Search results

1 – 10 of over 8000
Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 July 2022

Klara Granheimer, Tina Karrbom Gustavsson and Per Erik Eriksson

Prior research has emphasised the importance of the early phases of construction projects, as well as the difficulties of procuring engineering services – especially due to the…

Abstract

Purpose

Prior research has emphasised the importance of the early phases of construction projects, as well as the difficulties of procuring engineering services – especially due to the uncertainties. Despite that, studies on the public procurement of engineering services are scarce. Although scholars have shown that uncertainty may affect the choice of control modes, the level of uncertainty that characterises services is not addressed by the two task characteristics: knowledge of the transformation process and output measurability. The purpose is to investigate organisational control in public procurement of engineering services.

Design/methodology/approach

The existing control model was adjusted in this study by conceptually adding uncertainty as a third aspect to the two task characteristics. A single case study of the Swedish Transport Administration was used. The empirical data, comprising 14 interviews with managers from the client and engineering consulting companies, were analysed using flexible pattern matching and visual mapping approaches and then illustrated using the model.

Findings

The public client did not base its choice of control modes on uncertainty, but rather on the other two task characteristics. Consequently, the service providers argued that the chosen control modes reduced their creativity, increased their financial risks and caused unclear responsibilities. This study therefore shows that uncertainty is an important factor to consider in the choice of control modes, both from a theoretical perspective and from the service providers' point of view. The developed model may therefore be useful for researchers as well as practitioners.

Originality/value

This study is the first attempt to add uncertainty as a task characteristic when choosing control modes. The results contribute to the scarce control literature regarding the procurement of engineering services for construction projects and the procurement of other services with high uncertainty.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 31 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 March 2020

Abdelkader Laallam, Salina Kassim, Engku Rabiah Adawiah Engku Ali and Buerhan Saiti

This study aims to highlight the importance of intellectual capital (IC) for the operation of waqf (Islamic endowment) institutions, as few studies have discussed this issue in…

4425

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to highlight the importance of intellectual capital (IC) for the operation of waqf (Islamic endowment) institutions, as few studies have discussed this issue in relation to non-profit religious organisations, particularly waqf organisations. Consequently, this study hopes to contribute to the development of waqf institutions in terms of human capital proficiency, the efficiency of operations and the effectiveness and sustainability of performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors reviewed a significant body of relevant studies written on various aspects of IC, to highlight the significance of considering IC in the operation of non-profit organisations (NPOs) and waqf institutions.

Findings

This study highlights the importance of IC in the operation of waqf institutions. It provides a platform that facilitates understanding of the existing obstacles and challenges in waqf institutions (such as lack of accountability, lack of funding, mismanagement and lack of trained labour, among others) and offers potential solutions through the consideration of knowledge and IC.

Research limitations/implications

This study is a conceptual analysis of IC in the context of NPOs. Future studies should conduct empirical testing, which will provide more detailed discussion and enriching insights into the issue of IC and the performance of NPOs, particularly in the case of waqf institutions.

Practical implications

This study provides several important implications for waqf institutions and other NPOs, as it sheds light on the consideration of knowledge and IC in their operations.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to discuss the issues of waqf in the light of IC and provide an integrated framework for the operation of waqf institutions.

Details

ISRA International Journal of Islamic Finance, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0128-1976

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 August 2022

Ana Gessa, Eyda Marin and Pilar Sancha

This study aims to properly and objectively assess the students’ study progress in bachelor programmes by applying statistical process control (SPC). Specifically, the authors…

2153

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to properly and objectively assess the students’ study progress in bachelor programmes by applying statistical process control (SPC). Specifically, the authors focused their analysis on the variation in performance rates in business studies courses taught at a Spanish University.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative methodology was used, using an action-based case study developed in a public university. Previous research and theoretical issues related to quality indicators of the training programmes were discussed, followed by the application of SPC to assess these outputs.

Findings

The evaluation of the performance rate of the courses that comprised the training programs through the SPC revealed significant differences with respect to the evaluations obtained through traditional evaluation procedures. Similarly, the results show differences in the control parameters (central line and control interval), depending on the adopted approach (by programmes, by academic year and by department).

