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Article
Publication date: 1 February 1999

Niels Peter Mols, Per Nikolaj D. Bukh and Jørn Flohr Nielsen

Outlines the adaptation process in the distribution channel structure of the retail banking sector as a consequence of the introduction of electronic channels, such as telephone…

7243

Abstract

Outlines the adaptation process in the distribution channel structure of the retail banking sector as a consequence of the introduction of electronic channels, such as telephone banking, PC banking and Internet banking. Based on responses from 42 retail banks in Denmark, their distribution channel strategies are described and their relation to selected marketing mix elements is examined. Most Danish retail banks attach decisive importance to offering a customer‐friendly PC bank service, whereas fewer of them attach the same importance to telephone, Internet and branch banking. A multiple channel strategy combining several channels is the most popular.

Details

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-0552

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 2000

Jørn Flohr Nielsen, Per Nikolaj D. Bukh and Niels Peter Mols

In the retail financial sector competitive pressure seems to challenge traditional management accounting systems, which often do not allow the identification of profitable…

3964

Abstract

In the retail financial sector competitive pressure seems to challenge traditional management accounting systems, which often do not allow the identification of profitable customer relationships. Drawing on a stage model and data from management accountants, branch managers and frontline employees in Danish financial service companies, this article investigates barriers to the implementation of customer‐oriented management accounting. The article documents how financial institutions are increasingly integrating management accounting systems with customer‐related activities thus enabling customer profitability analyses. However, several barriers related to organization structure, resources and attitudes hamper further customer‐oriented changes. Data gathered at the branch level strongly indicate problems of ownership and project sponsoring, and it is argued that new accounting systems may be less important to customer orientation than empowerment and goal‐oriented participation of the frontline employees.

Details

International Journal of Service Industry Management, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0956-4233

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Article
Publication date: 1 December 1997

Niels Peter Mols, Per Nikolaj D. Bukh and Per Blenker

Provides evidence of the criteria for the choice of domestic cash management banks adopted by large European firms. A questionnaire completed by 1,129 corporate customers from 20…

1468

Abstract

Provides evidence of the criteria for the choice of domestic cash management banks adopted by large European firms. A questionnaire completed by 1,129 corporate customers from 20 European countries indicates that service quality is the most important criterion for choice of domestic cash management banking, followed by pricing and relationship. Using the empirical findings, discusses the appropriateness of relationship‐oriented and transaction‐oriented bank strategies across Europe. Based on the customers’ ranking of choice criteria finds no evidence of widespread successful implementation of relationship banking in Europe.

Details

International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 15 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-2323

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Article
Publication date: 21 April 2020

Per Nikolaj Bukh and Anne Kirstine Svanholt

This paper examines how a public sector organization combined management control systems (MCS) to comply with increased uncertainty and conflicting objectives of tight budget…

2575

Abstract

Purpose

This paper examines how a public sector organization combined management control systems (MCS) to comply with increased uncertainty and conflicting objectives of tight budget control, flexibility, and quality care simultaneously. It also analyzes how middle managers interpret management control intentions and manage conflicting objectives, and how locally developed MCS are coupled with top management goals.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a case-study approach, based on interviews with top and middle managements, as well as document studies conducted at a medium-sized Danish municipality.

Findings

Both constraining and enabling control systems empower middle managers and facilitate tight budget controls. Furthermore, middle managers play a crucial role in the use of MCS, develop local control systems, adjust existing control systems and influence the decisions and strategies of top management.

Research limitations/implications

This paper is context-specific, and the role of accounting in professional work varies due to the specific techniques involved.

Practical implications

This paper shows how MCS, including budgeting and planning systems, can be applied in social services to help middle managements obtain tight budget controls while also improving service quality.

Originality/value

This paper adds to the limited extant research on the role of middle management in a control framework and demonstrates how MCS can balance conflicting goals in social services when uncertainty increases. Furthermore, this paper shows how the vertical coupling of MCS is tight when budgeting is employed for planning purposes.

