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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 2 June 2021

Ewelina Zarzycka and Joanna Krasodomska

The paper aims to examine if corporate characteristics, general contextual factors and the internal context differentiate the quality and quantity of the disclosed non-financial

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Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to examine if corporate characteristics, general contextual factors and the internal context differentiate the quality and quantity of the disclosed non-financial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on content analysis of the disclosures provided by large public interest entities operating in Poland after the introduction of the Directive 2014/95/EU. The quality of the KPIs disclosures is measured with the disclosure index. Regression analysis and selected statistical tests are used to examine the influence of the selected factors on the differences in the index value and corporate disclosure choices as regards the KPIs.

Findings

The study findings indicate that the sample companies provide a variety of non-financial KPIs in a manner that makes their effective comparison difficult. The research confirms that mainly industry, ecologists and the reporting standard determine the significant differences in the quality of the KPIs disclosures and the quantity of presented KPIs.

Research limitations/implications

The paper adds to the understanding of the differences in the quality of KPIs presentation and the choice of disclosed KPIs.

Practical implications

The paper includes suggestions on how to change corporate practice with regard to the non-financial KPIs disclosures.

Originality/value

We shed additional light on the importance of internal contextual factors such as the reporting standard and the reporters' experience in providing non-financial KPIs disclosures.

Details

Journal of Applied Accounting Research, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0967-5426

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 May 2023

P.K. Nandram, A.J. Brouwer and H.P.A.J. Langendijk

This paper aims to investigate whether managers use impression management through the presentation of non-financial information in an integrated reporting setting.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate whether managers use impression management through the presentation of non-financial information in an integrated reporting setting.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors performed an experiment with experienced professional controllers and part-time students enrolled in the executive master’s degree in finance and control at universities in the Netherlands. In this experiment, we manipulated the financial performance to test if managers present non-financial information differently based on the firm’s financial performance.

Findings

This study found that impression management is not applied by including or excluding non-financial key performance indicators (KPIs) in the integrated report, but by using more prominent presentation forms for positive non-financial performance and non-prominent ones for negative non-financial performance. However, the use of impression management through the presentation form decreased when the firms’ financial performance was positive. In that instance, this study noted that managers statistically significantly more often decided to present poor non-financial performance in a prominent presentation format in comparison to managers who were not aware of the financial performance.

Research limitations/implications

A limitation of this paper is that the authors focused on only two impression management strategies: opportunistic/under-reporting and the presentation form. This analysis shows that the use of impression management mainly seems to occur through the presentation format. Future research could investigate other impression management strategies in an integrated reporting setting.

Practical implications

The results of this study are of importance for users of integrated reports, because it will provide more insight into whether firms are truly transparent in their integrated reports. Furthermore, the theoretical implication of this study is relevant to regulatory authorities, because it sheds light on the different forms of impression management used in integrated reporting and the influence of positively or negatively performing KPIs on the decisions of preparers of integrated reports.

Originality/value

Therefore, in this study, the authors add to prior literature by investigating the concept of impression management in an integrated reporting setting. More specifically, the authors perform an experiment and focus on different forms of impression management (the presentation format and under-reporting) through non-financial KPIs in an integrated reporting setting and link it to firm financial performance.

Details

Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1985-2517

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 August 2020

Ozan Okudan, Cenk Budayan and Irem Dikmen

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new conceptual life cycle performance measurement system (PMS) based on stage level key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new conceptual life cycle performance measurement system (PMS) based on stage level key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the performance of build–operate–transfer (BOT) projects.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a literature review to reveal the deficiencies of existing PMSs for public–private partnership (PPP) projects. Based on these deficiencies, four recommendations were proposed for developing a PMS. The validation of these recommendations was performed via focus group discussion sessions conducted with 12 experts. Then, a conceptual framework was developed based on the validated recommendations and the additional recommendations emerged during focus group discussions. Finally, the recommendations proposed by the focus group were tested by a questionnaire survey, the findings of the Friedman test and descriptive analysis validated these recommendations.

Findings

Findings of the focus group discussion, Friedman test and descriptive analysis indicated that the PMS should have four crucial features to develop an efficient, effective and comprehensible PMS for the BOT project. Firstly, non-financial and financial KPIs should be integrated. Secondly, the PMS should be developed as a process-based system with stage level KPIs. The performance of the BOT projects should be monitored and reviewed continuously, however the most important KPIs should be used for continuous performance measurement to increase the applicability of the system and allocate the resources more efficiently.

