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There are two problems when a principal invests capital and hires an agent to do the work. The problems relate to inducing the agent to exert the optimal effort and to effect an optimal risk sharing arrangement. This paper introduces the concepts and enumerates the fundamental solutions to this agency problem. This approach is very useful in the managerial accounting area of determining the value of accounting information for setting performance evaluation and incentive payment schemes.

In this paper, it is established that the error and error derivative can be reduced to zero simultaneously and in the shortest possible time with at most one switching reversal of the relay, provided the initial values of error and error derivative fall in a controllable region.

The traditional view of quality treats it as an economic good which can be developed by incurring costs. Proponents of total quality management have rejected the traditional view and stress the complementary nature of cost and quality. Reconciles these two views as different manifestations of the same underlying phenomenon within the same strategic framework. This requires precise definitions of quality concepts such as conformance and performance quality. The organization first examines its current position within this framework. The definitions of quality help sharpen the formulation of strategic objectives and the framework helps in mapping out a policy for moving the firm from the current position to the desired position. In addition, also determines the operating systems of quality management by how quality is defined in the organization. In conjunction with the strategic direction, the operational management procedures facilitate the process of cost management.

In today’s global competition, supply chain quality management is the key to a firms’ competitiveness. However, managers find that making sound quality and pricing decisions under a complex multi-echelon in the current competitive electronic commerce environment is daunting and challenging. The purpose of this paper is to examine the optimum quality strategies under different cooperative mechanisms and investigate its effects on channel members’ profits.

This paper is a result of a China-UK collaborative research effort, involving researchers with expertise in information systems, quality management, supply chain management, pricing, and game theory models. The authors consider the quality decisions of a single product in a supply chain system that consists of a supplier and two competing manufacturers. The authors examine the optimum quality strategies under different cooperative mechanisms and investigate its effects on channel members’ profits. A modified Nerlove-Arrow model is employed to investigate the quality levels on goodwill and product sales.

The results reveal that the traditional cooperative program is not very effective in the horizontal competitive market; and each channel member may have a profit improvement when the supplier integrates with a manufacturer.

The authors believe that this paper will contribute to the existing body of knowledge. Moreover, the paper provides insights for managers to better manage their supply chain quality management in an information-centric context.

This paper aims to study the corresponding optimal service strategies and pricing in the styled non-preemptive M/M/1 service systems from different objectives, which consider both heterogeneous waiting costs of customers and service values in customer segmentation.

In this paper, the authors consider two service situations where customers cannot leave the service system (i.e. monopoly service system) and customers can leave the service system freely (i.e. non-monopoly service system), respectively. The authors study the following four different perspectives that are revenue, social welfare, social cost and utility of customers. The authors first build up a new model, then propose the related objective functions. Further, the authors optimize the corresponding functions and achieve the optimal results. Later, the authors propose the corresponding optimal strategies. Finally, the authors use a practical numerical case to verify the proposed results.

The results of this paper indicates that the service provider should adopt classification services to gain the maximum revenue, the maximum social welfare and the minimum social costs by charging a priority fee in above two service systems. However, the service provider should cancel customer classification and keep regular customer only to obtain maximum utility. In the monopoly service system, both the optimal proportion priority customers and the revenue decrease with the increasing of the service rate, while in a non-monopoly service system, both of them are increasing with the service rate improving.

This paper first considers both heterogeneity of service values and waiting costs in queuing system, then the author set up a new model based on this assumption. Moreover, the authors draw the corresponding management insights based on the optimal results, which were unavailable before.

Recently, performance measurement and management (PMM) has received increasing attention from both the academic and industrial environments. Companies that try to use PMM systems report experiencing implementation problems including goal incongruence. Based on a discussion of the state of the art of PMM, this paper aims to provide research guidelines for building a PMM system through a reference framework, and to identify major design challenges.

At a macro level, the evolution of research is analyzed using citation and co‐citation analysis techniques. Further, the evolution of PMM systems in the last 20 years is traced. The feasibility and applicability of these frameworks/models are analyzed by considering five milestones that a performance measurement system should have. Based on this, an integrated framework is proposed as a basis for designing a cohesive PMM system.

