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A major problem of operational control in the services industry is the integration of customers in the delivery process. The aim of this paper is to develop a method that allows service companies to evaluate the impact of customer integration on operational control in service processes.

The development of the proposed method follows a design science approach. Thus, the method is conceptualised on the basis of production, services and information systems research. A case study of loan processing in a bank serves to evaluate the applicability of the method.

As a result of this study, customer integration should be included into operational control following three steps: identification of the type of customer integration; quantification and characterisation of the impact of the integration; and identification of the appropriate mechanisms of operational control to deal with the customer integration better. The results of the case study show that customer integration has an impact on certain activities within a service process only but the results can be used to enhance operational control.

The method can be used by process managers of service companies to identify the impact of customer integration on operational control. Thus, decisions within operational control and consequently the overall productivity of a service process can be improved.

The paper delivers a new insight how customer integration and operational control can be linked in service processes. Thus, a theoretical gap in service operations literature is filled. Furthermore, the case study demonstrates how the method can be used in practice.

This paper aims at studying earnings management phenomenon in its wider social and economic context to get better understanding for the following points: whether there is “one-size-fits-all” earning management approach which can be widespread applied among nations and whether the Egyptian context affects managers’ trade-off between three different earnings management approaches: accounting, operational and investment.

The paper adopts interpretive approach and analyses data from official documents and 34 interviews with company executives; financial analysts; external auditors; and Stock Exchange regulators to inform our understanding of the influence of the Egyptian context on the trade-off between earnings management approaches.

The results show that there is no application for “one-size-fits-all” earning management approach; unlike the developed cultures, where R&D expenses and overproduction are extensively used for boosting profits, in Egyptian context they are not valid tools. The findings indicate that the Egyptian political and economic context remarkably affect managers trade-off earnings management approaches, leading executives to prefer operational manipulation compared with others.

This paper extends but adds to the literature by shedding light on the different implications of earning management theories based on the variation in the political, economic and operational contexts of firms; identifying that operational cash flows matter more to managers than accounting profits; focusing on the fact that managers differentiate and compare between three various earning management approaches: accounting techniques, investment activities and operational activities; and showing that changes in political and economic Egyptian context makes operational manipulation favorable to be adopted compared with others. It also overcomes the criticism of New Institutional Sociology Theory.

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.

In this paper we present a roadmap for the elicitation of business rules based on different stakeholders' perspectives, in order to facilitate the processes of structuring, organizing and expressing business tactic and policy in a way that it is close to the business milieu and stakeholders' viewpoints.

This paper has derived from a combined research practice. Initially, the development of a roadmap for understanding different stakeholders' perspectives and for identifying their views on business tactics and policies was based on well‐grounded work on enterprise goal modelling, combined with a theoretical study of business rule – related concepts. The outcome of this work was tested against a real business case dealing with the development of an electronic procurement system in the pre‐fabricated construction sector.

As a conclusion, the paper put forward a comprehensive methodological framework for dealing with rule‐intensive projects. The proposed roadmap can help IT practitioners in collecting and organizing business rule statements that apply within a particular organization, either towards the implementation of change on a business level, or in the context of specifying the (existing or future) functionality of supporting information systems (IS).

The rule roadmap presented here has been coupled with a modelling approach for expressing rules in a structured, consistent manner and for organizing them in a rule repository. Future work includes the extension of this approach to cover design and implementation as part of rule‐centric information systems engineering.

Therefore, the overall contribution of this work relates to the provision of guidance for identifying business policy and tactics at an intentional level (through the investigation of the rationale behind them) and for transforming relevant models to the operational level, where business rules are linked to business processes, information and systems.

Although the business rule concept has been examined from different points of view over the past years, the paper attempts to bridge the gap between approaches that see rules as extensions of business goals, other approaches that consider rules as limitations on the way business activities are performed, and finally, approaches according to which rules constrain the creation, modification and deletion of information entities.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test a model of different aspects of ISO 9000 implementation in terms of their relationships with three key supply chain (SC) management practices (internal processes, supplier relationships, and customer relationships). In addition, it aims to examine the relationship between the three key SC activities and operational performance.

Data were collected from 321 middle and senior managers of ISO 9001 certified firms in Australia who were responsible for managing the quality systems in their organizations. The structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was employed using LISREL software to test the research model and the hypotheses in this study.

The results show that advanced implementation of ISO 9000 is positively related to all three aspects of SC activities (internal, customer, and supplier process management), while supportive implementation is positively related to internal and customer process management. However, basic implementation has no direct influence on any SC management practices. The results also indicate that supplier and internal process management both have a positive effect on operational performance, while customer process management has no significant impact on operational performance.

The results provide key insights for managers on the extent to which different aspects of the implementation of a quality management system would produce benefits for the organization within the SC context.

Despite the central premises of ISO 9000, which are concerned with internal processes and SC management practices, only a few studies have examined this matter to date. The current study seeks to bridge this gap by examining the effect of ISO 9000 implementation on operational and SC management practices that, in turn, will predict the operational benefits within adopting firms.

For the past several decades, the sales control literature has focused on the outside sales context. This study aims to extend sales control research by examining formal and informal sales controls, embodied by cultural controls, used by sales managers in an inside sales context, where the sales agent’s performance focus extends beyond sales outcomes to include the influence of operational phone outcomes.