Research limitations/implications

This survey was conducted on experts who have experience with BOT projects located in Turkey, therefore, judgments of experts might be affected by external factors specific to Turkey such as geopolitical situations, investment environment. However, due to the nature of BOT projects, the experience of experts can also be utilized at the international level.

Originality/value

This is the first time a PMS has been developed to measure the performance of a BOT project. In addition, this system has unique features when compared with the PMS proposed in the literature. Especially, the stage level KPIs and continuous performance measurement with the most important KPIs throughout each stage has never been used. This research provides both public sector and private entities with an insight into effectively measure, control and manage their BOT infrastructure projects' performances throughout their life cycles.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 28 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 November 2020

Loai Ali Zeenalabden Ali Alsaid and Charles Anyeng Ambilichu

This study aims to explore the influence of field-level funding pressure and resource dependency on conflicting institutional logics in implementing a new performance measurement…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the influence of field-level funding pressure and resource dependency on conflicting institutional logics in implementing a new performance measurement system (PMS) within a privatised social enterprise (SE) in a developing country. It answers the research question: how accounting-based key performance indicators (KPIs) were chosen within a privatised SE to maintain co-existence between two different institutional logics, the social and commercial logics, to gain legitimacy in the government funding scheme.

Design/methodology/approach

This study expands the application and contribution of the Besharov and Smith’s (2014) logics multiplicity framework to previous management accounting literature on PMS and institutional logics. It adds a new dimension to previous literature to theorise the cognitive dynamics of institutional logics at three distinct but interrelated institutional levels, namely, field, organisational and individual. Data come from an interpretive case study of an Egyptian SE, involved in implementing a social project (drinking water refining) in rural communities.

Findings

PMS acts as a political tool through which the privatised case company has gained societal acceptance and legitimacy in the government funding scheme. Its non-political KPIs have turned into political tools to meet the institutional demands of the funding scheme. This government involvement represents field-level institutional logics, which influenced the organisational-level interplay of commercial and social logics and then the individual-level choice of internal KPIs. This contributes to the fact that institutional logics and their interplay between these three levels are “in a state of flux” within SEs’ internal PMS.

Originality/value

This study deals with a real-life practical case that proves the prevalence of one institutional logic over another at both the organisational and individual levels may be occasioned by organisational field pressures and opportunities rather than by other intra-organisational conflicts as discussed in most previous literature on PMS and institutional logics.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 January 2023

Loai Ali Zeenalabden Ali Alsaid and Charles Anyeng Ambilichu

This study aims to explore the potential dynamics between performance measurement at the organisational level and emerging urban development projects at the macro-institutional…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the potential dynamics between performance measurement at the organisational level and emerging urban development projects at the macro-institutional field level of sustainability governance and accountability.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a theoretical triangulation between three theories, namely contingency theory, institutional theory and social cognitive theory, this study investigates not only the macro-micro dynamics, but also the (recursive) micro-macro dynamics between performance measurement and urban development. Using an Egyptian public sector urban development organisation and its sustainable energy project as an empirical example, interviews, documents and observations were collected.

Findings

The dynamics emerged between field urban development projects and the (unintended) organisational implementation of the performance measurement system, the sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) reporting system. Contributing to previous literature, these dynamics have been institutionalised through (three) interrelated levels: the (macro-field) urban development contingencies and pressures for sustainability KPIs reporting, the (organisational) institutionalisation of the urban development performance measurement system and then the (micro-organisational) cognitive role of sustainability KPIs reports in (re)making political urban development decisions.

Research limitations/implications

This study faced some limitations that paved the way for future research axes. For political and security reasons, difficulties were encountered in conducting interviews with government actors in the sustainable energy project under study. Also, due to the practical separation of the environmental sustainability system from the sustainability KPIs reporting system in this case study, environmental sustainability is outside the scope.

Practical implications

Sustainability reports may influence public sector decision-making processes in a specific urban development context. These KPIs reports may also increase public sector management opportunities for urban auditing, transparency, accountability and sustainability governance. These KPIs may also guide public sector management to lower prices in poor villages to increase smart energy consumption and improve community health.

