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The purpose of this inductive, exploratory study is to provide foundational insights into the role of management control in dealing with dysfunctional behaviour within accounting schools in changing environment of Australian universities.

Evidence is drawn from semi-structured interviews with 28 current or previous heads of school, research deans, deans of teaching and learning, school managers and human resource managers from 16 Australian universities and interpreted from the theoretical perspective of rational choice theory.

The findings suggest the incidence of a range of dysfunctional behaviours occurring in accounting schools. Even when such behaviours are limited in frequency, their consequences are nevertheless found to have far-ranging and potentially destructive change impacts for both individuals and the university. Formal management control systems designed to address such behaviours are perceived to be largely ineffective in identifying, managing, eliminating or even mitigating the consequences of such dysfunctionality. Instead, it is informal control processes that are preferred in dealing with dysfunctionality.

This study enhances our understanding of the role of management control in dealing with dysfunctional behaviour within university accounting schools, and points not only to the difference between the design and use of management controls but also to the implications of this disconnect between the underlying intent of control design and their actual use in the context of environments that are subject to significant change.

This paper examines how the management control practices of organization members enable the alignment of product development projects with potentially conflicting corporate strategies during the product development process.

Using an ethnomethodology informed research approach, we carry out a case study of an innovative New Zealand food company. Case study data included an internal company document, interviews with organization members, and an external market analysis document.

Our case study company had both sales growth and profit growth corporate strategies which have been argued to cause tensions. We found that four management control practices enabled the alignment of product development projects to these strategies. The first management control practice was having the NPD and marketing functions responsible for different corporate strategies. Other management control practices included the involvement of organization members from across multiple functions, the activities they carried out, and the measures used to evaluate project performance during the product development process.

These findings add new insights to the management accounting literature by showing how a combination of management control practices can be used by organization members to align projects with potentially conflicting corporate strategies during the product development process.

While the alignment of product development projects to corporate strategy is not easy this study shows how it can be enabled through a number of management control practices.

We contribute to the management accounting research in this area by extending our understanding of the management control practices used during the product development process.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework which sheds new light on how sustainability control systems (SCS) can be used in proactive strategic responses to corporate sustainability pressures.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Corporate sustainability pressures are identified using insights from institutional theory and the resource-based view of the firm.

Findings – The paper presents an integrated framework showing the corporate sustainability pressures, proactive strategic responses to these pressures, and how organizations might use SCS in their responses to the corporate sustainability pressures they face.

Practical Implications – The proposed framework shows how organizations can use SCS in proactive strategic responses to corporate sustainability pressures.

Originality/Value – The paper suggests that instead of using traditional financial-oriented management control systems, organizations need more focus on emerging SCS as a means of achieving sustainability objectives. In particular, the paper proposes different SCS tools that can be used in proactive strategic responses to sustainability pressures in terms of (i) specifying and communicating sustainability objectives, (ii) monitoring sustainability performance, and (iii) providing motivation by linking sustainability rewards to performance.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss initial work to assess the moisture buffering performance of selected bio-insulations in lofts that suffer from excessive moisture following refurbishment.

These conditions were then reproduced in a physical lab-based experiment such that the comparative performance of the bio-insulations and stone wool could be measured.

It was found that the bio-insulations could remove over 60 per cent of the moisture in the loft air, and therefore reduce the risk of condensation and its severity.

The initial work reported here is indicative of the buffering potential of bio-insulations but further work is required to better quantify this performance. There is a need to further examine lofts with moisture problems and to produce reliable testing methods and protocols to be used when retrofitting loft insulation.

Installers and specifiers of loft insulation should ensure that insulation is installed correctly, as with the drive to increase loft insulation levels the risks of damaging the building fabric through condensation are increasing.

Excessive moisture can damage the building fabric and create health problems. Using insulations that perform well across a range of performance criteria tend to favour bio-insulations, which have a far less harmful impact on the environment than do typical fossil-fuel based insulations.

The paper presents preliminary findings that support arguments for specifying bio-insulations.

The aim of this paper is to discuss selected aspects of the design of post-disaster housing building on current guidance in this area. The paper focuses on the use of appropriate materials and technology to suit the climate and site and draws lessons from traditional housing types and settlement patterns.

A case study of a design project is used to illustrate an approach toward sustainable design. The approach is structured and could therefore fit into the wider structures and frameworks of providing such housing.

