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In 2012, Pacific Accounting Review (PAR) completed its 25th year of existence. This paper aims to review all articles published in PAR as a report on the “stewardship” of the journal.

Research papers published in PAR are analysed by topic, research methodology, author and institutional affiliation. This approach follows prior reviews in PAR. A comparison is also made with PAR over the period 1988-1996 and Accounting and Finance over the period 1973-1999 and the “top accounting journals” over the period 1990-2007.

The analysis indicates that PAR publishes papers across a wide range of topics, but uses research methodologies that are consistent with mainstream accounting research (as undertaken by the “top accounting journals”). The authors of PAR are concentrated in New Zealand and Australia, as is the source data. No strong trends were perceived in the data. In conclusion, PAR can be characterised as a broadly based accounting and finance journal that is primarily competing in an Australasian context.

This review provides some insight as to how the journal has evolved and how the mission statement has been put into effect. The journal has maintained much of its original mission. The anticipated “dialogue between researchers and practitioners” has not developed, probably due to lack of sponsorship by the profession. The paper should also form a basis for informing how to further develop the journal.

The paper updates the last review of PAR which was completed in 1997.

The current study investigated the conflict management styles used by Korean local government employees with superiors, peers, and subordinates. A mail survey and personal interviews were used. Six hundred and seventy‐five usable responses were received. Personal interviews were conducted with 100 government employees. With written consents, all interviews were tape‐recorded and then quantified using content analysis. Overall, both mail surveys and personal interviews indicated conflict management styles varied according to the relative status of employees. Implications of the research findings for training and development of organizational members are provided, and areas for further research are suggested.

An onsite experimental study was conducted in order to observe conflict management styles of 90 middle‐level managers from a large Korean furniture manufacturing company. By using accomplices, conflict conditions were introduced in a controlled setting which simulated the features of a work environment. The experiment manipulated the relative status among the subjects and observed the influence of this treatment on the subjects' choices among different conflict management styles. Both structured observations and self‐report questionnaires converged to show that conflict management styles differed significantly when the managers interacted with superiors, peers, or subordinates: the managers were mainly avoiding with superiors, compromising with peers, and competing with subordinates. The current research suggests that the relative status among the parties in conflict determines the choice of conflict management styles.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the “Kyocera approach” to business, i.e. the relationship between the Kyocera philosophy, the amoeba management system (AMS) and the associated management accounting system.

Utilising a variety of secondary sources, including semi-autobiographical works written by Inamori, the architect of AMS, the authors examine in detail the links between the underlying Kyocera philosophy and the management and accounting principles derived therefrom. These sources are used to examine the historical origins of these principles, their influence on both the AMS and the management accounting system, and how these have developed over time.

Both the AMS and the associated management accounting system can be shown to contain a mixture of influences, including traditional Asian/Japanese factors, but also Inamori/Kyocera-specific factors linked to Inamori's underlying philosophical approach to life and specific life experiences encountered by him. This suggests that while the Kyocera approach may be applicable more widely in Japan or Asia, outside of this context, the conflicts between Western and Asian cultures, although not necessarily insurmountable, may provide barriers leading to incomplete applications of the Kyocera approach

This study adds to the understanding of the interrelationship between management philosophy and management accounting practices, and the ability of individuals to determine culture within organisations. It illustrates the importance of historical research in obtaining a detailed understanding of the philosophical, cultural and religious underpinnings of current management and accounting practices.

The purpose of this study is to synthesise the prior literature on strategy maps to develop a practitioner’s guide to the design of strategy map frameworks. Robert Kaplan and David Norton introduced the strategy map in their 2000 Harvard Business review article. A strategy map visually represents how the critical elements of an organisation’s strategies are linked together. In an organisation’s strategy execution process, a strategy map complements a performance measurement framework such as the balanced scorecard.

This is a technical paper, which primarily builds on the prior literature on the strategy map design. In particular, this study reviews 41 publications on strategy maps in the period 2000-2015, including observation of 333 strategy map frameworks.

This study develops 14 design principles across seven features of a strategy map framework. This study also identifies a significant lack of empirical research on strategy map design features and principles.