Details

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 32 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

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Article
Publication date: 19 October 2010

Gregory White, Alina Lee, Yuni Yuningsih, Christian Nielsen and Per Nikolaj Bukh

The purpose of this research project is to compare the nature and extent of voluntary intellectual capital disclosures (ICD) by UK and Australian biotechnology companies. The…

1784

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research project is to compare the nature and extent of voluntary intellectual capital disclosures (ICD) by UK and Australian biotechnology companies. The motivating research question was whether the nature and extent of voluntary ICD by preparers of financial report data in these countries reflected the relative maturity of the UK, compared to Australian industry.

Design/methodology/approach

ICD was measured in annual reports and financial statements published on the company websites. A Danish disclosure index was used to evaluate voluntary disclosures by 156 companies about customers, employees, IT, strategy, R&D and processes (78‐items scored for each company).

Findings

A significant leverage effect was demonstrated in relation to the “nature” of ICD by UK and Australian biotechnology companies. Interestingly, mean customer ICD were higher in annual reports from high‐leveraged compared to low‐leveraged Australian firms. In contrast, UK firms showed higher mean R&D ICD for low‐leveraged firms than high‐leveraged firms. With regards to the “extent” of ICD measured, the study demonstrated a significant country effect.

Research limitations/implications

Potential limitations or bias may exist from the use of the disclosure index: binary scoring of disclosure versus non‐disclosure reduces the richness of data otherwise obtainable by limited case study or interviews; and data collection is limiting – narrative with managers actually preparing ICD is not possible.

Practical implications

Australian company financial accountants and managers preparing and/or including ICD information could be in danger of underestimating the importance of information asymmetry existing with lenders.

Originality/value

This finding contrasts the legitimate R&D focused ICD of low‐leveraged UK firms; namely to attract stakeholder attention to their expanding intellectual property base, with the findings from Australian firms' with a relatively predictable and naïve customer focus.

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

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Article
Publication date: 9 December 2020

Per Nikolaj Bukh, Karina Skovvang Christensen and Anne Kirstine Svanholt

This paper aims to explore how the introduction of new accounting information influences the understandings of cost-consciousness. Furthermore, the paper explores how managers use…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how the introduction of new accounting information influences the understandings of cost-consciousness. Furthermore, the paper explores how managers use accounting information to shape organizational members’ understanding of changes, and how focusing on cost-consciousness influence professional culture within social services.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on a case study, drawing on sensemaking as a theoretical lens. Top management, middle management and staff specialists at a medium-sized Danish municipality are interviewed.

Findings

The paper demonstrates how accounting metaphors can be effective in linking cost information and cost-consciousness to operational decisions in daily work practices. Further, the study elucidates how professionalism may be strengthened based on the use of accounting information.

Research limitations/implications

The study is context specific, and the role of accounting in professional work varies on the basis of the specific techniques involved.

Practical implications

The paper shows how managers influence how professionals interpret and use accounting information. It shows how cost-consciousness can be integrated with social work practices to improve service quality.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the literature on how accounting information influences social work. To date, only a few papers have focused on how cost-consciousness can be understood in practice and how it influences professional culture. Further, the study expands the limited accounting metaphor research.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

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Article
Publication date: 26 April 2022

Morten Lund Poulsen, Per Nikolaj Bukh and Karina Skovvang Christensen

This paper studies how performance funding of education is perceived by principals, teachers and administrative staff and management. The dysfunctionality of performance measures…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper studies how performance funding of education is perceived by principals, teachers and administrative staff and management. The dysfunctionality of performance measures often reflects how the measures prevent an organisation from achieving its goals. This paper proposes that perceptions of dysfunctionality can be analysed by separating the perceptions of the programme's intentions, of the school-level actions and of the outcomes for students.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers, school management, staff specialists and top management in a large Danish municipality when outcome-based funding was introduced.

Findings

The performance-funding programme affected teaching by changing educational priorities. Different perceptions of the (dys)functionality of intentions, actions and outcomes fuelled diverging responses. Although the performance measure was generally considered incomplete, interviewees' perceptions of the financial incentivisation and the dysfunctionality of actions depended on interpretations of the incentivisation and student-related outcomes of the programme.

Research limitations/implications

Dysfunctionality can be contested; the interpretations of the intention of a performance-funding programme affect the perceived dysfunctionality of reactions. Both technical characteristics of funding schemes and administrators' and principals' mediating roles are essential for the consequences of performance funding.

