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In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

The goal of this paper is to use a coherent conceptual framework to discern variables (triggers) that affect a management accountant's role in an organization, thereby generating a comprehensive empirical picture of the management accountant profession in The Netherlands. Similar research was conducted in 2004, which allows a comparison of the data to see if, and to what extent, developments in the profession have taken place.

Using survey data, groups of management accountants are distinguished based on coherent combinations of activities. Factor and cluster analyses are applied to obtain a segmentation of the data. By doing this, it is established if homogeneous groups of management accountants can be distinguished, how many groups there are and what the characteristics of these groups are in terms of activities.

It was found that controllers either operate as “reporting business analysts” or “business system analysts”. Whether someone is found to be a reporting business analyst or business system analyst is among other things affected by personality traits, a person's experience in finance and accounting, the financial status of an organization and changes in laws and regulations.

The conceptual framework proposed integrates several previous studies on the roles of management accountants. It allows an analysis of their activities, yielding an empirically founded classification of management accountants in groups. In addition, possible factors underlying this classification can be discerned. As this is a generally applicable framework, it can, at a later stage, be used to make a comparison between countries, for instance in Europe.

The resulting picture of the management accountant profession provides information on how to form or even design the financial function in an organization. Apparently, the developments in the profession reflect changes in the business environment and society as a whole, as it seems that internal analysis and risk management have become more fundamental to the profession.

This research uses an original framework covering several previous studies to generate a comprehensive empirical picture of the management accountant profession in The Netherlands. The framework is used to track changes over a three‐year period.

Notes that to be effectively implemented, quality management has to be aligned with strategy and properly co‐ordinated. Develops a systems framework entitled congruence management business architecture. Notes that under this architecture an activity is the core entity for change and that every quality or related initiative will change, eliminate or create activities. Considers various quality management mechanisms under this architecture and considers various barriers. Suggests that the congruence management framework can help make quality management more effective.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and identify the activity systems that drive building information modelling (BIM) business value in asset management (AM). The utilisation of BIM has widened in scope, functionality, flexibility and interoperability to support the AM business process. However, research concerning BIM business value in AM has been inadequate despite its considerable potential and significance in the attainment of organisational objectives. The realisation of BIM business value requires a concerted effort by the asset owner to be able to determine and appraise the critical activities that drive business value in AM.

The study adopted a qualitative research approach based on a multi-case study strategy that aimed to identify the key business processes that drive BIM business value in AM. The study involved a three-stage research design using interviews and document analysis to facilitate a cross-case analysis from the perspective of the activity systems and dimensions of BIM governance.

The paper identified six critical activity systems that drive BIM business value for an asset owner: BIM strategy, contract management, lifecycle management, maintenance management, work-order management and value realisation management. The study found that the most developed activity system is the BIM strategy, and the least is value realisation management across all cases. Also, the paper points out that the most proficient BIM governance dimension is process, and the least is people across the three cases. The study noted that the ability of an asset owner to realise BIM business value has maturity undertones and that the asset owner could derive BIM business value, if the six activity systems are effectively executed and continuously improved to an advanced stage of maturity.

An original contribution of the study is the development of the understanding of asset owners in relation to the discovery of key activity systems that drive BIM business value in AM. Another significant contribution of this paper is the demonstration of a novel approach to evaluate organisational maturity of asset owners from the perspectives of the activity systems and BIM governance dimensions of people, process and technology.

The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to examine the incremental contribution of product market fluidity (P_THREAT), another measure of competition from that of the Herfindahl index (H_COMP) and (2) to examine how a research and development (R&D) real activities earnings management strategy to meet an earnings target is influenced by competition.

Using a linear probability model, we test whether P_THREAT is incremental to the H_COMP competition measure and whether it influences the likelihood of firms using abnormally low R&D real activities earnings management to meet an earnings target.

We find that P_THREAT is incrementally informative to the commonly used Herfindahl measure of competition in predicting abnormally low R&D real activities earnings management activities. This finding is consistent with the notion of examining P_THREAT because the Herfindahl index alone may be incomplete, depending on the product makeup of a company. The negative coefficient suggests that reducing discretionary spending on R&D in the short run could have a detrimental effect on long-term profits because bypassed R&D opportunities would put firms at a disadvantage with their competitors' R&D efforts. In contrast, we find that firms are more likely to use R&D activities earnings management as a mechanism to meet an earnings target when P_THREAT is high. This suggests that when high competitive pressure exists, firms are more likely to use abnormally low R&D as a mechanism to meet an earnings target.

We specifically focus on R&D activities earnings management because our primary competition measure, P_THREAT, captures changes in rival firms' products relative to the firm. Because R&D is primarily what drives product change, R&D is the type of real activities earnings management that is most relevant to our competition measure. Hence, this study contributes to the literature by examining how competition influences the likelihood of firms possibly engaging in R&D activities earnings management and meeting earnings targets in the presence of P_THREAT competition.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between managers’ short-term, quarterly earnings forecast characteristics and earnings management through real activities manipulation.

