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The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between the interactive and diagnostic use of MCSs with the extent of adoption of contemporary management accounting practices, and the subsequent impact on the success of such practices in the public sector.

Data were collected through the distribution of a mail survey of 740 questionnaires to public sector organisations in Australia, and analysed using structural equation modelling.

The study found that both the interactive and diagnostic approaches to using MCSs exhibit a positive association with the adoption of contemporary management accounting practices, both as a package and individually. In addition, while the level of success of contemporary management accounting practices was moderate, it was found that the extent of adoption of the practices enhanced their success.

The findings suggest that by intensifying the use of MCSs in a more interactive and diagnostic manner, public sector organisations are more likely to adopt contemporary management to a greater extent, with the subsequent increase in the extent of adoption of such practices to exacerbate their success.

The study contributes to the MCS contingency-based research by highlighting the interrelationship between two aspects of MCSs, the use of controls and the adoption and success of management accounting practices.

This study aims to examine the role of organisational dynamic capabilities (strategic flexibility and employee empowerment) in mediating the relationship between management control systems (MCSs), in particular the interactive and diagnostic approaches to using controls, with organisational change and performance.

Data were collected based on a mail survey of public sector organisations in Australia and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM).

The findings indicate that strategic flexibility and employee empowerment mediate the association between the interactive approach to MCSs with organisational performance, and strategic flexibility mediates the relationship between the interactive approach to MCSs with organisational change.

The study’s findings inform public sector practitioners as to how to enact change within and enhance the performance of public sector organisations. Specifically, managers are advised to focus on the use of interactive controls and the development of two dynamic organisational capabilities, strategic flexibility and employee empowerment.

The study provides an initial empirical insight into the relation between controls and dynamic capabilities and their role in enacting change and performance within the public sector. The findings suggest that the achievement of new public management ideals is reliant upon the organisational environment, with change and performance facilitated by the interactive use of controls and strategic flexibility and employee empowerment.

The authors explore how home and host market institutions impact emerging market (EM) international entrepreneurship (IE) into developed markets.

Based on four case studies of Nigerian entrepreneurs expanding into the USA, this qualitative research adopts an institutional perspective to the study of EM IE.

The findings show home and host formal and informal institutions simultaneously enable and constrain the IE process. Weak home institutions shape the international opportunity recognition decision but seriously impede international opportunity development and exploitation activities in the developed market. EM entrepreneurs benefit from highly functioning regulation in the developed market whilst also experiencing discriminatory treatment from institutions. The findings of the study further show the positive and constraining effects of host institutions throughout the process.

Based on the findings, the paper details future research ideas, managerial implications and recommendation for policymakers.

This study examines the mediating role of the fairness of performance appraisal on the association between the extent of use of strategic performance measurement systems (SPMSs) with SPMS effectiveness.

Data were collected using an online survey distributed to 656 Australian middle and lower level managers.

The findings reveal that informational fairness mediates the association between SPMSs (link to value drivers and the use of multidimensional performance measures) with performance-related outcomes; procedural fairness mediates the association between SPMSs (link to strategy and the use of multidimensional performance measures) with staff-related outcomes and distributive fairness mediates the association between the use of SPMSs (all three types) with both performance and staff-related outcomes.

The study provides a unique insight into the importance of fairness (the distributive, informational and procedural fairness of the performance appraisal system) in mediating the associations between the extent of use of SPMSs and SPMS effectiveness. The findings contribute to the human resource management (HRM) “black box” literature by providing an insight into the behavioural mechanism through which a specific human resource management practice (i.e. the SPMS) influences organisational performance.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of the fairness of the performance evaluation system on the association between the controllability of financial and non-financial measures and managerial performance.

Data was collected using an online survey questionnaire, with 220 responses received from middle and lower-level managers in Australian manufacturing organisations. Covariance-based structural equation modelling using software AMOS 25 was applied to analyse the data. Specifically, Anderson and Gerbing’s (1988) two-step approach was followed with confirmatory factor analyses first conducted to ensure that the measurement model was valid and reliable before running the structural model.

