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Article
Publication date: 3 April 2019

Robyn King and Peter Clarkson

This study aims to examine the interplay between ownership structure (organisational form) and management control system (MCS) design as governance structures within Australian…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the interplay between ownership structure (organisational form) and management control system (MCS) design as governance structures within Australian primary health-care organisations (PHOs), seeking support for the suggestion that professional services will be most efficiently and effectively provided in organisations that have internal governance that is matched to their ownership form.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is based on a series of in-depth investigations into the MCS choices made by seven Australian PHOs. Arguing that the degree of information impactedness is inversely related to the level of general practitioner (GP) ownership, organisations where more than 50 per cent of the GPs working within the practice are owners are classified as “high ownership” (“low information impactedness”). The adoption by high-performing organisations of their predicted MCS archetype according to Speklé’s development is then interpreted as representing empirical support.

Findings

The findings provide uniform support for the importance of the match between ownership structure and internal governance mechanisms. As predicted, the two high-performing, high member-owned organisations reported MCS resembling exploratory archetypes, the three high-performing, low member-owned organisations reported MCS consistent with a boundary archetype and the two low-performing organisations reported little emphasis on any control.

Research limitations/implications

This study provides evidence of the importance of the appropriate match between ownership structure and internal governance mechanisms for PHOs.

Practical implications

This study has potential to assist managers, owners and advisors to optimise MCS design in professional services organisations where there is heterogeneous ownership by professionals.

Originality/value

This study is one of the few attempts to provide empirical support for the assertion of the importance of a match between ownership structure and MCS design. It also represents one of the few attempts to provide empirical support for Speklé’s (2001) control archetypes, here the boundary and exploratory archetypes, archetypes that are applicable within important sectors of the economy, notably the professional services sector.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 July 2023

Robyn King, David Smith and Grace Williams

The paper’s purpose is to consider, using a transaction cost economics (TCE) framework, the mechanisms used by space agencies to encourage private investment in the commercial…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper’s purpose is to consider, using a transaction cost economics (TCE) framework, the mechanisms used by space agencies to encourage private investment in the commercial spaceflight sector.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a content analysis of 554 pages of news articles, relating to issues pertaining to partnerships between national government-based space agencies and private space travel providers, published over a 20-year period. Leximancer was used to initially screen the data and then the authors manually analysed the content to identify themes.

Findings

The data analysis revealed three themes, relating to: the uncertainty of space travel; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) stimulating innovation in the private sector; and risk, insurance and regulation. These themes informed by TCE reveal the “hierarchical” organisational forms used to achieve human spaceflight and then the “hybrids”, insurance and regulations used to stimulate private sector investment and innovation.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the accounting literature by answering the calls of Alewine (2020) and Tucker and Alewine (2022a, b) for more research into accounting in the space context. Specifically, the paper contributes by identifying mechanisms used by NASA to stimulate private investment in the space travel sector, as well as issues that have affected the implementation of these mechanisms. The paper also contributes to the literature by, based on the analysis, identifying a series of reflections designed to stimulate further management accounting research in the space context.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 37 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 December 2021

Brianna O'Regan, Robyn King and David Smith

The paper's purpose is to consider the challenges, a public sector organization faces combining both transparency and “intelligent” forms of accountability (cf. Roberts, 2009).

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Abstract

Purpose

The paper's purpose is to consider the challenges, a public sector organization faces combining both transparency and “intelligent” forms of accountability (cf. Roberts, 2009).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a case study of StatePol, a police service in an Australian state.

Findings

The data analysis revealed three themes. First, prior to 2013, transparency forms of accountability dominated, emphasizing crime statistics with the effect of reinforcing internal partitions and inhibiting collective action. Second, post-2013, a greater emphasis was placed on “intelligent” accountability with conversations around process and collective accountability at the operational level. Crime statistics were used less for operational-level accountability and more for attention-directing. Third, changing the emphasis from transparency to its combined use with “intelligent” accountability required strong leadership, clearly communicated strategy and middle-level managers with appropriate skills.

Originality/value

The authors identify a number of important factors in combining transparency and “intelligent” forms of accountability. The authors note the difficulties that fragmentation between forms of accountability and the somewhat amorphous nature of the accountability concept itself can cause. In doing so, the authors provide empirical evidence of the challenges changing from an emphasis on transparency, to combined use with an “intelligent” form of accountability.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 35 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 July 2019

David Taylor, Robyn King and David Smith

The purpose of this paper is to consider how organizations with diverse, interdependent functions with differing evaluative principles and differing ideas as to which behaviors…

2114

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to consider how organizations with diverse, interdependent functions with differing evaluative principles and differing ideas as to which behaviors are the most desirable, use management controls in their efforts to achieve innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a case study of TechCo, an Australian technology start-up company, over a 12 month period.

Findings

The authors demonstrate how the clash of differing evaluative principles among interdependent teams led to the organization seeking new ways of organizing, which in turn, enabled the organization to better manage the interdependencies between the diverse functional areas. Additionally, the findings show how, through the use of management control systems, the organization was able to promote idea generation and “buy-in” across all functional areas, order competing priorities for innovation and set the agenda as to what constituted “acceptable” innovation for the organization to pursue.

