or on carbonate rocks. Under specific conditions, carbonate rocks show varying degrees of karstification, which represent a potential high risk of damage or failure to mine facilities, especially tailings and water impoundments due to subsidence or internal erosion problems. Adequate engineering measures, including proper characterization of the foundation materials, should be taken to characterize foundation materials and mitigate the risk. This paper presents the assessment of the potential of karst dissolution in the Copacabana Group underlying about 50% the foundation of a proposed tailings dam and storage facility, located in the South Andes of Peru. A thorough geotechnical site investigation program was carried out in the area, which included regional and local geological mapping, geotechnical drilling, test pits, permeability tests, effervescence test in cores, petrographic analyses, and X-Ray diffraction tests. Hydrogeological studies, such as pumping and tracer tests, were also performed by other consultants to verify the observations, conclusions, and opinions developed from the geotechnical investigation program. The results of the geotechnical investigation allowed proper characterization of the dam foundation and the tailings storage facility and estimation of the degree of karstification in the carbonate rocks of the Copacabana Group. The completed geological site characterization was then used to locate the tailings dam and impoundment area to avoid areas of pervasive karst and to implement defensive engineering measures, including grout curtains and slush grouting of smaller cavities and joints, among others

Management Accounting Functionality in SAP Solutions – Implications for Research and Practise

Since the start of the new millennium, management accounting researchers have investigated how Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPS) or the implementation of such systems influences management accounting (practises) and/or firm performance. More recently, the empirical focus of such studies has shifted towards the SAP ERPS, the world-market leading enterprise system (Columbus, 2014). Despite this focus, none of these studies has ever described the management accounting functionalities of SAP ERP, let alone acknowledging that, over the past decade, SAP has substantially expanded its solution range for management accounting, in particular with the acquisition of BusinessObjects in 2007. Today, management accounting functionalities are dispersed across a wide range of SAP ‘solutions’ beyond the core SAP ERP, including cloud solutions, and even for SAP customers it is difficult to reconcile which software component contributes the various ‘solution for management accounting’. We argue that research on the impacts of such systems on management accounting practises and performance requires a detailed understanding of the management accounting functionality provided by such systems – across all modules and add-on components. Our archival and expert-interview based study aims to provide such insights by systematically analysing the current SAP software solutions range to locate management accounting tools and to map those tools with the broader body of knowledge of management accounting practises. Key findings of our study are that the SAP software range provides support for almost all common management accounting practises and that for some of these practises SAP users are provided with a range of tools providing similar functionality (e.g. SAP SEM, SAP Strategy Management, and SAP BusinessObjects Strategy Management). Further to that, the SAP software range provides management accounting functionalities such as “Grenzplankostenrechnung” (GPK), which is a core element of the German tradition of “Controlling” (Becker and Messner 2005), and has so far only attracted limited attention in the international management accounting community. The SAP tools for management accounting are partly embedded in the standard SAP ERP package, but many of them come as complementary or supplementary extensions or as part of data warehouse based Business Intelligence components (incl. BusinessObjects components). Considering the large range of management accounting components and the many adoption options provided, we expect heterogeneity amongst SAP user organisations in terms of system support for management accounting. In stage two of the broader research project, we will conduct a field study to verify this prediction and investigate the implications for managerial decision making and performance management. We contribute to academic research by providing a systematic mapping of management accounting practises and the extensive SAP solutions range, thereby enabling researchers to conduct better informed empirical research in SAP environments. We also contribute to management accounting practise by deciphering marketing-driven SAP publications and mapping management accounting functionality with actual software components

Dissociation and isomerization of vibrationally excited species. II. Unimolecular reaction rate theory and its application

Data on quasi-unimolecular reactions have usually been compared with theoretical equations based on classical treatments, because the expressions are simpler than those obtained on the basis of a quantum model. The quantum reformulation of the RRK theory in Part I is used to compute the pressure dependence of the rate constants and the limiting low-pressure rates for a variety of unimolecular reactions without employing adjustable parameters. An asymptotic expansion of the integral for the limiting low-pressure second-order rate constant provides a very simple expression for this quantity.The errors inherent in corresponding classical calculations are estimated by comparing these results with those obtained from the theory in its classical limit. The error is temperature dependent and at low pressures increases from a factor of about three (under typical experimental conditions) for small reactants such as O3 and N2O to 105 or more for large molecules such as cyclopropane, C2H6, and N2O5. In most cases the rates calculated from the quantum form are in reasonable agreement with those obtained experimentally when all of the reactant oscillators are assumed effective in intramolecular energy transfer

Oscillatory behavior of two nonlinear microbial models of soil carbon decomposition

A number of nonlinear models have recently been proposed for simulating soil carbon decomposition. Their predictions of soil carbon responses to fresh litter input and warming differ significantly from conventional linear models. Using both stability analysis and numerical simulations, we showed that two of those nonlinear models (a two-pool model and a three-pool model) exhibit damped oscillatory responses to small perturbations. Stability analysis showed the frequency of oscillation is proportional to √(ε⁻¹-1) Ks/Vs in the two-pool model, and to √(ε⁻¹-1) Kl/Vl in the three-pool model, where ε is microbial growth efficiency, Ks and Kl are the half saturation constants of soil and litter carbon, respectively, and /Vs and /Vl are the maximal rates of carbon decomposition per unit of microbial biomass for soil and litter carbon, respectively. For both models, the oscillation has a period of between 5 and 15 years depending on other parameter values, and has smaller amplitude at soil temperatures between 0 and 15°C. In addition, the equilibrium pool sizes of litter or soil carbon are insensitive to carbon inputs in the nonlinear model, but are proportional to carbon input in the conventional linear model. Under warming, the microbial biomass and litter carbon pools simulated by the nonlinear models can increase or decrease, depending whether ε varies with temperature. In contrast, the conventional linear models always simulate a decrease in both microbial and litter carbon pools with warming. Based on the evidence available, we concluded that the oscillatory behavior and insensitivity of soil carbon to carbon input are notable features in these nonlinear models that are somewhat unrealistic. We recommend that a better model for capturing the soil carbon dynamics over decadal to centennial timescales would combine the sensitivity of the conventional models to carbon influx with the flexible response to warming of the nonlinear model.15 page(s