Based on 232 B2C and B2B inside sales agent survey responses, this study presents evidence that in an inside sales department, this study focuses on the congruent effect of formal sales and cultural sales controls on inside sales agent overall performance.

Based on 232 B2C and B2B inside sales agent survey responses, this study presents evidence that in an inside sales department, the operational focus of sales activities and resultant operational performance mediates the relationship between sales controls and inside sales agent sales performance, whereas cultural controls centered on maximizing inside sales autonomous motivation positively moderates the effect of operational outcomes on an inside sales agent’s sales performance.

By focusing on the tenants of an inside sales agent’s overall performance, this research provides practitioners a holistic view of the inherent conflict inside sales managers must balance between the impact of formal sales controls and the benefits of cultural controls.

By being the only study to examine sales controls in an inside sales context, with a broad definition of overall performance to include both sales and operational phone outcomes, this study extends sales control research to a new sales context. The need to jointly focus on operational results, as well as sales outcomes, illustrate the importance of cultural controls compared to other sales processes and outcome controls

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of high-value manufacturing (HVM) concepts in Scottish SMEs and define how they are being used to gain competitive advantage.

Cross-sectional research carried out using a large-scale survey of 435 SMEs and semi-structured interviews of a subset of 50 SMEs.

Findings indicate that HVM is not a homogeneous state but an umbrella term for a number of operational models adopted by manufacturers that are progressively moving from simple price-based production; companies must, as a foundation, be operationally excellent in all lifecycle phases before extending their capability by offering a more comprehensive service; HVM is not a static state but a journey that differs in nature for each manufacturer depending on the nature of its market and customer.

The approach to theory must be more integrated combining aspects of marketing, strategic and operational theory. Research must be carried out using the supply chain, rather than the firm, as the unit of analysis.

Manufacturing efficiency has now become an order qualifier and competitive advantage should now be sought through the integration of design, production and service activities from strategic levels down to operational levels across all the functions of a business which link seamlessly to customer and supplier activities.

This paper contains insights into Scottish SMEs and their practice of HVM; defines the activity that makes up HVM at an operational as opposed to an economic or strategic level; proposes a model that characterises the stages of HVM that SMEs transition through.

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).

This paper aims to study the symbolic categorisations management accountants produce. It examines the categories they use to describe their work and analyses the meanings they attach to such categories. This aims at explaining how management accountants can follow a common occupational orientation despite the need to adjust their practices to the specificities of their local and organisational context. The author’s argument is that management accountants build symbolic categories to create a bridge between what they do and who they are. The author further argues that symbolic categories are needed to make sense of a practice in tension between a common aspirational orientation and heterogeneous local contexts.

This paper draws on a multiple case field study conducted by observation and interviews in a range of organisations.

This paper examines the empirical diversity of management accountants’ practices and perceptions through the symbolic categories they produce. The author finds that categorisation work constitutes a central mechanism to build a shared narrative despite heterogeneous situations. The author further shows that through symbolic categorisation work, a variety of activities ranging from bookkeeping through managerial support to hierarchical surveillance and challenge in the name of the shareholder are subsumed under stable labels. This, he argues, serves to mask financial accountability, shareholder orientation and hierarchical control behind a narrative of “support” and “partnership”.

This paper contributes to literature on management accountants’ identity by showing the central role played by symbolic categorisations. It also contributes to literature in accounting more generally by showing how symbolic categorisation work blurs the lines between “operational support” and “shareholder value creation”. The same words are used to refer to activities that managers consider helpful to make operational decisions and other activities that increase shareholder control and surveillance and encourage managers to internalise the frames and objectives of shareholder value creation. Symbolic categories that include hierarchical financial accountability within a narrative of “support” and “partnership” masks “financialisation” behind a rhetoric of “business orientation”.

This study aims to analyse how multinational corporations (MNCs) organise value chain activities to penetrate new market segments. It contributes by expanding traditional decisions regarding the vertical fine-slicing of value chain activities (whether performed internally or externally) and the consideration of resource-sharing decisions (integration or separation) for each value chain function.

The authors draw on primary data collected from two case study firms operating in the large emerging Chinese market: Volvo Construction Equipment AB and Epiroc AB. In-depth cases illustrate how foreign MNCs expand into new market segments and simultaneously target both the lower-priced mid-market and the premium segments in the Chinese mining and construction industry.

The results reveal that product diversification creates challenges for managers who must oversee new (vertical) value chains, often simultaneously. Beyond geography and modes of governance, managers must decide whether to integrate or separate value chain activities for the new product lines. The study identifies four main strategic choices for firms to address this complexity, focusing on the decision to internalise or externalise (i.e. within or across organisational boundaries) and integrate or separate value chain activities between different product lines.

This study builds upon the internalisation theory and recent international business contributions that focus on value chain configurations to explain MNCs’ product diversification as a growth strategy in a host emerging market. It also sheds light on the choice of conducting new activities in-house or externally and elucidates firms’ managerial decisions to operationally integrate or separate individual value chain activities. The study provides insights into the drivers explaining managerial decisions to configure value chain activities across product lines and contributes to the growing body of literature on MNC activities in emerging economies by highlighting that product diversification impacts entry mode diversity and resource sharing across units.