Future research could examine whether and why various design features and principles could exert different or same effects (e.g. decision-relevance).

The developed design features and principles can be used by practitioners as guidance for developing customised strategy maps for their organisations.

This paper contributes to the literature by serving as a “one-stop shop” for both practitioners and researchers seeking a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the strategy map design features and principles.

The aim of this paper is to gain insights into the gap that persists between management accounting education (MAE) and practice.

MAE is examined from four perspectives of the balanced scorecard (BSC), in terms of what is being taught at tertiary level: customer satisfaction, learning and growth, internal business and financial. A survey questionnaire was sent to management accountants selected randomly from a list of practicing management accountants identified by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in South Africa.

The study finds support for allegations that a gap exists between MAE and practice and indicates that to address this gap, a holistic focus using the four perspectives of the BSC would be useful to investigate the gap.

Previous studies in relation to the gap in management education have focused on the lack of skills provided by tertiary education. As one of the few studies to focus on the overall performance of MAE, this study identifies that the gap is not limited to the provision of adequate skills. The findings show that the gap is significant in terms of customer perspective but is not significant in relation to the internal business, learning and growth and financial perspectives of the BSC. The study provides deeper insights into the gap and will help tertiary education providers to improve their performance.

As one of the few studies on gaps between MAE and practice, the study provides insights to the potential gaps. The findings serve as a basis for further empirical and theoretical enquiries.

The study contributes to the management accounting literature by focusing on the gap in MAE using a BSC approach. Rather than single out the lack of skills provided by MAE as a reason for the gap, this paper provides information on the four areas of the BSC as ways to identify the gap.

Enabling employee creativity and channeling the creativity of employees toward process and product innovations is a starting point of value creation processes and strategy maps. The dominant view in early creativity research seemed to be that creativity and control are inconsistent. More recently, a number of studies have come to acknowledge that performance evaluations (and rewards linked to such evaluations) may well have positive effects on creativity. This paper aims to review existing results on the effects of performance evaluations on creativity from the perspectives of different research streams.

This paper analyzes a stream of research in social psychology which has promoted the notion of an overall negative effect of performance evaluations on creativity. The (reinterpreted) results from this research stream are contrasted with findings from the behaviorist perspective and with research in management accounting.

The review of the different research traditions in the analysis of the effects of performance evaluations on creativity indicates that the seemingly contradictory empirical results can be explained by the different settings used and by the different ways how performance evaluations and linked rewards are conceptualized.

The paper clarifies that, in contrast to common beliefs, performance evaluations and linked incentives do not kill creativity in general. Performance evaluations and incentives can support creativity and innovation if they are transparent about what kind of creativity is desired and how such creativity is measured and rewarded. Moreover, incentives can effectively support behaviors that are known to be important within creativity and innovation processes.

This paper aims to analyze challenges of subjective performance evaluation (SPE) and their effects on team performance. It focuses on discretionary bonus allocations in teams and challenges driven by cognitive biases on the superior or the employee side. This is important as efficient teamwork is a relevant source of competitive advantages in firms, and firms often rely on teams to coordinate various, mutually supportive organizational activities.

The author analyzes results that have recently been discussed in the literature and link them to each other to create a more holistic picture about potential performance effects of SPE. Based on the analyses, the author develops avenues for future research and point out open questions.

Exploring employees’ fairness perceptions in team settings in which there is no clear standard for a “fair” team bonus allocation, the author finds that perceived fairness of team bonus allocation may decrease under SPE because employees interpret the “fairness” of the bonus allocation from an egocentric perspective. Such decrease in perceived fairness can eventually even lead to decreased team performance. Likewise, on the superior side, more complex, but highly relevant team can cause cognitive biases of superiors in assessing employee performance, thereby decreasing the potentially positive effects of SPE on team performance.

This paper contributes to the literature by analyzing recently discovered challenges of SPE in teams and linking them to each other to draw more general conclusions about the performance effects of SPE. For practice, my findings imply that firms may want to be cautious when evaluating the potential effects of SPE – as it is made by human beings with their cognitive biases. For research, the paper opens up new research possibilities and points out open questions.