Strong and fragile topological Dirac semimetals with higher-order Fermi arcs

Dirac and Weyl semimetals both exhibit arc-like surface states. However, whereas the surface Fermi arcs in Weyl semimetals are topological consequences of the Weyl points themselves, the surface Fermi arcs in Dirac semimetals are not directly related to the bulk Dirac points, raising the question of whether there exists a topological bulk-boundary correspondence for Dirac semimetals. In this work, we discover that strong and fragile topological Dirac semimetals exhibit one-dimensional (1D) higher-order hinge Fermi arcs (HOFAs) as universal, direct consequences of their bulk 3D Dirac points. To predict HOFAs coexisting with topological surface states in solid-state Dirac semimetals, we introduce and layer a spinful model of an s–d-hybridized quadrupole insulator (QI). We develop a rigorous nested Jackiw–Rebbi formulation of QIs and HOFA states. Employing ab initio calculations, we demonstrate HOFAs in both the room- (α) and intermediate-temperature (α″) phases of Cd3As2, KMgBi, and rutile-structure (β′-) PtO2

Direct evidence for thymic function in adult humans.

The understanding of human thymic function and evaluation of its contribution to T cell homeostasis are matters of great importance. Here we report the development of a novel assay to quantitate the frequency and diversity of recent thymic emigrants (RTEs) in the peripheral blood of humans. Such cells were defined by the presence of T cell receptor (TCR) rearrangement deletion circles (DCs), episomal byproducts of TCR-beta V(D)J rearrangement. DCs were detected in T cells in the thymus, cord blood, and adult peripheral blood. In the peripheral blood of adults aged 22 to 76 years, their frequency was highest in the CD4(+)CD45RA(+) CD62L(+) subpopulation of naive T cells. TCR DCs were also observed in other subpopulations of peripheral blood T cells, including those with the CD4(+)CD45RO(-)CD62L(+) and CD4(+)CD45RO(+)CD62L(+) phenotypes. RTEs were observed to have more than one Vbeta rearrangement, suggesting that replenishment of the repertoire in the adult is at least oligoclonal. These results demonstrate that the normal adult thymus continues to contribute, even in older individuals, a diverse set of new T cells to the peripheral circulation

Big Data, Analytic Culture and Analytic-Based Decision Making Evidence from Australia

This study investigates how managerial decision making is influenced by Big Data, analytics and analytic culture. The results of a cross-sectional survey (n = 163) of senior IT managers reveal that Big Data Analytics creates an incentive for managers to base more of their decisions on the analytic insights. However, we also find that the main driver of analytic-based decision making is analytic culture. Considering that culture – in contrast to Big Data Analytics tools and skills – is a resource which cannot be change easily or quickly, we conclude that firms with a highly analytic culture can use this resource as a competitive weapon. Finally, our analysis reveals that managers in smaller organizations are significantly more likely to base their decisions on analytic results than managers in large organizations, which suggests the former use analytics to remain competitive against their larger counterparts

Wallpaper Fermions and the Nonsymmorphic Dirac Insulator

Recent developments in the relationship between bulk topology and surface crystal symmetry have led to the discovery of materials whose gapless surface states are protected by crystal symmetries. In fact, there exists only a very limited set of possible surface crystal symmetries, captured by the 17 "wallpaper groups." We show that a consideration of symmetry-allowed band degeneracies in the wallpaper groups can be used to understand previous topological crystalline insulators, as well as to predict new examples. In particular, the two wallpaper groups with multiple glide lines, $pgg$ and $p4g$, allow for a new topological insulating phase, whose surface spectrum consists of only a single, fourfold-degenerate, true Dirac fermion. Like the surface state of a conventional topological insulator, the surface Dirac fermion in this "nonsymmorphic Dirac insulator" provides a theoretical exception to a fermion doubling theorem. Unlike the surface state of a conventional topological insulator, it can be gapped into topologically distinct surface regions while keeping time-reversal symmetry, allowing for networks of topological surface quantum spin Hall domain walls. We report the theoretical discovery of new topological crystalline phases in the A$_2$B$_3$ family of materials in SG 127, finding that Sr$_2$Pb$_3$ hosts this new topological surface Dirac fermion. Furthermore, (100)-strained Au$_2$Y$_3$ and Hg$_2$Sr$_3$ host related topological surface hourglass fermions. We also report the presence of this new topological hourglass phase in Ba$_5$In$_2$Sb$_6$ in SG 55. For orthorhombic space groups with two glides, we catalog all possible bulk topological phases by a consideration of the allowed non-abelian Wilson loop connectivities, and we develop topological invariants for these systems. Finally, we show how in a particular limit, these crystalline phases reduce to copies of the SSH model.Comment: Final version, 6 pg main text + 29 pg supplement, 6 + 13 figure