A design was generated that meets many of the desired environmental criteria. It was also found that important design resources are required by the design team not mentioned in the existing guidelines.

A limitation of the paper is that the design is hypothetical and there has been no input from prospective inhabitants or other groups.

The design approach illustrated here may be of use to relief organizations working in the field and also could be used to develop further awareness of sustainability. Organizations that provide for and coordinate post-disaster construction could consider making further design resources available as part of a project.

The study addresses the design of housing, which itself is an activity located in society.

The paper adds to the discussion on the design of post-disaster housing and supports the argument that such housing can help to support wider and longer-term development.

Increased business competition requires even more rapid and sophisticated information and data analysis. These requirements challenge performance management to effectively support the decision making process. Business analytics is an emerging field that can potentially extend the domain of performance management to provide an improved understanding of business dynamics and lead to a better decision making. The purpose of this positional paper is to introduce performance management analytics as a potential extension of performance management research and practice. The paper clarifies the possible application areas of business analytics and their advantages within the context of performance management.

The paper employs a literature based analysis and from this a conceptual argument is established. Finally, a business analytical model is presented to be used to undertake future research.

The paper clarifies the possible application areas of business analytics and their advantages within the context of organizational performance management.

The main implication is that the paper provides evidence of the use of business analytics for understanding organizational performance. Several insights are provided for management accounting research and education.

The purpose of this research is to provide academics and practitioners with an insight to the barriers involved in knowledge transfer, arising from the levels of learning in the organization (i.e. individual, team, organizational, and inter‐organizational).

An empirical research methodology, called the Delphi technique, was employed to investigate these barriers. Owing to the non‐threatening nature of the process, and its usefulness in obtaining a reliable consensus of opinion from a group of experts, it was deemed suitable for this research. The Delphi process was applied in two stages. In the first stage the major barriers in the transfer of knowledge in the levels of learning were obtained. Only the primary paths of transfer were considered, i.e. individual to team (and vice versa), team to the organization (and vice versa), and organization to inter‐organization. In the second stage Delphi process, the critical sources from which these barriers arise were derived.

A total of 14 sources from which the barriers arise were obtained. The significant impact of these sources on the levels of learning, as perceived by the Delphi participants, was derived.

This research provides useful insights for practitioners wanting to minimize barriers and optimize knowledge transfer across the organizations. It also serves as a useful base for researchers to expand further research into barriers of knowledge transfer.

This research is the first attempt made, using Delphi methodology, to analyze the barriers to knowledge transfer from a holistic perspective. It considers the levels of learning, providing academics with a base to consider other paths of knowledge transfer.

The emergence of biological weapons of mass destruction as likely terrorist means of reigning terror on domestic urban populations is outlined. The dimensions of such a possible future catastrophe are described. The lack of preparedness to mitigate and respond to such an event is noted and it is argued that the disaster research literature should be consulted as a guide to help develop effective mitigation and response plans.

This paper explores how management controls of a clustered apparel firm in Sri Lanka (Stitch-It) is shaped by institutional field and societal logics, firm's head office prescriptions, clusters' own attributes and strategic behavior of cluster managers.

It follows the research philosophy of interpretivism and embedded case study approach within the qualitative research design, while institutional complexity within the institutional logics perspective and paradoxical tensions, organizational attributes and strategic responses to institutional processes provide the theoretical underpinning.

The findings suggest that market, profession and state logics in the apparel field, alongside community logic at the societal level, develop a state of complexity in Stitch-It and its clusters. At the cluster level, such complexity is further intensified by head office guidelines (on controls), which gets filtered by the organizational attributes of the particular clusters. At this state, paradoxical tensions are developed within clusters, and to mitigate such tensions, key organizational members employ different strategies, which in turn shape management controls of the clusters.

This paper highlights that practicing managers need to be mindful of different logics in the field, organizational attributes, resulting tensions, complexities, strategies to deal with them and their ramifications on controls.

The paper asserts that management controls is a dynamic and a situational phenomenon, which continuously evolves in light of organizational attributes, multiple logics and head office prescriptions. It conceptualizes the “tensions” evident in the design and implementation of management controls, arising due to multiplicity of pressures as “paradoxical tensions.” Although important and relevant to management control arena, “paradoxical tensions” has been scantly explored by prior researchers.