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The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether energy-efficient green buildings tend to provide net lease structures over gross lease ones. It then considers whether owners benefit by trading away operational savings in a net lease structure.

Empirical models of office leasing transactions in Sydney, Australia, with wider transferability supported by analysis of office rent data in the USA.

Labeled green buildings are approximately four to five times more likely than non-labeled buildings to use a net lease structure. However, despite receiving operational savings, tenants in net leases pay higher total occupancy costs (TOC), benefiting owners. On average, the increase in TOC paid by tenants in a net lease is equal to or greater than savings attributed to an eco-labeled building.

A full accounting of TOC in eco-labeled buildings suggests that net lease structures provide numerous benefits to owners that offset the loss of trading away operational savings.

The principal-agent market inefficiency, or “split incentive,” is a widely cited barrier to private investment in energy-efficient building technology. Here, a uniquely broad look at rental cash flows suggests its role as a barrier is exaggerated.

Banks have more at stake than ever before through risk management. The authors, both London lawyers specialising in the financial services world, argue that technology has both made life easier and harder. But they stress that the same problems recur in every case of loss. They provide some examples, particularly from the world of derivatives, which underline how important it is to employ a systematic approach.

The purpose of this article is to explore how the strategic change following a corporate takeover impacted the nature and extent of use of the firm's management control systems (MCS), in particular its performance measurement system (PMS).

This paper uses Michael Porter's theory of competitive advantage and Robert Simons' levers of control framework to illustrate and interpret changes in the PMS within an Australian multinational subsidiary following its takeover by an overseas corporation. To provide empirical evidence on this issue, face‐to‐face interviews and archival data are used.

The findings reveal that the takeover resulted in changes in the firm's competitive forces (threat of potential entrants, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services, bargaining power of suppliers, and rivalry among existing firms), and therefore the firm altered its strategy to change the rules of competition in its favor. Corresponding to the strategic change, the PMS was affected, with specific implications on Simons' four levers of control: interactive, diagnostic, beliefs, and boundary systems.

The findings suggest that a corporate takeover is an important phase for any organization, as it involves a change in the competitive environment and strategy, and needs to be facilitated by a change in the MCS to create and sustain superior performance.

This case study demonstrates how interactive and beliefs systems work together with diagnostic and boundary systems in the context of change in an organization. Past research devoted to strategic change and MCS has not documented this phenomenon.

This paper seeks to endorse the management control system taxonomy by Robert Simons to explore whether, how and why different approaches to management control are more intensely employed: in different phases of the radical innovation process; and in innovation projects showing different degrees of radicalness. Moreover, it aims to discuss the influence exerted by some contextual variables.

Case studies concerning four innovation projects (two radical in nature and two incremental) implemented by two companies operating in the home automation industry in Italy were conducted.

It is found that radical innovation projects, especially in the early stages of development, are characterized by a stronger reliance on flexible and social control management systems, while diagnostic control mainly emerges in late development and commercialization. Moreover, the moderating effect of the hypothesized contingent variables is widely discussed.

The work shows that Simons' taxonomy of the management control systems is a useful framework for exploring management control in radical projects at a strategic level, but also that it should be refined, as evidence shows a systematic hybridization of the systems adopted. An important implication is the great reliance on interactive systems, especially in the early stages. In this perspective, a deeper analysis on the nature and the proper management of interactivity could represent an interesting development of this study.

The recurrent features in the two cases provide practitioners with a useful benchmark about management control of radical innovation projects in two successful companies. Case histories suggest the great importance of information sharing among the functions, and the need to properly develop interface structures between the involved functions to favor it in radical innovation processes.

The paper is one of the first works on management control in radical innovation projects, and it contributes to the literature debate in two main ways: it tests Simons' taxonomy of management control systems for innovation projects, and it highlights the areas of improvement for analyzing “radicalness” in innovation processes.

While the history of modern ideas in business education in general, and organization theory and organizational economics in particular, has several different intellectual roots, two books in particular were influential in initiating the field that is now broadly recognized as behavioral theories of organizations: A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, written by Richard Cyert and James G. March; and Organizations, written by Herbert Simon and James March. These two books set the stage for several subsequent developments in organization and management theory including research in learning, strategic management, and organizational routines. The behavioral view of the firm was also important to modern developments such as evolutionary theory and transaction cost economics. This paper examines part of this history and development, focusing in particular on the contributions of March.

Examines the application of the Leittext method (a training system designed to stimulate active learning by novices) to the domain of word processing. A pre‐test/post‐test control group design was used to study effects of the method, learning performance, preferences for learning activities, learning processes, motivations and learning conceptions. Concludes that there may exist some interaction effects of learning style but the size of the group studied was too small to allow confirmation of this. Describes some ways in which the Leittext method can be made more effective for learning word processing.

Despite extensive adoption of Simons’ Levers of Control (LoC) framework, there is still considerable diversity in its operationalization which impedes the coherent development of the literature and compromises its value to researchers. The purpose of this paper is to draw researchers back to the conceptual core of the framework as a basis for stable, consistent definitions of the domain of observables.

We derive the conceptual core of the framework from Simons’ writings. We highlight instability in existing operational definitions of the LoC, weaknesses in the extent to which these definitions reference this conceptual core, and inconsistencies in the restriction of LoC to formal information-based routines.

We draw on the inconsistencies identified to build the case for commensuration or a “common standard” for the framework’s use on two levels: the constructs within the framework (through reference to the conceptual core of the framework) and the framework itself (through explicit inclusion of informal controls).

We illustrate the benefits of commensuration through the potential to guide the scope of the domain of observables in empirical LoC studies, and to study LoC as complementary or competing with other management control theories.

Our approach to resolving tensions arising from inconsistencies in the empirical definitions of LoC differs from others in that we focus on the strategic variables underlying the framework to define the conceptual core. We believe this approach offers greater potential for commensuration at the level of the constructs within the framework and the framework itself.

Tremendous change has taken place in organisational structures, networks and strategy over the past 25 years. Yet, a strategic management framework developed 25 years ago has increased in popularity among researchers in the past decade. This paper aims to review how Simons’ Levers of Control (LOC) framework has been used in empirical research studies over the past 25 years.

The findings are based on electronic database searches of papers adopting Simons’ framework published in accounting and management journals.

A total of 45 empirical studies adopting the LOC framework are presented chronologically by research method. The review highlights the far greater use of the framework in qualitative compared to quantitative studies. Qualitative studies have extended the application of the framework to broader organisational issues such as sustainability, environmental accounting and inter-organisational controls. The quantitative studies have mainly sought to add to our understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of the use of interactive control systems.

This paper furthers our understanding of Simons’ framework by synthesising and analysing the literature over 25 years. It provides insight into the varying interpretations of the concepts underlying the framework in empirical studies including differences in operationalisation of the concepts in quantitative studies. In addition, it highlights the application of the framework beyond the original domain in which it was developed. Fruitful areas for future research are pointed to in the paper.