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The purpose of this paper is to explore the practices of financial autonomy and control the emerging issue of agencification in the higher education sector.

The practices are investigated using case studies from seven semi-autonomous state universities in Indonesia. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 17 respondents including university officials, policymakers, and experts. The interview results were analysed using an inductive-deductive approach.

This research highlights an unstable balance between financial autonomy and control practices in the universities. Autonomy supports agencification mainly by simplifying financial procedures and control is seen by university managers to be overemphasised compared to in the other state universities. Despite successes in introducing a business-like atmosphere within bureaucratic universities, questions about balancing financial autonomy and control remain.

The small number of cases implies limited generalisability. The two characteristics used, size and parent ministries do not represent all university variabilities.

Agencification has become a key reform practice for state universities. Rather than using a “one size fits all” approach, the government needs a repertoire of models for these institutions.

This study provides empirical evidence of agencification in the higher education sector with an emphasis on the financial dimension of autonomy and control in a developing country setting.

The purpose of this study is to examine the financial autonomy that affects the financial accounting information quality of public organizations. This study also tests the impact of the financial autonomy on support from leadership. How this impact has affected elements of accounting information systems such as hardware, software, communications technology and chief accountant to support providing the quality of the financial accounting information.

The research model is in the SEM form and measurement models are reflective scales so this study applies the PLS-SEM analysis technique on the Smart PLS 3.2.7 software to test the research hypotheses. Analytical data is collected through survey questionnaires with observed variables measured using the typical 7-point Likert scales. The result obtained after cleaning the data includes 164 Vietnamese public organizations with the different levels of the financial autonomy.

This research has three primary findings: firstly, FA has a positive direct effect on FAIQ and SL. Secondly, SL influences FAIQ through four mediate variables including AM, HW, SW and CN. Finally, SL also acts as a mediate variable in the relationship of FA and FAIQ.

This is one of the first empirical studies to examine the role of financial autonomy in leadership support to improve the quality of the accounting information in the public sector in the context of the Vietnamese government is promoting the financial autonomy of public organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between structural arrangements of public agencies of Pakistan and their autonomy.

Data were collected through a questionnaire using the key informant approach from 70 public agencies of Pakistan. Hypotheses were drawn from the structural instrumental perspective to examine the relation between structure and autonomy. In order to test the hypotheses, multivariate regression analysis was performed on the data.

The research highlights that out of the three major structural dimensions, horizontal specialization, vertical specialization and governing board, only governing board is seen to affect the human resource management dimension of autonomy while vertical specialization is related to financial management autonomy. None of the three hypotheses were completely supported. The divergence of the results from the structural instrumental perspective points to other factors related to agencies including administrative culture and context of state that matter in delegation of autonomy to the agencies by the government.

This paper contributes to an on-going debate on globalization of public management reforms with emphasis on structural instrumental explanation of the agencification in developing countries.

The chapter furnishes empirical evidence about the extent and profiles of autonomy of EU agencies, the modalities whereby they are steered and controlled, and the interactions they have in EU policy networks. It thus provides the bases for a more complete picture of the EU multi-level administration.

The research is a survey-based design. A questionnaire was administered between July 2009 and April 2010 to 30 EU agencies included in the study population. The questionnaire was sent to the executive director of all the agencies included in the study. Questions were closed-ended, either in the form of multiple choices – with one answer or with check-all-that-apply and an option for ‘other’ to be filled – or in scale format. The resulting data set included ratio, interval, ordinal, and nominal scales. The reference model employed for the investigation relies on the analytical model developed within the framework of the research project COST Action IS0651 CRIPO (Comparative Research into Current Trends in Public Sector Organization – see also ‘Acknowledgements’) for the study of public agencies in Europe (Verhoest, Van Thiel, Bouckaert, & Lægreid, 2012).

EU agencies display a rather low level of managerial, especially financial, autonomy; conversely, they enjoy relatively high policy autonomy. As to the way in which multiple ‘parent’ administration steer EU agencies, it emerges a composite picture, in which the crossroads of steering and control by the parent administrations and accountability by the agency lies in the executive director. In terms of interactions within policy networks, EU agencies interact in a significant way with the European Commission, with national-level agencies in the pertinent policy field, and with specific technical bodies where they are part of the configuration of the policy sector, whilst interactions with national ministries as well as with other EU agencies are rare. No single model can capture in full the overall features of EU agencies, although the ‘community level institution’ model seems to capture a number of the profiles of these agencies.

Both the literature on EU multi-level administration and research agendas in public management can benefit from inclusion of – and in-depth empirical knowledge about – EU agencies. The chapter provides important empirical evidence to these purposes.

EU agencies are actors in European public policy-making, albeit to a varied extent depending on the sector. The extent of autonomy and the way in which they are held to account are crucial aspects for an enhanced understanding of their influence on European public policy-making, as is their location in European policy networks.

Research presented in this chapter is the first systematic empirical investigation of EU agencies encompassing networking, steering and control and autonomy of EU agencies, based on primary data.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent the initiatives of local governments to launch modernisation processes are facilitated by local autonomy, which is increasingly important in both the theory and practice of public policy and management.

Local government reforms are distinguished according to the institutional structure at which they are directed and local autonomy is assessed as a multidimensional concept. Drawing on a multilevel analysis of the Swiss case, this paper combines data stemming from a survey conducted at the local tier with secondary data from the regional tier.

