Smart city dynamics and multi-level management accounting: unfolding a case of sustainable enterprise resource planning

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Loai Ali Zeenalabden Ali Alsaid
Keyword(s):  
Enterprise Resource Planning ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Resource Planning ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Institutional Dynamics ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Management Accounting System

Purpose This study aims to explore the complex, multi-level institutional dynamics of smart city reforms and projects and their potential sustainability pressures on the implementation of a management accounting system in an Egyptian state-owned enterprise (SOE), which has a politically sensitive institutional character. Design/methodology/approach This study adds to institutional management accounting research using a multi-level perspective of institutional dynamics in the smart city context. Data were collected from an interpretive case study of an Egyptian SOE that was under socio-political sustainability pressures to implement a smart electricity network project in New Minya city. Findings Smart city projects have formed social and political sustainability pressures, which introduced the enterprise resource planning (ERP) network as a new management accounting system. A new (complex and multi-level) management accounting system was invented to reinvent the sustainable city as an “accounting city” (which appeared rhetorically as a “smart city”). “Smart” being the visibility and measurability of the sustainability performance of the collective body, which calls the city and its connectivity to different institutional levels brought out in a city network project for the ERP-enabled electricity distribution. Research limitations/implications This study examines a single case study from a single smart city and identifies the accounting community’s need for multiple and comparative case studies to further analyse the potential impact of smart city reforms and projects on the sustainable implementation of management accounting systems. Practical implications City policymakers and managers may benefit from the practical findings of this interpretive field-based case study in planning, implementing and monitoring smart city projects and objectives. Social implications Individual and collective well-being may be enhanced through new management accounting forms of multi-level local governance and increased political, field and organisational sustainability. Originality/value This study provides important insights into the sustainability dynamics of management accounting in achieving smart city reforms. The achievement of sustainability management accounting systems has connected to multiple ERP roles at different institutional levels, which resulted in accommodating the socio-political objectives of smart city projects.

Beyond Budgeting and change: a case study

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Sandalgaard ◽  
Per Nikolaj Bukh
Keyword(s):  
Management Accounting ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Global Company ◽  
Made In ◽  
Management Accounting System

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate reasons for going Beyond Budgeting and the practical issues organizations face when they change their management accounting system based on inspiration from the Beyond Budgeting model. Design/methodology/approach – The authors apply a case study approach. The primary data source is interviews. The case company is a global company in the agri-food industry that is organized as a cooperative. Findings – The authors propose that many organizations that change their management accounting system on the basis of inspiration from Beyond Budgeting will maintain fixed budget targets. Furthermore, the authors propose that even when the use of budgets at the corporate level focuses on few line items, the diagnostic use of budgeting at lower levels in the organization may focus on a larger number of line items. Research limitations/implications – The study is subject to the usual limitations of case-based research. The propositions made in the paper should be further investigated in other organizations attempting to change their management accounting system with inspiration from Beyond Budgeting. Practical implications – This study shows that the lack of internal benchmarks and the need to deliver the expected results to the company’s owners might hinder the implementation of the Beyond Budgeting model as described in the practitioner-based Beyond Budgeting literature. Originality/value – The paper is one of the few case studies in the academic literature to analyze the practical issues organizations face when changing their way of budgeting on the basis of inspiration from Beyond Budgeting.

Performance measurement in smart city governance: a case study of an Egyptian city council

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Loai Ali Zeenalabden Ali Alsaid
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
City Council ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Measurement Systems ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
City Governance ◽  
Performance Measurement Systems

PurposeThis study seeks to explore the powerful role(s) of institutionalised performance measurement systems or metrics in smart city governance in a politically and militarily sensitive developing country.Design/methodology/approachThis study extends the application and contribution of a multi-level institutional framework to previous management accounting literature on the potential relationship between performance measurement and smart city governance. The value of utilising a multi-level framework is to broaden and deepen theoretical analyses about this relationship to include the effect of political pressure from the military regime at the macro level on the institutionalisation of a performance measurement system at the micro-organisational level. Taking the New Cairo city council smart electricity networks project (Egypt) as an interpretive qualitative single-case study, data collection methods included semi-structured interviews, direct observations and documentary readings.FindingsPerformance measurement systems or metrics, especially in politically and militarily sensitive smart cities, constitutes a process of cascading (macro-micro) institutionalisation that is closely linked to sustainable developments taking place in the wider arena of urban policies. Going a step further, accounting-based performance metrics, arising from political and military pressures towards public-private collaborations, contribute to smart city management and accountability (governance). Institutionalised measurement systems or performance metrics play a powerful accounting role(s) in shaping and reshaping political decisions and military actions in the city council.Originality/valueTheoretically, this study goes beyond the cascading institutionalisation process by arguing for the powerful role(s) of institutionalised accounting and performance measurement systems in smart city decision-making and governance. Empirically, it enriches previous literature with a case study of a developing Arab Spring country, characterised by an emerging economy, political sensitivity and military engagement, rather than developed and more stable countries that have been thoroughly investigated. It is also among the first politically engaged accounting case studies to highlight public-private collaborations as a recent reform in public sector governance and accountability.