Originality/value

The authors find that management controls play an important role in managing the tensions between differing evaluative principles in diverse functional areas in a heterarchical organization, and in supporting innovation in such an environment. As such, the authors provide the first research evidence on how management controls are used within a heterarchy to generate and select innovative ideas.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 32 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2005

Charlotte Yapp and Robyn Fairman

This article aims to describe a research methodology used to examine compliance with food safety legislation within small businesses and the effect of local authority…

2696

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to describe a research methodology used to examine compliance with food safety legislation within small businesses and the effect of local authority interventions on compliance. Different methodological approaches used within the research design are evaluated.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirical research using multiple case studies investigated compliance within small food businesses. Multiple sources of evidence were analysed using qualitative and quantitative techniques.

Findings

The validity of research design was affected in various ways. Using a quantitative approach was limited by the availability of a suitable indicator to measure compliance and by the difficulty in establishing causality. Qualitative approaches showed that businesses constructed their conception of compliance differently from the more formal compliance concept of regulatory agencies. This alternative construction of compliance impacts on the effectiveness of different methodologies.

Research limitations/implications

These findings demonstrate the limitations of quantitative approaches in exploring the compliance process. Differences in understanding the nature of compliance impact on validity: researchers cannot rely on businesses accurately “reporting” their compliance.

Originality/value

This article examines empirical research on the compliance process in small food businesses. It shows how the validity of a research design can be affected using evidence from this research.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 107 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 September 2022

Robyn King, April L. Wright, David Smith, Alex Chaudhuri and Leah Thompson

We bring together the institutional theory literature on institutional logics and the information systems (IS) literature that conceptualizes a relational view of affordances to…

Abstract

We bring together the institutional theory literature on institutional logics and the information systems (IS) literature that conceptualizes a relational view of affordances to explore the digital changes unfolding in the delivery of professional services. Through a qualitative inductive study of the development of an app led by a clinician manager in an Australian hospital, we investigate how multiple institutional logics shape the design of affordances when an organization develops new digital technologies for frontline professional work. Our findings show how a billing function was designed into the app by the development team over four episodes to afford potential physician users with billing usability, billing acceptability, billing authority and billing discretion. These affordances emerged as different elements of professional, state, managerial and market logics became activated, interpreted, evaluated, negotiated and designed into the digital technology through the team’s interactions with the clinician manager, a hybrid professional, during the app development process. Our findings contribute new insight to the affordance-based logics perspective by deepening understanding of the process through which multiple institutional logics play out in the design of affordances of digital technology. We also highlight the role of hybrid professionals in this digital transformation of frontline professional work.

Details

Digital Transformation and Institutional Theory
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-222-5

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 23 September 2022

Abstract

Details

Digital Transformation and Institutional Theory
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-222-5

Abstract

Details

Rewriting Leadership with Narrative Intelligence: How Leaders Can Thrive in Complex, Confusing and Contradictory Times
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-776-4

Article
Publication date: 3 January 2020

James C. Fowler, Robyn Catherine Price, Kirsty Burger, Alice Jennifer Mattei, Ashley Mary McCarthy, Fiona Lowe and Thuthirna Sathiyaseelan

The use of mental health treatment requirements (MHTRs) has not proven to be successful at meeting the mental health needs of the probation population in the UK, largely through…

Abstract

Purpose

The use of mental health treatment requirements (MHTRs) has not proven to be successful at meeting the mental health needs of the probation population in the UK, largely through underuse of the requirement or lack of available services. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper investigates a method of meeting those needs without the use of MHTRs by embedding third sector services within the probation environment.

Findings

Results indicate a significant impact after a six-month follow-up in symptomology across measures of depression, anxiety, general distress and social functioning; also indicated is a significant result on recidivism, with 74 per cent of participants committing no further offences in the 12 months following treatment.

Originality/value

These results represent the only evaluation of embedded, third sector mental health services in a probation environment in the UK, and highlight a further need to embed specialist mental health services within the probation environment and generalise that practice to other forms of service structure and therapeutic methodology.

Details

Journal of Criminal Psychology, vol. 10 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2009-3829

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2006

Sumithira Thavapalan, Robyn Moroney and Roger Simnett

This paper investigates the impact of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) merger in Australia on existing and potential clients of the new merged firm. From prior theory it is…

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) merger in Australia on existing and potential clients of the new merged firm. From prior theory it is expected that some existing clients may have an incentive to switch away from a newly merged firm as the same larger firm now audits close competitors once audited by separate firms. Prior theory also suggests that another group of potential clients should be attracted to the newly merged firm where the merger enhances or creates industry specializations. The expectation is that in both of these instances there will be increased switching activity associated with the newly merged audit firm. Contrary to expectations, a significantly lower level of switching behaviour was observed for the newly merged firm compared with that of the other Big 5 firms, suggesting that an advantage of enhanced specialization may not be the attraction of new clients but the retention of existing clients. When comparing the nature of the switches, some support was found for the view that the switches to the new firm were likely to be in enhanced areas of specialization, but no evidence was found to suggest that close competitors would switch away from this firm. The greater rate of retention of clients compared with other Big 5 firms was not associated with a more competitive audit pricing policy.

Details

Pacific Accounting Review, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0114-0582

Keywords

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