The research on the subject is quite diverse. In fact, the research appears to be quite mature in terms of publications and citations, while PMM systems developed do not meet the PMM challenge faced in the current environment. The framework proposed for PMM system design integrates five systems: a performance system, a cost system, a capability evaluation system, a benchmarking system and a planning system. Integration among the five systems is to be viewed as the driver to address the PMM challenge.

The proposed framework is a starting point for PMM system design and it provides important guidelines for successful implementations of PMM initiatives for various types of companies in the current global business environment. However, further empirical studies are needed before the concepts described here can be assessed to ascertain its applicability.

The paper provides a literature review of PMM research, discusses the mutual consistency of models and frameworks therein, and explores how the framework proposed might be implemented and improved, as well as the major challenges facing researchers. Practical implication and benefits of the proposed framework adoption are highlighted through an example.

Research in PMM has become increasingly important given the significant impact it can have on competitive strategy and operations of firms in the present global business environment. This paper demonstrates the need of an holistic approach to PMM, which requires an intensive and deep comprehension of the key activities in the company and their related drivers.

The paper aims to identify and critically analyze the factors influencing cost system functionality (CSF) using several machine learning techniques including decision trees, support vector machines and logistic regression.

The study used a self-administered survey method to collect the necessary data from companies conducting business in Turkey. Several prediction models are developed and tested; a series of sensitivity analyses is performed on the developed prediction models to assess the ranked importance of factors/variables.

Certain factors/variables influence CSF much more than others. The findings of the study suggest that utilization of management accounting practices require a functional cost system, which is supported by a comprehensive cost data management process (i.e. acquisition, storage and utilization).

The underlying data were collected using a questionnaire survey; thus, it is subjective which reflects the perceptions of the respondents. Ideally, it is expected to reflect the objective of the practices of the firms. Second, the authors have measured CSF it on a “Yes” or “No” basis which does not allow survey respondents reply in between them; thus, it might have limited the choices of the respondents. Third, the Likert scales adopted in the measurement of the other constructs might be limiting the answers of the respondents.

Information technology plays a very important role for the success of CSF practices. That is, successful implementation of a functional cost system relies heavily on a fully integrated information infrastructure capable of constantly feeding CSF with accurate, relevant and timely data.

In addition to providing evidence regarding the factors underlying CSF based on a broad range of industries interesting finding, this study also illustrates the viability of machine learning methods as a research framework to critically analyze domain specific data.

In recent years, performance measurement and management (PMM) has received much attention from researchers and practitioners. Despite the growing use of PMM systems, companies experience difficulty in implementing such systems, with consequent risk of partial benefits or total goal failure. The literature on PMM is quite vast, but only few of the models address the problem in its entirety, while many other works focus on specific issues related to PMM. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the state of the art of PMM models and propose an integrated framework as a base for performance measurement and management design.

The evolution of the literature on PMM models and frameworks is highlighted starting from the development of the last twenty years. Further, the characteristics raised in the literature are merged so as to identify the milestones of an integrated performance measurement and management system. Based on it, an integrated framework is proposed as a base for a cohesive PMM design.

The framework integrates five systems: a performance system, a cost system, a capability evaluation system, a benchmarking system and a planning system.

Though the proposed framework is a starting point for performance measurement and management design, it provides important guidelines for successful implementations of PMM initiatives inside companies.

The paper elaborates on the findings in the literature through a review and explores how the framework proposed might be implemented and improved.

The framework is based on the belief that PMM study requires an intensive and deep comprehension of the business in focus, which begins with a complete analysis of all the key activities in the company and their related drivers. Accordingly, the framework proposed starts with a defining “which” information should be analyzed, “how” they should be processed and “how” they should be integrated for generating valuable information to facilitate managers' decision‐making processes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why information systems (IS) enhance firm performance (FP) from a knowledge management perspective. Drawing upon the knowledge-view of the firm and organizational learning theories, we develop and empirically test a theoretical model where knowledge sharing (KS) plays a mediating role between IS maturity (ISM) and FP.

Data were collected through a survey of business managers in China. The model was tested by using the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach.

The results provide support for the propose research model and confirm that ISM is positively associated with FP, and KS partially mediates the effects of ISM.

This study contributes to the IS literature by reconceptualizing the ISM construct and testing the mediating effect of KS and, thus, offers some answers to the “how-and-why” question about the value of IS.