Search results

This study aims to examine the relationship between the internal control manager attributes and the firms’ operational efficiency. The internal control manager designs and maintains the firms’ policies and procedures to certify the effectiveness of its internal control system.

The study is an empirical research based on a sample of public companies listed on the Korean Stock Exchange from year 2011 to 2015. The authors derive measures of operational efficiency using the data envelopment analysis tool.

This study shows that the operational efficiency increases with internal control managers’ task-related knowledge and diverse firm knowledge, consistent with human capital theory. Also, the results reveal that internal control managers, equity ownership has a curvilinear relationship with the operational efficiency, indicating that excessive managerial ownership can deteriorate the firm value.

While many studies have examined the association between the internal control system and financial reporting quality, this paper is differentiated from prior studies by focussing on the internal control managers’ personal attributes. This is important, as the internal control system is essentially built by internal control managers who are in charge. This study contributes to accounting literature by shedding light on the role of internal control managers in enhancing the firms’ operational efficiency.

Purpose – Resource-based literature argues that firms’ export performances are influenced by a proper combination of their own resources and capabilities, allowing for sustainable competitive advantages. Because export activities are usually based on relationships between firms and foreign intermediaries, the adequate management of inter-organisational activities should also be analysed as a key determinant of export performance.

Originality – Our research adds to the existing literature by examining the role that management control systems (MCS) play in exploiting firms’ exporting capabilities and resources to optimise export performance.

Methodology – Utilising empirical data from Spanish exporters, an initial analysis of export efficiency was performed based on DEA and segmentation techniques. From efficiency scores, we tested causal relationships between MCS design and use and the optimisation of resources and capabilities when performing export activities.

Findings and practical implications – The main conclusions are that any type of control system was found to have a positive influence in export performance, but only social control establishes a difference in terms of efficiency. The results show that strong social controls increase firms’ efficiencies when managing export channels, allowing firms to achieve outputs superior to competitors with similar resources and capabilities. In addition, an efficiency ‘lifecycle’ was identified for relationships between exporters and intermediaries. A pro-cyclical effect was found among MCS design, use, and export efficiency; intense MCS were established in the first stages of a relationship but were relaxed after a certain level of efficiency was achieved, leading to a reduction of efficiency in the long term that compromised the continuity of relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer relationship management (CRM) implementation affects internal capital allocation efficiency, the efficiency with which a firm allocates its capital across its business segments.

The authors use a statistical regression method to analyze a sample of 801 unique firms in the USA from COMPUSTAT and the Computer Intelligence database. This analysis examines the relation between CRM implementation and internal capital allocation efficiency and identifies the conditions under which firms benefit more from CRM implementation. They also use instrumental variables (IVs) to address endogenous concerns with a two-stage least squares (2SLS) model.

The authors find that CRM implementation is positively related to internal capital allocation efficiency. The results are robust to the 2SLS analysis with IVs. This positive relation is more pronounced for firms with effective internal control and for those operating in highly competitive markets.

The research implies that that CRM can have a significant cross-functional effect on corporate financing and budgeting. This also suggests that when chief marketing officers plan marketing initiatives and implement CRM, they should communicate to chief financial officers not only the direct effect but also the indirect strategic benefits of such initiatives to a firm.

The authors reveal a previously overlooked aspect of marketing accountability by suggesting marketing’s impact on internal capital markets. They also enrich the body of literature on CRM benefits by showing a cross-functional benefit from marketing to finance (or capital allocation).

Much of the practitioner literature touts the universal benefits of process management and its impact on operational performance. However, in academic literature, empirical evidence is mixed. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the competitive intensity on the effectiveness of process management.

Survey data from manufacturing plants were collected from through a global research project. Regression analysis was used to test hypotheses.

The influence of process design on efficiency and innovation performance is not dependent on competitive intensity; however, the impact of process improvement and process control on efficiency and innovation performance is in some instances moderated by competitive intensity.

The inclusion of competitive intensity as a contingency variable helps to explain the contextual impact of process management on efficiency and innovation.

Process management can be an effective tool if the levels of process design, control, and improvement are customized to fit with the competitive environment.

This is one of the few studies to empirically examine process management as three core elements. Previous studies utilized a single construct of process management or multiple manufacturing practices such as customer/supplier involvement, statistical quality control, process focus, and cross-functional teams to measure process management. Using this measurement approach demonstrates how process management can influence both efficiency and innovation.

The paper aims to explore the impact of economic freedom on the efficiency of the Malaysian banking sector.

The analysis is confined into two stages. In the first stage, the bias-corrected data envelopment analysis method is used to compute the efficiency of individual banks. Then bootstrap regressions are used to examine the impact of economic freedom on bank efficiency, while controlling for the potential impacts of contextual variables.

It was found that greater freedom to start new businesses tend to impede the efficiency of banks operating in the Malaysian banking sector. The results indicate that restrictions on the activities of which banks could undertake exert negative impact on their efficiency levels. The empirical findings seem to support for official regulation and supervision of banks by setting the limits on activities which banks could undertake. In addition evidence supporting for government interventions in the foreign exchange and money markets was found.

The purpose of the present paper is to extend the earlier works on the performance of the banking sector in a developing economy and establish empirical evidence on the impact of economic freedom. Although empirical evidence which examines the performance of banking sectors is abundant in the literature, to the best of our knowledge, virtually nothing has been published to address the impact of economic freedom.