Research limitations/implications

This study has inherent limitations linked to both the methodology and selection of data sources.

Practical implications

The SPC approach provides a framework to properly and objectively assess the quality indicators involved in quality assurance processes in higher education.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the discourse on the importance of a robust and effective assessment of quality indicators of the academic curriculum in the higher education context through the application of quality control tools such as SPC.

Details

Quality Assurance in Education, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0968-4883

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 April 2020

Sinikka Lepistö, Justyna Dobroszek, Lauri Lepistö and Ewelina Zarzycka

This paper aims to explore controls within an inter-organisational relationship involving outsourced management accounting services from the contractor’s perspective.

3039

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore controls within an inter-organisational relationship involving outsourced management accounting services from the contractor’s perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative data from within the relationship are analysed in a legitimacy-theory framework, illustrating how controls within the relationship are intended to build the contractor’s legitimacy and what kinds of implications the controls have in relation to conflicts between interests inherent in the relationship.

Findings

The legitimacy perspective clarifies that while controls are aimed at ensuring efficiency for the client, they may also provide symbolic displays of the appropriateness of the contractor’s actions both at an inter-organisational level for the client and at an individual level for the contractor’s employees. While the contractor intends to build legitimacy with the client by demonstrating utility in the form of efficiency, the process also gives the client influence and allows the disposition in terms of shared values to be demonstrated. However, this process has some negative consequences for the contractor’s employees as it is insufficient for serving the boundary-spanning employees’ interests connected with the nature of their work. Hence, the same controls need to yield benefits and fair outcomes for employees. The controls simultaneously foster interconnections that contribute to permanence and formalise the outsourcing of complex services, thereby rendering such processes comprehensible and transferable to other settings, which can be seen to serve the contractor’s continuity interests.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to academic research by illustrating how controls within inter-organisational relationships not only steer boundary-spanners’ work to conform to a client’s needs but may also help to build legitimacy via symbolic properties in the presence of conflicting interests at both an inter-organisational and individual level. It specifically highlights the important role of boundary-spanners lower in the organisational structure, who both affect and are influenced by the intentions to build legitimacy with the client.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 17 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 30 July 2018

Abstract

Details

Marketing Management in Turkey
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-558-0

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 25 February 2020

Zsolt Tibor Kosztyán, Tibor Csizmadia, Zoltán Kovács and István Mihálcz

The purpose of this paper is to generalize the traditional risk evaluation methods and to specify a multi-level risk evaluation framework, in order to prepare customized risk…

3613

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to generalize the traditional risk evaluation methods and to specify a multi-level risk evaluation framework, in order to prepare customized risk evaluation and to enable effectively integrating the elements of risk evaluation.

Design/methodology/approach

A real case study of an electric motor manufacturing company is presented to illustrate the advantages of this new framework compared to the traditional and fuzzy failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) approaches.

Findings

The essence of the proposed total risk evaluation framework (TREF) is its flexible approach that enables the effective integration of firms’ individual requirements by developing tailor-made organizational risk evaluation.

Originality/value

Increasing product/service complexity has led to increasingly complex yet unique organizational operations; as a result, their risk evaluation is a very challenging task. Distinct structures, characteristics and processes within and between organizations require a flexible yet robust approach of evaluating risks efficiently. Most recent risk evaluation approaches are considered to be inadequate due to the lack of flexibility and an inappropriate structure for addressing the unique organizational demands and contextual factors. To address this challenge effectively, taking a crucial step toward customization of risk evaluation.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 37 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 2 August 2022

Christopher Ansell, Eva Sørensen and Jacob Torfing

This chapter insists that evaluation of the process and results of cocreation is a precondition for continuous improvement and helps maintain support from external sponsors and

Abstract

This chapter insists that evaluation of the process and results of cocreation is a precondition for continuous improvement and helps maintain support from external sponsors and funders. The main benefits of systematic evaluation of cocreation are learning and legitimacy rather than control and allocation. The chapter scrutinizes the two most common evaluation tools, formative and summative evaluation, and finds that they both fail to appreciate the emergent character of cocreation processes. The solution to this problem is to supplement formative and summative evaluation with developmental evaluation, which prompts the participating actors to engage in a critical interrogation of what they are doing, the reasons for doing it, and the results they achieve. Finally, the chapter explains how the commitment of developmental evaluation to using real-time data in the evaluation of change theories can be pursued through a collective impact strategy.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 July 2021

