Activity-based costing user satisfaction and type of system: a research note

This paper examines user perceptions of Activity-based costing (ABC) performance for three different types of system in a major information and communication provider in South East Asia. Few prior ABC studies have considered the effect of system type on ABC performance. The study draws on a survey of 54 developers and 181 users of 16 different ABC systems within the organisation to produce five performance constructs (cost accuracy, cost-benefit trade-off, ABC impact, information use, and decision action). The results show that both the development inputs and user performance perceptions varied with the type of system (embedded, stand-alone, ad-hoc). While embedded systems enjoyed far stronger inputs (e.g. top management support, rewards and recognition, task significance) and greater development team cohesion than stand-alone systems, they were perceived by users to perform significantly less well. These findings suggest that system type is an important factor in assessing ABC performance

A study on intellectual capital, management accounting practices and corporate performance in six large Malaysian companies

knowledge and information are prime commodities in today’s ‘knowledge-economy’ where economic enterprises are increasingly knowledge-based and technologically-driven. Knowledge firms have a large proportion of their investment in intangible assets, and this poses a real challenge both for financial and managerial accounting that traditionally have not adequately reflected the investment and performance of intangibles in financial statements. increasingly, however, it is being recognised that intangible assets and intellectual capital (IC) are the keys to attaining competitive advantage for knowledge firms (Segelod, 1998), especially in the world’s liberalised economy. knowledge-based assets are the foundation for success in the 21 st century. Wiig (1997) argues that knowledge and IC play a fundamental role within modern enterprises, many leading organisations, such as Skandia Insurance and Ernst &Young, have successfully managed knowledge and IC. Klein and Prusak (1994) define IC as “packaged useful knowledge”. Sullivan (2000) suggests that IC basically constitutes knowledge, lore, ideas, and innovations

The measurement of manufacturing virtuality

N

Intellectual capital, management accounting practices and corporate performance: Perceptions of managers.

NoPurpose ¿ The purpose of the paper was to examine whether, and in what way, managers perceive that the level and shape of intellectual capital (IC) within firms influences management accounting practice, specifically, performance measurement, planning and control, capital budgeting, and risk management. It also explores whether such firms are better able to respond to unanticipated economic and market changes and achieve relatively higher performance within their sector. Design/methodology/approach ¿ The paper is based on the results of a study conducted in Malaysia through a questionnaire survey in 119 large companies with varying levels of IC and selected interviews with both accounting and non-accounting executives in a subset of them. Findings ¿ The findings in the paper suggest some evolution in management accounting practices for firms investing heavily in IC. The findings are discussed and further explored through interviews in some of the firms analysed. Research limitations/implications ¿ The limitations of survey research in this paper are acknowledged, however these are ameliorated by confirmatory insights from the interviews. Further research could be carried out using more extensive case studies in companies, perhaps longitudinally, or undertaken using sector focused surveys. Practical implications ¿ It is important to show in the paper that management accounting systems reflect the strategic orientation of the companies concerned. Where a greater focus on intangibles and intellectual capital occurs it may require a different emphasis on management accounting practices compared to companies where they do not feature strongly. It is important that management recognise and act on this in order to improve corporate performance. Originality/value ¿ The paper shows that it is widely recognised that (IC), whether in the form of knowledge, experience, professional skill, good relationships, or technological capacity is a major source of corporate competitive advantage. Whilst the literature places considerable attention on the valuation, measurement and reporting of IC for external reporting purposes, far less attention has so far been given to the implications of IC for managerial accounting practice. This paper addresses this omission

Trust in supply chain relationships and its impact on organisation and supply chain performance

This thesis identifies the role of trust in the supply chain relationship on supply chain performance and organisation performance. An extensive review of literature identified a lack of empirical research to fill a gap in supply chain and operations management knowledge and this gap is mainly related to identification of the role that trust has on performance. This thesis considers this gap with other relevant issues identified through the literature. It presents a research framework formulated to tackle the research problem and reports an attempt to fill the existing gap through empirical research. The thesis contains analyses of three case studies related to three different territories, namely; Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and State of Qatar. The case studies encompass large and medium size organisations from three different industrial settings. In Oman, the case study is related to oilfield services and the oil production industry while in UAE the case study is related to real estate and the property development industry, and the case study in Qatar is related to the chemical industry. In addition to identifying the influence of trust in supply chain relationships on organisation performance and supply chain performance, the research considers the influence of the duration of the supply chain relationship on trust development in the relationship. Additionally, it explores the impact of trust on the avoidance of the bullwhip effect in the supply chain and shows through empirical evidence the role of trust in minimising supply chain risk. Consideration is given to the impact of different territory and different industrial settings on the trust/performance relationship. Triangulation of research approaches and methods is utilised in this research to enrich the research findings by exploiting the advantages of each approach and method advantages while reducing the disadvantages through complementarities between them. The results of this thesis indicate that the supply chain parties should adopt trust in their relationship whenever considering supply chain performance improvement, organisation performance improvement, and overcoming risk.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo