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This study aims to examine the relationship between an ownership structure with multiple large shareholders and corporate social responsibility (CSR) with regard to Chinese-listed companies.

Multiple regression analysis was used on 4,940 samples of 884 listed companies in China for the period 2009–2017, to empirically test the influence of an ownership structure on enterprises’ fulfillment of social responsibility. Moreover, the propensity score matching–difference in differences and Heckman two-stage approaches were used for the robustness of the regression results.

The results show that ownership structures with multiple large shareholders can promote social responsibility. The check-and-balance ability of non-controlling large shareholders, corporate information transparency and corporate system environment moderate the relationship between multiple large shareholders and CSR engagement.

This paper complements prior studies on the ownership structure of multiple large shareholders. The findings enrich the literature on corporate governance and CSR. The results also reveal information about the situational factors, helping identify the mechanism through which the ownership structure of multiple large shareholders affects CSR.

It is well known that precision of mass unbalance measurement of sphere is determined by perturbing moments in contactless suspension systems. Therefore, estimating perturbing moment level in those systems is important and necessary to meet the requirements of a specified precision of mass unbalance measurement.

In this paper, probability‐theoretic method is employed to determine probability characteristics of the perturbing moments in both electrostatic suspension system and gas suspension system by statistically estimating of the quality of sphere surface. As a result, the relationship between probability characteristics of the perturbing moment and statistical estimates of the quality of sphere surface is established. It is expressed as a simple formula by specifying the correlation function of random field of sphere surface.

Numerical experiments of the perturbing moment calculation in the two suspension systems show that for sphere with small correlation coefficient α, it is better to use gas suspension system for mass unbalance measurement. While for sphere with large correlation coefficient α, electrostatic suspension system is more suitable for its perturbing moment are less than gas suspension system.

Knowledge of this relationship is of great theoretic and practical importance, since the probabilistic depiction of the perturbing moments, and hence the accuracy of the mass unbalance measurement systems can be estimated without a detailed roundness measurement of the sphere surface.

To provide an overview of research published in the management accounting literature on methods for cost management in new product development, such as a target costing, life cycle costing, component commonality, and modular design.

The structured literature search covered papers about 15 different cost management methods published in 40 journals in the period 1990–2013.

The search yielded a sample of 113 different papers. Many contained information about more than one method, and this yielded 149 references to specific methods. The number of references varied strongly per cost management method and per journal. Target costing has received by far the most attention in the publications in our sample; modular design, component commonality, and life cycle costing were ranked second and joint third. Most references were published in Management Science; Management Accounting Research; and Accounting, Organizations and Society. The results were strongly influenced by Management Science and Decision Science, because cost management methods with an engineering background were published above average in these two journals (design for manufacturing, component commonality, modular design, and product platforms) while other topics were published below average in these two journals.

The scope of this review is accounting research. Future work could review the research on cost management methods in new product development published outside accounting.

The paper centers on methods for cost management, which complements reviews that focused on theoretical constructs of management accounting information and its use.

Outsourcing logistical activities have become a widely used approach for firms to avoid high fixed costs and heavy investment requirements and to achieve competitive advantages. Lean six sigma (LSS) has been accepted globally across sectors as a management strategy for achieving process excellence. The purpose of this paper is to feature the application of LSS for improving the supplier selection process (SSP) of outsourced logistics services in a multinational health-care company.

This study is based on an action research case study conducted on the SSP of the freight and distribution department in a multinational health-care company. This paper reports on the application of the LSS define-measure-analyze-improve-control (DMAIC) approach for reducing supplier selection lead time.

The study features a real-world case study of the LSS DMAIC application to improve the supplier selection process of a large health-care company. The key issues that were identified are lack of information visibility, top-down changes and unclear communication lines. To counteract these three root causes, the lean six sigma techniques that are implemented are the 5S, stakeholder analysis and standard operating procedure.

This research provided empirical evidence of how practical challenges in SSP can be managed with the use of LSS. It further proposed plausible solutions for reducing and sustaining improved outcomes. As the study is limited to one case, the validity of the results can be improved by including more organisations and more case studies from other similar organisations.

Research in supplier selection processes rarely links continuous improvement ideology such as LSS to support strategic selection and procurement of logistics services. This paper could serve as a resource for both practitioners to derive useful implications and to academicians as it contributes to the LSS body of knowledge for further theory testing.