Search results

1 – 2 of 2
Article
Publication date: 1 October 2019

Thuy Duong Oesterreich and Frank Teuteberg

Despite the advantages that the VoFI approach offers compared with traditional capital budgeting methods, its application for the appraisal of information technology (IT) and…

Abstract

Purpose

Despite the advantages that the VoFI approach offers compared with traditional capital budgeting methods, its application for the appraisal of information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) investments in both research and practice is not widespread to date. Given the static nature of the generic VoFI table, the method reaches its limits in its financial plan form because it is unable to investigate the dynamic behaviour of complex investment calculations. To date, there has been no attempt to address these shortcomings to advance the use of VoFI as a useful and valid capital budgeting method in finance and accounting. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address this research gap and aim at developing a ‘dynamic’ VoFI model that integrates all input variables and target measures of a VoFI table and visualises the causal relationships among these variables.

Design/methodology/approach

The ‘dynamic’ VoFI model is developed through System Dynamics (SD) modelling to enhance the strength of the VoFI concept as an instrument for visualising the financial implications of investments in IT and IS at the corporate level. Case study research is used as a research method to study the behaviour of the developed model. The validity of the model is demonstrated by conducting simulation runs in Vensim software. In addition, probabilistic sensitivity analyses are performed to account for the impact of uncertainty on the main model variables.

Findings

The results demonstrate the usefulness of SD modelling for extending the generic VoFI concept by integrating risk analyses and providing a new strategy of data analysis and data presentation different from the typical financial plan form. Furthermore, the dynamic VoFI model enables the visualisation of interdependencies among the various variables incorporated in the VoFI financial plan, which significantly enhances the conceptual understanding of the investment and its financial consequences.

Originality/value

The integration of the VoFI concept into an SD model helps researchers and practitioners to enhance their conceptual understanding of this method. This thus increases its acceptance and popularity as a practical capital budgeting method, especially for the financial assessment of IT and IS investments. The VoFI model proposed in this paper should also enable analysts and decision makers to become more conscious of the interdependencies between the assumptions made for an appraisal and the quantitative results.

Article
Publication date: 31 May 2019

Thuy Duong Oesterreich and Frank Teuteberg

In recent years, the rise of big data has led to an obvious shift in the competence profile expected from the controller and management accountant (MA). Among others, business…

6171

Abstract

Purpose

In recent years, the rise of big data has led to an obvious shift in the competence profile expected from the controller and management accountant (MA). Among others, business analytics competences and information technology skills are considered a “must have” capability for the controlling and MA profession. As it still remains unclear if these requirements can be fulfilled by today’s employees, the purpose of this study is to examine the supply of business analytics competences in the current competence profiles of controlling professionals in an attempt to answer the question whether or not a skills gap exists.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a set of 2,331 member profiles of German controlling professionals extracted from the business social network XING, a text analytics approach is conducted to discover patterns out of the semi-structured data. In doing so, the second purpose of this study is to encourage researchers and practitioners to integrate and advance big data analytics as a method of inquiry into their research process.

Findings

Apart from the mediating role of gender, company size and other variables, the results indicate that the current competence profiles of the controller do not comply with the recent requirements towards business analytics competences. However, the answer to the question whether a skills gap exist must be made cautiously by taking into account the specific organizational context such as level of IT adoption or the degree of job specialization.

Research limitations/implications

Guided by the resource-based view of the firm, organizational theory and social cognitive theory, an explanatory model is developed that helps to explain the apparent skills gap, and thus, to enhance the understanding towards the rationales behind the observed findings. One major limitation to be mentioned is that the data sample integrated into this study is restricted to member profiles of German controlling professionals from foremost large companies.

Originality/value

The insights provided in this study extend the ongoing debate in accounting literature and business media on the skills changes of the controlling and MA profession in the big data era. The originality of this study lies in its explicit attempt to integrate recent advances in data analytics to explore the self-reported competence supplies of controlling professionals based on a comprehensive set of semi-structured data. A theoretically founded explanatory model is proposed that integrates empirically validated findings from extant research across various disciplines.

1 – 2 of 2