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The essential investments in new product development (NPD) made by industrial companies entail effective management of NPD activities. In this context, performance measurement is one of the means that can be employed in the pursuit of effectiveness.

Initiating Structure and Consideration provide a simple, powerful and popular way of describing the behaviour of leaders. Tile determination of leader effectiveness poses added methodological and theoretical demands for the researcher, however. Hersey and Blanchard's “Life Cycle Leadership Theory” represents one such approach. The study reported below, conducted in Toronto, tested two hypotheses that suggested inverse relationships between maturity level of teachers and the degree to which they prefer task‐oriented and relationships‐oriented leader behavior. Limited support was found for the hypotheses but the authors discern some important trends and suggest relevant areas for future research.

This paper aims to address the extant and arguable role of enterprise systems (ES) in relation to management accounting practices (MAPs) through an inclusion relative neglect account of business process management (BPM). This is also extended to draw out an analytical framework to advance our understanding of how BPM mediate ES-MAPs interplay.

A cross-sectional case study was adopted as a research strategy with which to collect data about the ES-BPM-MAPs interplay as a unit of analysis. The latter, in the first stage, was examined across (89) mini-case studies operating in the UK context through reports and documentations collected from cases’ websites, vendors and consultants of information systems. Drawn insights from cross-sectional analysis and contributions made by prior studies are blended together to inform the second stage that outlines an analytical framework for ES-BPM-MAPs interplay.

Different ES are mobilised to address different orientations of BPMs and being used for different managerial functions and purposes. Different patterns of ES-BPM-MAPs interplay are identified across (89) UK-case studies and the BPM is a fulcrum understanding. These patterns are centred around three key BPM including customer, logistics and control processes and all oriented by a continuum of an organisation intention focus on control, understanding and strategising. Both processes and orientations explain ES development and MAPs evolution processes. Standardisation, integration and intelligence are key characteristics sought through ES mobilisations. By complementary, information provision, analytics and simulation are three sophisticated ways of using MA information facilitated by ES characteristics.

Dynamic processes of MAPs change over time and are beyond the reach of this study. Such approach requires full access to case studies. BPM is fulcrum understanding of MAPs change and/or stability in relation to ES implementation including other components.

Findings and analytical framework could be used as a base for establishing the best approach in adopting ES to fully exploit the potential of future ES applications as well as to avoid organisations pitfalls of implementations. Organisations are advised to understand their existing business processes, characteristics of MA information would be achieved first upon which decision of ES components selection and implementation could be outlined.

The indirect interplay between ES and MAPs through business processes is rarely examined. By the inclusion of BPM and using cross-sectional case studies, this research contributes to the existing shortcomings of ES-MAPs interplay by broadening the picture and proposing an analytical framework. The latter advances our understanding by focusing on attributes of ES-BPM-MAPs upon which informal changes in-the use of MAPs are recognised.

Although life cycle costing (LCC) is well established in theory and practice, little is known about the conditions of its adoption and its impact on the achievement of cost-management goals. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the adoption and benefits of LCC.

The analyses are based on questionnaires collected from a survey of German firms.

The results demonstrate that the extent of LCC adoption is positively associated with the extent of guarantee and warranty costs, voluntary upfront and follow-up costs for ecological sustainability and the extent of target costing adoption. In contrast, the extent of LCC adoption is negatively associated with the amount of precursors and/or intermediates that are purchased. The results also demonstrate that firms perceive LCC to be beneficial for various aspects of cost management. Firms report that the greatest benefit of LCC is related to the identification of cost drivers.

This investigation provides a starting point for future studies of the conditions of LCC adoption and the benefits of LCC. This study is subject to limitations, particularly with respect to the operationalization of our independent variables, the number of contextual variables and the general limitations of survey research.

The results inform practitioners of the situations in which it is most appropriate to adopt LCC. In addition, this study identifies various cost-management goals that are supported by the use of LCC.

This study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the conditions of LCC adoption and advances the literature regarding the impact of LCC on the achievement of cost-management goals. Furthermore, this study provides a starting point for future research into the implementation of LCC and the effects of LCC on management accounting practices.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the model for planning and implementing the green manufacturing (GM) strategy for Chinese enterprises under the background of “Energy Conservation and Pollution Emissions Reduction”.

Based on an in‐depth case study of a machine tool manufacturer in Chongqing, China, the paper tries to investigate the planning and implementing of a GM strategy from the perspective of the product life cycle.

The GM strategy in large developing countries needs to be enacted for a long‐term and with a continuous improvement paradigm. Planning and implementing the strategy requires an integrated model at the whole system level. A theoretical model of a five‐layer structure for planning and implementing the GM strategy under the developing context is proposed.

The planning and implementing of the GM strategy may vary among different sectors, therefore more empirical research is needed to enhance the robustness of the findings.

The paper is illustrative for planning and implementing a GM strategy which shows significant benefits associated with the implementation process.

The paper proposes a model for planning and implementing a GM strategy under the developing context, which could provide an overview of the issues related to the GM strategy, and help enterprises maintain a balance between economic benefits and sustainable development benefits.