Using a propensity-score matched sample from 2000 to 2015, the author examines whether, compared to non-issuers, firms issuing short-term earnings forecasts exhibit abnormal levels of earnings management through the manipulation of real activities such as acceleration of sales, changes in shipment schedules and delaying R&D and maintenance expenditures.

The finding of this study suggests that firms actually engage in less real activities manipulation when they provide short-term management earnings forecasts. This result does not support the practitioners’ criticism that providing short-term management earnings forecasts increases earnings management. Instead, it suggests that providing management earnings forecasts can reduce information asymmetry between managers and external shareholders, thereby constraining managers’ opportunistic behaviors.

Practitioners have expressed concerns that issuing earnings forecasts may foster managerial myopia, therefore, increasing earnings management. However, recent empirical study found evidence that management earnings forecast mitigates accrual-based earnings management, which is inconsistent with practitioners’ view. This study hence aims to provide timely evidence to this debate by examining the relation between management earnings forecasts and real activities manipulation.

The idea of implementing supply chain management (SCM) principles for the construction industry was embraced by construction stakeholders to enhance the sector's performance. The analysis from the literature revealed that the implementation of SCM in the construction industry enhances the industry's value in terms of cost-saving, time savings, material management, risk management and others. The construction supply chain (CSC) can be managed using the pull or push system. This chapter also discusses the origin and proliferation of SCM into the construction industry. The chapter revealed that the concept of SCM has passed through five different eras: the creation era, the use of ERP, globalisation stage, specialisation stage and electronic stage. The findings from the literature revealed that we are presently in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era. At this stage, the SCM witnesses the adoption of technologies and principles driven by the 4IR. This chapter also revealed that the practice of SCM in the construction industry is centred around integration, collaboration, communication and the structure of the supply chain (SC). The forms and challenges hindering the adoption of these practices were also discussed extensively in this chapter.

This paper sets out to integrate research on knowledge management with the dynamic capabilities approach. This paper will add to the understanding of dynamic capabilities by demonstrating that dynamic capabilities can be seen as composed of concrete and well‐known knowledge management activities.

This paper is based on a literature review focusing on key knowledge management processes and activities as well as the concept of dynamic capabilities, the paper connects these two approaches. The analysis is centered on knowledge management activities which then are compiled into dynamic capabilities.

In the paper eight knowledge management activities are identified; knowledge creation, acquisition, capture, assembly, sharing, integration, leverage, and exploitation. These activities are assembled into the three dynamic capabilities of knowledge development, knowledge (re)combination, and knowledge use. The dynamic capabilities and the associated knowledge management activities create flows to and from the firm's stock of knowledge and they support the creation and use of organizational capabilities.

The findings in the paper demonstrate that the somewhat elusive concept of dynamic capabilities can be untangled through the use of knowledge management activities. Practicing managers struggling with the operationalization of dynamic capabilities should instead focus on the contributing knowledge management activities in order to operationalize and utilize the concept of dynamic capabilities.

The paper demonstrates that the existing research on knowledge management can be a key contributor to increasing our understanding of dynamic capabilities. This finding is valuable for both researchers and practitioners.

A corporate university is a knowledge management institution established within an enterprise. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolution of knowledge activities of corporate university and their relationship, particularly the role of networking in the knowledge management.

Haier, which had the earliest Chinese corporate university in the science and technology manufacturing industry, was employed as a case study. Data were collected by interviews and through consulting the documents of Haier’s corporate university. Grounded theory was used for data analysis.

The paper finds that corporate universities are engaged in three kinds of activities, namely, enterprise operational knowledge transfer, networking activities and scientific and technological activities. There is a dynamic circular relationship among these three kinds of activities, which form a “figure of eight” cycle model. Networking activities are the hub between enterprise operational knowledge transfer and scientific and technological activities. There is a two-way integration of enterprise operational knowledge transfer and science and technological activities via networking activities. Networking activities, thus, play a key role in the development of corporate universities into knowledge management centers. The scope of the key activities of corporate universities is dynamic and expanding. The double circulation effect among key activities in corporate universities has strengthened over time.

By investigating the dynamic nature of the activities of corporate universities, particularly the role of networking in knowledge management, this research enriches the study of the knowledge management of corporate universities.

Key components of the logistics mix are described in an effort to create an understanding of the total logistics concept. Chapters include an introduction to logistics; the strategic role of logistics, customer service levels, channel relationships, facilities location, transport, inventory management, materials handling, interface with production, purchasing and materials management, estimating demand, order processing, systems performance, leadership and team building, business resource management.