Originality/value

The paper examines conditions for dysfunctionality of performance measures. We demonstrate that actions can be perceived as dysfunctional because of a measurement's intentions, actions themselves and the actions' outcomes. Further, the paper illustrates how the reception of performance funding depends on how consequences are enacted based on educators' interpretations of the (dys)functionality of intentions, actions and outcomes.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 36 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2003

Per Nikolaj Bukh

Many firms have started disclosing information on intellectual capital. Financial analysts, however, ask for more disclosure related to strategy and often find intellectual…

4945

Abstract

Many firms have started disclosing information on intellectual capital. Financial analysts, however, ask for more disclosure related to strategy and often find intellectual capital statement less relevant. Drawing on results from a study of disclosure of information on intellectual capital in Danish initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses, this commentary argues that the perceived irrelevance of intellectual capital is somewhat paradoxical since intellectual capital reports and recent prospectuses share remarkable similarities with respect to the intellectual capital indicators disclosed. Further, the commentary argues that, for intellectual capital disclosure to be perceived as relevant from a capital market perspective, the information should be disclosed as an integral part of a framework illuminating the value creation processes of the firm. The emerging practice with respect to intellectual capital offers such a framework for disclosing the business model of the knowledge‐based company.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

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Article
Publication date: 7 November 2023

Niels Sandalgaard and Per Nikolaj Bukh

This study focuses on ratcheting and budget behavior in nonprofit museums. Specifically, the authors examine how performance compared with the budget affects future revenue…

Abstract

Purpose

This study focuses on ratcheting and budget behavior in nonprofit museums. Specifically, the authors examine how performance compared with the budget affects future revenue budgets, and how this differs from the extant literature focused on for-profit organizations. The study focuses specifically on the relationship between museums and their sources of public funding and how this affects how museums prepare budgets.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on four years of data covering 97 state-subsidized Danish museums, the authors analyze budget ratcheting using least absolute deviation (LAD) estimations in the form of median regressions.

Findings

The authors find that when actual revenue from admission charges is below the budget, the decrease in the following year's budget is greater than the increase in the following year's budget when actual revenue from admission charges is above the budget (i.e. the authors find asymmetrical ratcheting).

Research limitations/implications

The findings are based on a specific setting (Danish museums), and the results may not be generalizable to other settings.

Practical implications

This study provides insights into the museum sector and other sectors with similar characteristics and contributes to understanding the differences between museums and for-profit organizations when it comes to budgeting. As private-sector management practices are gaining ground in the museum sector, it is important to learn more about budgeting-related issues in this sector.

Originality/value

The asymmetrical ratcheting the authors find is the opposite of ratcheting typically found in for-profit organizations. The authors attribute the results to the incentive conflict between museums and their public funding sources. The authors point to the museums' dependence on public funding as an explanation for the results and, thereby, extend the knowledge on ratcheting to organizations with different characteristics than traditional, for-profit organizations.

Details

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 35 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 2006

Christian Nielsen, Per Nikolaj Bukh, Jan Mouritsen, Mette Rosenkrands Johansen and Peter Gormsen

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose and illustrate the use of a set of rules to make an analytical reading of the indicators of an intellectual capital statement…

3384

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose and illustrate the use of a set of rules to make an analytical reading of the indicators of an intellectual capital statement possible. Design/methodology/approach – The paper proposes a model to analyze intellectual capital statements and applies this model to an intellectual capital statement and an IPO prospectus, as these two reporting forms are suggested to be similar. Thus, they are analyzed using the same methodology. Findings – The paper demonstrates that it is possible to analyze prospectuses and intellectual capital statements systematically and even to compare companies on that basis. Since IPOs are often already part of the capital market's information, the similarities between reading IPOs and intellectual capital statement suggest that intellectual capital statements convey company‐specific information relevant for financial analysts. Practical implications – The paper presents an analytical model which can be used generally in the analysis of the intellectual capital statement and IPO prospectuses. Originality/value – The paper demonstrates the similarities between an intellectual capital report and an IPO prospectus. Further, the paper demonstrates the use of a theoretically anchored and practical, useful model for analysing disclosure in the narrative part of a financial report.

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 7 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

Keywords

1 – 10 of 35