The detection of drunk driving is an important task of police organizations. The impact of police work on drunk driving depends largely on drivers’ perceptions of the probability of detection. The present study explored the effects of different enforcement strategies on this perception. Participants (n=77) experienced different control strategies in a game and subsequently rated probability of detection. Degree of surveillance and efficiency of controls were varied. In the case of low detection probabilities, a substantial overestimation was found. Moreover, participants rated probability of detection higher when the same rate of detection was accomplished with few but efficient, compared to more but inefficient, controls. Assuming that a similar perception process is at work for drunk driving, the results suggest that increasing efficiency will have a greater impact on deterring drunk driving than increasing the frequency of controls. Consequences for police work are discussed.

This study examines whether and how the legal origin of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) impacts corporate investment efficiency.

The study employs a large panel dataset of firms from 32 non-USA countries from 2005 to 2018. Financial and institutional ownership data are obtained from the COMPUSTAT Global and Public Ownership databases in S&P Capital IQ, respectively. The study employed ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with year and firm fixed effects. In addition, two-stage least squares with instrumental variable regression (2SLS-IV) and propensity score matching (PSM) approaches were employed to address the potential endogeneity.

The findings of this study suggest that common- and civil-law FIIs differ in their monitoring capabilities to promote investment efficiency. The authors find evidence that increased equity ownership by common-law FIIs, not civil-law investors, strengthens the investment-Q sensitivity, resulting in higher investment efficiency. Consistent with the monitoring and information channel, the results further indicate that the positive impact of common-law FIIs on investment efficiency is stronger in host environments susceptible to agency conflicts and information asymmetry.

This study offers novel evidence on the heterogeneous monitoring role of FIIs with regard to their home countries' legal origins and their impact on investment efficiency in an international context.

The purpose of this paper is to test the theory of optimal monitoring, which posits that more generous county homestead exemptions lower the incentive for residents to monitor school operations, thereby increasing inefficiency in service outcomes.

This research uses two-stage Simar and Wilson’s data envelopment analysis to assess county school districts’ efficiency in the state of Georgia for each year from 2007 to 2012.

Controlling for other factors known to be correlated with government efficiency, such as fiscal capacity and competition, this study finds evidence that higher property tax burdens resulting from lower county school district homestead exemptions, as a proxy of more intense citizens’ monitoring pressures, are associated with improved county school district performance efficiency. These results provide empirical support for the theory of optimal monitoring.

Increased government funding toward education is more likely to improve education outcomes if accompanied by efficiency control mechanisms. One such mechanism could be increased transparency of government operations and accountability of public officials.

This research uses a newer and more robust estimation of relative efficiency and analyzes a more common type of property tax exemption. This improves the internal validity and generalizability of the findings regarding the theory of optimal monitoring.

This study aims to critically evaluate the COVID-19 and future post-COVID-19 impacts on office design, location and functioning with respect to government and community occupational health and safety expectations. It aims to assess how office efficiency and cost control agendas intersect with corporate social accountability.

Theoretically informed by governmentality and social accountability through action, it thematically examines research literature and Web-based professional and business reports. It undertakes a timely analysis of historical office trends and emerging practice discourse during the COVID-19 global pandemic's early phase.

COVID-19 has induced a transition to teleworking, impending office design and configuration reversals and office working protocol re-engineering. Management strategies reflect prioritisation choices between occupational health and safety versus financial returns. Beyond formal accountability reports, office management strategy and rationales will become physically observable and accountable to office staff and other parties.

Future research must determine the balance of office change strategies employed and their evident focus on occupational health and safety or cost control and financial returns. Further investigation can reveal the relationship between formal reporting and observed activities.

Organisations face strategic decisions concerning both their balancing of employee and public health and safety against capital expenditure and operation cost commitments to COVID-19 transmission prevention. They also face strategic accountability decisions as to the visibility and correspondence between their observable actions and their formal social responsibility reporting.

Organisations have continued scientific management office cost reduction strategies under the guise of innovative office designs. This historic trend will be tested by a pandemic, which calls for control of its spread, including radical changes to the office at potentially significant cost.

This paper presents one of few office studies in the accounting research literature, recognising it as central to contemporary organisational functioning and revealing the office cost control tradition as a challenge for employee and community health and safety.

To compare the profitability and technical efficiency of firms in a monopoly industry, airports, operating with different degrees of market power and under differing regulatory regimes, minimalist in New Zealand and interventionist in Australia.

Unlike previous privatisation studies, this study measures efficiency and profitability separately. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA), the technical efficiency of privatised airports is assessed, and this independent measure is used in regression analyses to determine whether efficiency, regulation or privatisation is related to airport profitability.

For firms with monopolistic characteristics operating under minimalist regulation, profitability is related to market power, not efficiency improvements. For firms operating in a regulated environment, profitability is related to regulation, which constrains market power but does not impede efficiency.

This study is limited by its small sample size and its generalisability due to its single industry and regional focus. However, the findings support assertions that the impact of privatisation cannot be assessed independently of industry structure and regulation.

Policy makers considering SOE privatisation in non‐competitive markets should introduce either competition or regulation if firm efficiency is a desired outcome.

Academics and policy makers should be aware that privatisation and competition are not only complementary, as per the extant literature, but they are essential bedfellows. In the absence of competition, regulation is required to control for market power.