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This study examines challenges to the retrospective financial evaluation of continuous improvement (CI) activities. Through a review of the literature and active engagement with CI implementations, we identify several issues that may lead to divergence between operational and financial assessments. Out of this conflict emerges a set of concepts that we find important − the delineation of soft versus hard capacity benefits, the distinction between capacity used and capacity paid for, and the data gaps that relate to these benefits – and recognize operational improvement and financial improvement as distinct, yet interrelated, theoretical constructs. This study helps explain a series of persistent gaps in the management accounting literature: Conflict between operations and accounting managers, the divergent perspectives of Johnson and Kaplan after their publication of Relevance Lost (Johnson & Kaplan, 1987), and the need for both operational control (including detailed capacity control) and accounting control in CI firms. Instead of one control system being at odds with the other, or co-existing despite each other, each of these systems support a different component of the financial improvement process. Operational control systems in CI firms emphasize non-financial information and social and behavioral controls that empower decision-making by employees, while accounting control systems seek to motivate and translate operational gains into financial gains. Soft and hard benefits linked to capacity play an integral role in understanding the difference in focus of each control system, while data limitations help to explain why these systems remain loosely coupled in practice (or absent, as seems to be the case with detailed Capacity Management Systems).

French municipalities are in charge of a large number of local public services and benefit from a good, even if decreasing, financial autonomy. They have been until recently and despite the 2008 crisis, in a good financial situation supported by stable tax revenues and protective national policies. But they are now weakened by strong cuts in their main operating grant operated from 2015.

Through a case study, this chapter attempts to better understand French municipalities’ patterns of financial resilience in times of austerity. Interviews have been driven in four middle size municipalities in various financial situation, to understand the effects of the crisis on their vulnerability and the influence of their financial and organisational capacities on their resilience patterns.

The study shows that all four municipalities enhanced their responsiveness following the 2015 cut in grants. The latter appeared as a major shock that prompts them to change their behaviours and strengthen their resilience. But municipalities took up different paths of resilience, building up or investing in different anticipatory and coping capacities. Buffering capacities, such as cost cuts, were present in all cases to cope with shocks. Conversely, adapting and transforming capacities were not as prevalent. The pro-active resilient municipality relies on a mix of capacities. But three out of four cases show patterns of financial resilience that leave them insufficiently prepared for future shocks. This research shows the necessity to develop and constantly maintain anticipatory and coping capacities that are suitable for tackling the municipalities’ specific vulnerability sources.

An ageing population comes with its own set of challenges such as impaired financial capacity and resultant dependency on others to manage financial affairs. Dependency, in turn, as the evidence suggests, creates opportunities for financial exploitation of older adults. Related studies have primarily examined the clinical features and correlates of financial capacity or have attempted to develop its multidimensional measures. Both of which do little to resolve issues associated with impaired financial capacity. This paper aims to make a case for future researchers to assess older adults’ financial capacity from a non-clinical aspect.

Drawing on the notion of self-efficacy, as encapsulated within the social cognitive theory, this paper presents evidence from a host of different domains to demonstrate the potential contributions of self-efficacy to older adults’ financial capacity.

The contributions of self-efficacy in preserving older adults’ financial capacity appear to be much more profound than is currently acknowledged in the literature, thereby overlooking potentially promising and cost-effective interventions for autonomous ageing.

This paper presents a novel application of self-efficacy to autonomous ageing. Within this context, potential routes to the deployment of self-efficacy-based interventions are also discussed.

Unfolding almost a decade ago, the global financial crisis still affects governments all over the world. Austria has been hit only moderately, showing one of the lowest debt and unemployment levels in the European Union throughout the crisis years. However, the crisis’ aftermath affected the financial situation of Austrian local governments significantly. Although they are self-administered and exert high political and functional autonomy, local governments rely heavily on shared tax revenues with the federal level. These shared revenues as well as local governments’ own tax revenues declined, mirroring the economic turmoil following the financial crisis. This chapter aims to explore how Austrian local governments responded to these challenges. It does so by investigating the contextual conditions as well as internal capacities through the lens of financial resilience. All four cases included in the analysis highlighted that institutional conditions and general trends, e.g. tasks devolved from upper levels of government without sufficient compensation, limit their ability to cope with financial shocks. In this context, different patterns of financial resilience can be observed. While two cases initially showed low anticipatory and coping capacities, awareness of decision-makers resulted in building internal capacities and in making necessary changes early or as a response to the shock. The other two, however, seem to rest on their laurels of strong capacities in the past, and to rely mainly on their buffering capacities in reacting to shocks, thus increasing their vulnerability in the future.

This paper provides some guidance on how recent research into decision‐making capacity can be used in clinical practice to maximise financial independence among adults with learning disabilities. Its key messages are (i) that capacity is changeable rather than fixed and static, and (ii) that an assessment of capacity is just a starting point for identifying and enhancing a person's strengths and addressing weaknesses. The first half of the paper contains an overview of some recent developments in social policy, capacity legislation and research. We highlight some of the most important issues for clinicians and other health and social care practitioners to consider. In the second half, a case study is discussed. We outline some potential interventions for maximising financial capacity in different ways, as well as identifying some broad strategies for addressing difficulties in decision‐making.