Social implications

Sustainability reports may increase decision-makers' understanding of consumer behaviours and societal changes. This may help in making appropriate political decisions to improve their welfare and regular smart energy consumption. Not only urban citizens, but this social advantage may also extend to urban development employees through employees' promotion, training and access to government-funded academic and professional scholarships.

Originality/value

This study is an attempt to develop current public sector performance measurement analyses in the emerging urban development field using a triadic analytical approach. This study also fed the literature with an extended case study that clarified the (multi-level) and (two-way) dynamics between performance measurement and urban development.

Details

Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-1168

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 December 2020

Shahzad Uddin, Boris Popesko, Šárka Papadaki and Jaroslav Wagner

The purpose of this paper aims to make contributions to the debate on “performance measurement in practice” focussing on how organisational participants respond to the “new…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper aims to make contributions to the debate on “performance measurement in practice” focussing on how organisational participants respond to the “new regime” of key performance indicators (KPIs) and whether KPIs materialise as intended in a transitional economy.

Design/methodology/approach

Inspired by the epistemological instruction of Schatzki's practice theory, this paper draws on qualitative data collected through face-to-face interviews, observations and documentary analysis of a single organisation.

Findings

KPIs were introduced at PK (a manufacturing concern in Czech Republic) but widely seen as contradictory, inconsequential, top-down and unrealistic. These lead organisational participants to adopt a pragmatic approach towards PM embracing KPIs' subjective assessment and manipulation, common sense or doing the job as given, and superficial compliance (symbolism).

Research limitations/implications

The paper would be interesting to researchers because of its explanation of performance measurement practice in a distinct empirical setting, for its application of a practice theory inspired by Schatzki, and for inspiring new research agendas in transitional economies.

Practical implications

The paper recommends the mobilisation of artefacts, such as various forms of bottom-up discussions, to encourage interactions between organisational members and influence individual beliefs and practical understandings of the intended managerial projects.

Originality/value

The paper has focussed on “organisations of practice” to unravel the “doings” of organisational participants to explore the micro-processes of PM which otherwise would have been ignored. These “doings” and “sayings”, linked by pools of understanding, rules or instructions, and a teleoaffective structure, enabled the authors to unmask inherent tensions and contradictions in a new regime of performance measures such as KPIs.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 34 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 April 2017

Lawrence T. Corrigan and Daphne Rixon

Electric cooperatives may be seen as an alternative form of organizing in the shadow of investor-owned utilities. They are presumed able to meet financial challenges while…

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Abstract

Purpose

Electric cooperatives may be seen as an alternative form of organizing in the shadow of investor-owned utilities. They are presumed able to meet financial challenges while simultaneously honoring cooperative principles of member-owners. This paper aims to investigate such a balancing act and conceptualize “key performance indicators” (KPIs) as a dramatic accounting discourse.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a dramaturgical approach to cooperative performance accounting, and claims that KPIs are a simplification of a complex and shifting reality which they also socially construct. Data were gathered from annual financial reports and websites of rural electric cooperatives along with semi-structured interviews conducted with senior cooperative officials.

Findings

The cooperatives in this case study reported a huge number of KPIs. However, this paper reveals that the performance indicators serve impression management goals and operational demands rather than reporting on fulfillment of the “Seven Cooperative Principles” that are fundamental to the cooperative movement.

Research limitations/implications

Extant inquiry regarding electric cooperatives tends toward a positivist research approach and a realist worldview. This overlooks dramatic and critical possibilities of KPIs as a management construction project. Expanding beyond mainstream research, this paper calls attention to artistic production of knowledge and applies a qualitative framework to problematize accounting disclosures.

Originality/value

Prior KPI research has often been instrumental, looking for predictive evidence that KPIs have strategic value as a “tool” for organizations to attain competitive advantage. This paper introduces the notion that performance measures are theatrical, and applies this to rural electric cooperatives, an industry mostly ignored in the academic literature.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 July 2021

Sandunika Sasuli Chiranthi Ginthotavidana and Kapugama Geeganage Anuradha Samarajeewa Waidyasekara

The purpose of this study is to develop a customised model to measure the performance of housekeeping (HK) services in Sri Lankan health-care facilities.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop a customised model to measure the performance of housekeeping (HK) services in Sri Lankan health-care facilities.