This paper aims to investigate the alignment between the information‐processing needs and capabilities during interorganizational relationships through the lenses of both the product and the business relationships life cycle concepts, and the types of information exchanged.

This paper follows up on a previous empirical study conducted in the automotive sector, investigating the electronic collaboration within the supply chain of a large European Automotive Supplier (EAS). Out of the 61 respondents from this previous study, four illustrative cases are selected to further investigate their information alignment, where each case involves one specific relationship between EAS and its business partners based on the supply chain collaboration classification provided by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA).

The conclusion is that the phenomenon is bimodal and requires that the different information‐processing needs and capabilities associated with each stage of both the product and the business relationships life cycles should be considered.

The small number of illustrative cases and the specificity of the chosen sector limit the generalizability of the results. Without considering the various types of information‐processing needs and capabilities as well as the stage of both product and business relationships life cycles, a biased conclusion could lead to inappropriate information and communication technology investments and business decisions.

The richness of the cases and the genuine integration of the life cycle concepts and the type of information with the notion of alignment help to identify some key aspects of interorganizational relationships.

Sustainable buildings bear enormous potential benefits for clients, service providers, and our society. To release this potential a change in business models is required. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new business model with the objective of proactively contributing to sustainable development on the societal level and thereby improving the economic position of the service providers in the construction sector.

The modeling process comprises two steps, the formal structuring and the contextual configuration. In the formal structuring systems theory is used and two levels are analytically separated. The outside view concerns the business model’s interaction with the environment and its impact on sustainability. The inside view focusses on efficient value creation for securing sustainability. The logically deductively developed business model is subsequently theory-led substantiated with Giddens’ structuration theory.

The relevant mechanisms for the development of a new service offer, which creates a perceivable surplus value to the client and contributes to sustainable development on the societal level, are identified. The requirements for an efficient value creation process with the objective of optimizing the service providers’ competitive position are outlined.

The model is developed logically deductively based on literature and embedded in a theoretical framework. It has not yet been empirically tested.

Guidelines for the practical implementation of more sustainable business models for the provision of life cycle service offers are developed.

The construction industry’s impact requires it to contribute proactively to a more sustainable development of the society.

This paper analyzes the role for the players in the construction sector in proactively contributing to sustainable development on the societal level. One feasible strategy is proposed with a new business model, which aims at cooperatively optimizing buildings and infrastructures and taking the responsibility for the operating phase via guarantees.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss life cycle cost management and highlight the practical challenges related to collecting adequate data and practicing long‐term cost management in an uncertain environment.

The paper reports a case study conducted in the Finnish Defence Forces. As part of the case study, a life cycle cost model for a case product was developed.

Activity‐based life cycle cost modeling can provide relevant information for varying product management needs at different stages in the life of a product. Quantification of uncertainty is one of the elements in the modeling that can improve the feasibility of LCC both for cost estimation and tracking purposes.

Only a few empirical studies on life cycle costing have been reported which focus on the defence sector. The paper contributes to our understanding of how LCC can be used in a continuous manner and depicts how LCC can produce a sharpened cost image of a particular product.

The modern helicopters are designed with maximum serviceability and long life expectancy to ensure minimum life cycle cost. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework to incorporate the customer requirements on reliability and maintainability (R&M) parameters into the design and development phase of a contemporary helicopter, and to discuss the way to capture operational data to establish and improve the R&M parameters to reduce life cycle cost.

From the analysis, it is established that the reliability and maintainability cost is the major contributor to the life cost. The significant reliability and maintainability parameters which influence R&M cost are identified from analysis. The operational and design data of a contemporary helicopter are collected, compiled and analyzed to establish and improve the reliability and maintainability parameters.

The process depicted in the paper is followed for a contemporary helicopter and substantial amount of life cycle cost reduction is observed with improvement of R&M parameters.

The benefits of this methodology not only reduce life cycle cost but also improve the availability/serviceability through less failure and less time for scheduled maintenance. The methodologies also provide the reliability trends indicating potential area for design improvement.

The proposed approach assists asset managers to reduce the life cycle costs through improvement of R&M parameters.

The purpose of this work is to investigate industrial asset management (AM) in manufacturing. After depicting gaps for AM in this sector, the role of information as a key dimension is considered to realise a summary of challenges and advices for future development.

The work is grounded on an extensive systematic literature review. Considering the eligible documents, descriptive statistics are provided and a content analysis is performed, both based on a sector-independent normative-based framework of analysis.

AM principles, organisation and information are the dimensions defined to group ten areas of interest for AM in manufacturing. Information is the major concern for an effective AM implementation. Moreover, Internet of Things and big data management and analytics, as well as data modelling and ontology engineering, are the major technologies envisioned to advance the implementation of AM in manufacturing.

The identified challenges and advices for future development may serve to stimulate further research on AM in manufacturing, with special focus on information and data management. The sector-independent normative-based framework may also enable to analyse AM in different contexts of application, thus favouring cross-sectorial comparisons.

Industries with higher operational risk, like Oil&Gas and infrastructure, are advanced in AM, while others, like some in manufacturing, are laggard in this respect. This literature review is the first of a kind addressing AM in manufacturing and depicts the state-of-the-art to pave the way for future research and development.