The findings reveal that the influence of managers’ controllability of performance measures on managerial performance is enacted through their perceptions of fairness. Specifically, the impact of controllability of financial (non-financial) measures on managerial performance is enacted through managers’ perceptions of distributive (interpersonal) fairness.

The empirical findings contribute to the literature investigating the empirical consequences of managers’ controllability of performance measures on performance evaluation processes, with the results revealing that the controllability of both financial and non-financial performance measures is positively associated with managerial performance via managers’ perceptions of different dimensions of fairness. Such results suggest that organisations, most of which do not prioritise the use of controllable performance measures in the design of their performance evaluation systems, need to reconsider the importance of the controllability of both financial and non-financial measures in the performance evaluation processes.

The study aims to explore the role of non-mainstream financial schemes in supporting innovation within SMEs in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. It investigates how informal credit, business group affiliation and foreign and state ownership arrangements influence SMEs’ innovative activities in environments with limited access to formal financial resources.

The research utilizes data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys, focusing on 8,466 firms across 11 sub-Saharan African countries from 2011 to 2020. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the impact of various financial sources on SMEs’ innovation outputs, particularly incremental innovations, due to data constraints on radical innovations.

The findings reveal that informal credit significantly supports SME innovation, while business group resources can hinder innovative activities by restricting firms to routine tasks. State ownership positively influences innovation, whereas the impact of foreign ownership is inconclusive. These results highlight the critical role of alternative financial mechanisms in the innovation activities of SMEs in resource-limited settings.

This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the effects of non-mainstream financial schemes on SME innovation in developing countries. It offers new theoretical insights into how SMEs navigate financial constraints to foster innovation and suggests policy implications for improving financial support systems for SMEs in such contexts. The research underscores the importance of contextualizing entrepreneurship studies to better understand the unique challenges and opportunities faced by SMEs in developing regions.

Small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries, particularly in the Sub-Saharan African region, find it hard to innovate due to severe resource constraints and high institutional voids. Given this, the paper examines three international strategic responses that small and medium-sized enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa adopt to implement innovations in the face of weak institutional environments.

Using comprehensive data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey, the study applies the Instrumental Variable Probit approach to analyse a sample of 8,466 SMEs from eleven countries in the Sub-Saharan African region.

The empirical results show that foreign ownership negatively affects product and process innovation. Additionally, the results reveal that small and medium-sized enterprises that leverage exporting and international quality certifications are likely to implement innovations.

The paper contributes to the literature by suggesting that small and medium-sized enterprises must exploit strategic alternatives to improve their innovation efforts when operating in a weak institutional environment. Thus, by exploring international strategic responses to institutional difficulties when implementing innovations, this paper goes beyond the prevailing research approach in developing countries that mainly emphasises the barriers to innovations.

This study examines the impact of environmental activity management (EAM) on triple bottom line (TBL) performance and the role that sustainability strategies play in mediating these relationships. Data were collected using a survey of Australian managers and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings indicate that each of the three levels of EAM – Environmental Activity Analysis, Environmental Activity Cost Analysis, and Environmental Activity Based Costing – influence-specific aspects of performance, either directly and/or indirectly through environmental and social sustainability strategies. The findings suggest that managers could enhance their use of EAM practices through the use of sustainability strategies in order to enhance performance. This study provides empirical insight into the impact that EAM practices and environmental and social sustainability strategies have on all three aspects of TBL performance.

This study examines the association between the use of strategic management accounting (SMA) practices and competitive advantage and the moderating role of four aspects of organisational culture – teamwork orientation, outcome orientation, innovation orientation and attention to detail orientation – on this association. Online survey data were collected from 408 accountants in Australian business organisations, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data. The results indicate a positive association between the use of SMA practices and competitive advantage with such an association positively moderated by one cultural dimension, teamwork orientation. Specifically, the findings indicate that the positive effect of SMA practices on competitive advantage is dependent upon the fit between the use of SMA practices and teamwork orientation with more (less) teamwork-oriented organisations exhibiting a stronger (weaker) association between the use of SMA practices and competitive advantage.