The paper examines financial resilience responses/capacities of governments from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana in relation to COVID-19. It highlights the governments’ fiscal, budgetary and actions as either anticipatory or coping mechanisms towards the pandemic.

Multiple case studies and secondary data were used, including official government documentation/records, expert views, policy publications by supranational organisations and international financial institutions and media reports. Textual analysis was conducted to evaluate the case countries’ resilience.

The paper highlights how governmental budgetary initiatives, including repurposing the manufacturing sector, can sustain businesses, aid social interventions and reduce vulnerability during health crises. In addition, the paper highlights that external borrowing continues to be indispensable in the financial and budgetary initiatives of the case countries. The paper finds that lessons learnt from the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa within the last decade have shaped the anticipatory resilience capacities of the case countries against COVID-19.

The paper uses the notion of resilience, the dimensions of the resilience framework and the resource-based view (RBV) theory to unearth resilience patterns. This sort of combined approach is new to financial resilience studies.

This paper draws upon findings from a secondary analysis of suspected financial abuse cases in files of the Guardianship and Administration Tribunal in Queensland, Australia. The paper explores the association between formal and semi‐formal asset management arrangements and suspected financial abuse cases. The role of families as formal asset managers is also considered.

The purpose of this article is to develop a theoretical explanation – financial numeracy – for consumer proficiency with financial services. With sufficient financial numeracy, consumers benefit fully from financial services and make competent choices in regard to financial management.

The article builds theory by combining consumer cognitive capacity and customer knowledge theories with findings from prior studies of consumer difficulties with financial services to introduce a comprehensive model of the antecedents and consequences of financial numeracy with testable propositions for many psychographic and cultural influences and moderators.

Financial numeracy demands that consumers possess sufficient financial information processing capacity and ability as well as sufficient prior knowledge of financial concepts. Although partly a function of individual cognitive ability, it can be enhanced through appropriate experience with financial instruments and familiarity through personal financial materials when consumers are motivated to process them. Financial numeracy directly affects financial management outcomes related to borrowing, saving, and taxes. It indirectly affects higher‐order financial consequences, such as a consumer's credit score, interest rates charged on subsequent loans, net worth, likelihood of bankruptcy, and size of inheritance.

Consumers around the world are increasingly experiencing difficulties with financial services. To advance research in financial services marketing beyond documenting troublesome financial behaviours of consumers, this conceptual model provides insights to help increase consumer proficiency in comprehending and managing financial services based on knowledge about consumer information processing, learning, memory and the cultural and psychographic influences on these internal processes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the resilient operational variables that impact the corporate performance of construction companies in the South African construction industry and to explore whether financial capacity can be used as a predictor of construction company performance in the context of the South African construction industry.

The operational variables of construction companies that impact their corporate performance were identified through an in-depth review of the extant literature. A combination of convenience and snowball sampling techniques were used in identifying 185 building and civil engineering construction companies based in four provinces of South Africa and registered in Grades 2-6 of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) contractor grading register. The data used in the study were collected from this cohort of respondents through the use of structured questionnaires. At the end of the study period, 62 valid responses representing a response rate of 33.5 per cent were received. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The findings of this study indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between the financial capital and net assets of construction companies and their corporate performance in terms of turnover. The data collected did not support any significant relationship between other operating financial variables, such as Return on Capital Employed and profitability and financial performance.

A predictive model for predicting the financial performance of firms was developed from the data collected. The implication of this is that the more financial capital possessed by a construction company, the more the company’s financial performance in terms of turnover. The CIDB can use financial capacity as a measure when grading contractors, as a good number of contractors are not performing. The predictive model developed could be adopted by the CIDB as an instrument for predicting the corporate financial performance of construction companies that seek to be listed on their contractor grading register.

This research will be of significance to researchers and members of the research community in providing new knowledge as well as to contractors in enabling them to understand the importance of having financial capital. It is also of importance to the CIDB in their quest for contractor and construction industry development. Further research to validate the results obtained in this study using a larger sample size across more provinces of South Africa will form the basis of future studies.

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between collaborative innovation and the financial performance of information technology (IT) firms through the mediating role of strategic agility and absorptive capacity. Customer knowledge management capability (CKMC) is also explored as a potential moderator.

Data were collected from 300 respondents working in different small to medium IT enterprises operating in different cities around Portugal. The simple random sampling method was used for data collection, and Smart partial least squares-structural equation modeling (Smart PLS-SEM version 3.2.8) was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings demonstrate that collaborative innovation contributes significantly to the financial performance of IT firms in Portugal. The results also indicate that absorptive capacity and strategic agility both positively and significantly affect the relationship between collaborative innovation and firms’ financial performance. However, while the moderating role of CKMC has a positive and significant effect on the relation between collaborative innovation and strategic agility, CKMC insignificantly moderates the relation between collaborative innovation and absorptive capacity.

Few studies have explicitly connected collaborative innovation with firms’ financial performance; this study attempts to fill that gap. Moreover, this research investigates the mediating role of strategic agility and absorptive capacity in the relationship between collaborative innovation and financial performance. Finally, by discussing the moderating effect of CKMC, which leads to enhanced financial performance, this study proposes that when complex and unpredictable situations occur, managers should focus on customer-oriented strategies and innovation at the same time to outpace their competitors.