Gerhard Speckbacher

Enabling employee creativity and channeling the creativity of employees toward process and product innovations is a starting point of value creation processes and strategy maps…

2371

Abstract

Purpose

Enabling employee creativity and channeling the creativity of employees toward process and product innovations is a starting point of value creation processes and strategy maps. The dominant view in early creativity research seemed to be that creativity and control are inconsistent. More recently, a number of studies have come to acknowledge that performance evaluations (and rewards linked to such evaluations) may well have positive effects on creativity. This paper aims to review existing results on the effects of performance evaluations on creativity from the perspectives of different research streams.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper analyzes a stream of research in social psychology which has promoted the notion of an overall negative effect of performance evaluations on creativity. The (reinterpreted) results from this research stream are contrasted with findings from the behaviorist perspective and with research in management accounting.

Findings

The review of the different research traditions in the analysis of the effects of performance evaluations on creativity indicates that the seemingly contradictory empirical results can be explained by the different settings used and by the different ways how performance evaluations and linked rewards are conceptualized.

Originality/value

The paper clarifies that, in contrast to common beliefs, performance evaluations and linked incentives do not kill creativity in general. Performance evaluations and incentives can support creativity and innovation if they are transparent about what kind of creativity is desired and how such creativity is measured and rewarded. Moreover, incentives can effectively support behaviors that are known to be important within creativity and innovation processes.

Details

Pacific Accounting Review, vol. 33 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0114-0582

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 March 2017

A. Banu Goktan, Alka Gupta, Subhendu Mukherjee and Vishal K. Gupta

The link between social interaction and entrepreneurial activity has attracted considerable attention in the entrepreneurship literature. In this study, we focus on individual…

Abstract

The link between social interaction and entrepreneurial activity has attracted considerable attention in the entrepreneurship literature. In this study, we focus on individual cultural values, shaped by interactions in the social space, as they relate to opportunity evaluation, a cornerstone of the entrepreneurial process. We test our predictions in India, a non-Western society that has sustained one of the highest rates of entrepreneurial activity in the world. Our findings suggest that value orientation of high power distance is negatively associated with opportunity evaluation whereas uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, and femininity are positively associated with opportunity evaluation.

Details

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, vol. 20 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2574-8904

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 June 2023

Nathalie Brender, Marion Gauthier, Jean-Henry Morin and Arber Salihi

While the three lines model (TLM) provides an organizational structure to execute risk and control duties, research and practice show limitations in the model's implementation…

1015

Abstract

Purpose

While the three lines model (TLM) provides an organizational structure to execute risk and control duties, research and practice show limitations in the model's implementation. These limitations result in governance issues. Such issues, together with control weaknesses, could be addressed by leveraging properties of distribution, transparency, and immutability of blockchain technology. To this end, in this paper the authors propose a conceptual control framework based on blockchain technology to augment control practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The design of the resulting blockchain-based control framework (BBCF) and its prototype, based on the design science research methodology (DSRM), is presented and discussed in terms of the potential impact in the context of the identified problems within the TLM.

Findings

One potential outcome of BBCF could be to redefine the scope and boundaries of some of the activities in audit and control practices from a more static to a more dynamic and prospective role. In a larger context of improving governance practices, the BBCF could set the path for a more inclusive and participatory interaction between the different governance actors of an organization.

Research limitations/implications

However, this assumes that blockchain is more widely adopted despite its complexity and rigidity.

Practical implications

BBCF covering both a conceptual model design and a reference implementation provides an innovation in audit and control. BBCF could include all relevant stakeholders who have an interest in corporate governance and control activities, including the regulators.

Originality/value

The contribution intends to serve both as a starting point for discussing the evolution of audit and control practice based on blockchain technology, as well as an initial actionable prototype for experimentation and further development.

Details

Journal of Applied Accounting Research, vol. 25 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0967-5426

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 8000