Design/methodology/approach

An exploratory sequential mixed approach was adopted in the study to collect and analyse data. A case study strategy was adopted in the initial phase to explore the current HK practices, and to determine the applicable key performance indicators (KPIs) found through literature. Semi-structured interviews were used as the data collection method in the selected case studies. A questionnaire survey was conducted in the next phase to verify the validity of case study findings. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics. One sample t-test was used to identify significant KPIs and to formulate the customised performance measurement (PM) model.

Findings

The study identified and ranked 46 KPIs, which can be used to measure the performance of HK divisions of health-care facilities, in balanced scorecard perspectives. The findings also revealed that the KPIs determined using the model have a significant impact on implementing effective health-care HK services and could be used to measure both real and subjective cleanliness.

Practical implications

The developed model can be used for numerous PM requirements in health-care setups in both developing and developed countries. The KPIs determined using this model can be presented in quality audits and government inspections as proof of effective HK management. The HK managers of the health-care sector can effectively monitor the performance of their divisions using the proposed PM model and this model can be customised to match the other facilities management service divisions.

Originality/value

Many studies focus on overall health-care PM. This study expands the knowledge on HK PM in the health-care sector by presenting a collection of performance indicators centred on HK function.

Article
Publication date: 27 July 2021

Prabath Chaminda Abeysiriwardana and Udith Krishantha Jayasinghe-Mudalige

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are in use to determine how and the extent to which the business objectives of an organization are achieved. This paper aims to evaluate the…

Abstract

Purpose

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are in use to determine how and the extent to which the business objectives of an organization are achieved. This paper aims to evaluate the contribution of a research institute in terms of KPIs to support its process of decision-making towards, etc., innovation, sustainability and improvement.

Design/methodology/approach

In light of this, a systemic review was conducted on a set of relevant scholarly studies to identify the trends which shed light on the possible critical success factors to be effectively used in research institutes in association with the development of commercial agriculture. It examines whether, and if so how KPIs that are highly associated with those critical success factors are disruptive in research culture in an institute with certain organization design to promote research on innovative commercial agriculture.

Findings

The study highlighted some important aspects of commercial agriculture that showed strong links with possible critical success factors that could be used to develop a possible KPI set for a research institute. The salient features in a model performance management system with such KPIs of a research institute having strategical contribution for commercial agriculture are further elaborated.

Originality/value

This manuscript is a conceptual piece that advocates research institutes geared towards commercial agriculture development to begin using KPIs as part of research culture to evaluate their success. The paper suggests that commercial agriculture – perhaps, especially in developing countries – faces many challenges and using KPIs could help diagnose when and why essential processes break down. This study shows possible avenues of KPI use in research institutes that have not been very well discussed or discussed meagerly that have high potential to be integrated into successful KPIs towards innovative commercial agriculture.

Details

Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4620

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 March 2013

Ayon Chakraborty and Michael Leyer

Six Sigma is considered to be an important management philosophy to obtain satisfied customers, but financial service organisations have been slow to adopt Six Sigma issues so…

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Abstract

Purpose

Six Sigma is considered to be an important management philosophy to obtain satisfied customers, but financial service organisations have been slow to adopt Six Sigma issues so far. Despite the extensive effort that has been invested and benefits that can be obtained, the systematic implementation of Six Sigma in financial service organisations is limited. As a companywide implementation framework is missing so far, the purpose of this paper is to fill this gap.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a conceptual framework derived from literature and evaluated by experts, with a focus on financial services.

Findings

The results show that it is very important to link Six Sigma with the strategic as well as the operations level. Furthermore, although Six Sigma is a very important method for improving quality of processes, others such as Lean Management are also used. This requires a superior project portfolio management to coordinate resources and projects of Six Sigma with the other methods used.

Research limitations/implications

The developed framework provides a new contribution to the theory of applying Six Sigma in financial service institutions.

Practical implications

Beside the theoretical contribution, the framework can be used by financial service companies to evaluate their Six Sigma activities. Thus, the framework grounded through literature and empirical data will be a useful guide for sustainable and successful implementation of a Six Sigma initiative in financial service organisations.

Originality/value

The paper contributes, by empirical research through expert interviews, to develop a Six Sigma implementation framework for financial institutions.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 30 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

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