The main empirical findings are threefold. First, when local governments undertake managerial or political reform initiatives, their autonomy with respect to higher levels of government matters. Second, it is not local autonomy but rather the perception of structural problems that is the force driving territorial reforms. Third, it is not the autonomy enjoyed by local governments vis-à-vis local factors, but rather the pressures stemming from that context that may lead to reforms.

By adopting a comparative approach to local autonomy, this paper shows that local governments which have sufficient latitude for local policy making are likely to take initiatives to improve service delivery in accordance with local preferences.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how an Higher Education Institution’s (HEI) choice of undergoing a voluntary reorganisation, motivated by its own interest of increasing its autonomy, whilst also having to satisfy the government in order to maintain the level of public funding, impacts on the HEI’s accounting.

The paper draws on the institutional logics perspective to present a single case study of a German HEI that chose to be reorganised from a public into a foundation university. Data were obtained using multiple data collection methods.

The findings suggest that organisational characteristics, which act as filters for institutional logics, play an important role for HEIs’ ability to increase not only their de jure, but also their de facto autonomy through self-motivated, rather than government imposed, reform processes.

The paper is based on a single case study in a country-specific context, limiting the empirical generalisability of the findings.

Germany is not only one of the main nations exporting higher education, but its economy has also been recognised for its stability and development over the last decades. Nevertheless, Germany struggles in its transition to become a knowledge-based economy. Yet, research has so far tended to neglect educational reforms in Continental European countries, such as Germany. By addressing this gap in the literature, this paper is among the first to explore how reform processes shape accounting in German HEIs.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between control by the Maltese Central Government on Local Government and the format and basis of budgetary and financial reporting used. The study analyses the role of reporting in agency and fiscal federalism theories.

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with the controller (Central Government officials and the National Audit Office), while a survey was carried out with the controlled (Maltese Local Councils).

The type of reporting used by Maltese Local Councils may be undermining the control that Central Government seeks to exercise on overspending and debt levels. The Local Councils’ financial statements report accrual deficits and increasing liabilities. This overspending appears to slip through Parliamentary scrutiny because the latter approves cash allocations to Local Councils; the financial reports submitted to Parliament do not highlight overspending in cash terms; and the cash budget execution report that should be prepared by Local Councils is not given due importance.

Central Government should be consistent in its policy towards Local Government, which may require more elaborate reporting. This study highlights the importance of aligning the reporting required (top-down) and the reporting presented (bottom-up) – otherwise, control is at stake.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the governance system of autonomous universities in an emerging economy, i.e., Thailand. The authors examine the degree of freedom that Thai autonomous universities enjoy and the process that they follow in instituting their governance system.

The authors use case study method of research where units of analysis are 16 public autonomous universities. Data are collected directly from the Universities and available documents and through interviews with ten informants from five universities. Data are analysed using the triangulation method before presenting findings.

The authors find that Thai autonomous universities had different degree of readiness when they were granted autonomy status by the government. According to their Acts, the universities can specify their own governance pattern, leadership recruitment, revenue management, budgeting and personnel management. With the strengthening role and accountability, the university councils have enjoyed wider space of actions in institutional governance. Size and composition of the councils differ. Big and more mature universities tend to have more members and their councils comprise more outside experts than the small ones. Thai autonomous universities’ governance structure is in the pattern of corporate-like structure. Participatory process is applied in the university decision making. Big universities are strategically directed towards being research universities, while small and newly established universities are striving to expand to health science education. In academic governance, there is an academic board which helps the council to handle academic standards and give academic related recommendations. The launch of Education Criteria for Performance Excellence Framework to standardise the country’s higher education system has become controversial and is said to lessen the universities’ degree of academic freedom. In financial autonomy, the study finds that most universities are still dependent on government budget.

This case study depicts the governance system of autonomous universities in Thailand, which is one of the emerging countries. Taken into account that existing literature regarding university governance, especially in the emerging countries is limited, the study, which eventually proposes recommendations for lifting these universities’ governance performance, should be able to contribute fruitful knowledge in the area.

Taking a self-determination theory (SDT) perspective, the purpose of this paper is to understand the socio-cultural context on the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness in the entrepreneurial activity of women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 women entrepreneurs operating business in the formal sector of the economy in Addis Ababa. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze and interpret the interview transcripts.

Women entrepreneurs experience autonomy-supportive and controlling socio-cultural contexts in their gender role, parent–daughter relationship, husband–wife relationship and their religious affiliation. Autonomy-supportive social agents provide women entrepreneurs, the chance to perceive themselves as competent and autonomous to exploit and choose opportunities and run their business in accordance with their personal values and interests. On the other hand, controlling social agents maintain and reinforce the existing male-dominated social and economic order. They constrain women’s entrepreneurial performance by undermining their basic psychological needs satisfaction, which limits their autonomous functioning and well-being in entrepreneurial activity.

To promote women’s autonomous functioning and well-being in entrepreneurial activity, policy should be aimed at reducing constraints to the satisfaction of psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness in the socio-cultural context.

The study is the first to apply SDT to explore the influence of autonomy vs controlling socio-cultural contexts on satisfaction vs thwarting needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness in the entrepreneurial activity of women.