Corporate survival in Industry 4.0 era: the enabling role of lean-digitized manufacturing

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morteza Ghobakhloo ◽  
Masood Fathi
Keyword(s):  
Enterprise Resource Planning ◽  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Manufacturing System ◽  
Resource Planning ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Manufacturing Firm ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how small manufacturing firms can leverage their Information Technology (IT) resources to develop the lean-digitized manufacturing system that offers sustained competitiveness in the Industry 4.0 era. Design/methodology/approach The study performs an in-depth five years case study of a manufacturing firm, and reports its journey from failure in the implementation of enterprise resource planning to its success in integrating IT-based technology trends of Industry 4.0 with the firm’s core capabilities and competencies while pursuing manufacturing digitization. Findings Industry 4.0 transition requires the organizational integration of many IT-based modern technologies and the digitization of entire value chains. However, Industry 4.0 transition for smaller manufacturers can begin with digitization of certain areas of operations in support of organizational core strategies. The development of lean-digitized manufacturing system is a viable business strategy for corporate survivability in the Industry 4.0 setting. Research limitations/implications Although the implementation of lean-digitized manufacturing system is costly and challenging, this manufacturing strategy offers superior corporate competitiveness in the long run. Since this finding is rather limited to the present case study, assessing the business value of lean-digitized manufacturing system in a larger scale research context would be an interesting avenue for future research. Practical implications Industry 4.0 transition for typical manufacturers should commensurate with their organizational, operational and technical particularities. Digitization of certain operations and processes, when aligned with the firm’s core strategies, capabilities and procedures, can offer superior competitiveness even in Industry 4.0 era, meaning that the strategic plan for successful Industry 4.0 transition is idiosyncratic to each particular manufacturer. Social implications Manufacturing digitization can have deep social implications as it alters inter- and intra-organizational relationships, causes unemployment among low-skilled workforce, and raises data security and privacy concerns. Manufacturers should take responsibility for their digitization process and steer it in a direction that simultaneously safeguards economic, social and environmental sustainability. Originality/value The strategic roadmap devised and employed by the case company for managing its digitization process can better reveal what manufacturing digitization, mandated by Industry 4.0, might require of typical manufacturers, and further enable them to better facilitate their digital transformation process.

A practical integrated solution into enterprise application: a large-scale quality control system development case study

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vahid Hajipour ◽  
Hamidreza Amouzegar ◽  
Sajjad Jalali
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Enterprise Resource Planning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Resource Planning ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Units ◽  
Functional Units

PurposeEnterprise resource planning (ERP) offers a streamlined system architecture to feed businesses with beneficial information in the current intense global competition. The primary concern of ERP is how to integrate different functional units to facilitate a unified flow of information. This paper aims at providing a non-trivial practice of integrating the quality control (QC) system into the core ERP processes of a real large-scaled case study.Design/methodology/approachTo satisfy the purpose of the current study, a large-scale steel making holding, inclusive of 27 business units being dispersed over a wide area, has been targeted. In our research methodology, a sample of four business units is selected as the pilot cases to be investigated at first. The output results of such investigations are further extended to the other units. In light of the investigation, the existing QC working conditions of the pilot cases are assessed through the As-Is model. The To-Be models are derived based on the best practices and the integration scope is then bordered.FindingsThe findings show that the integrated QC solution has enabled the following features: the smooth interconnection between QC and other functional units like purchase and manufacturing, the ease of generating real-time performance report of QC unit, the sack of tracing the quality of any available item in the system and the root-cause of defects, and the straightforwardness of the qualitative assessment of the suppliers.Research limitations/implicationsThere is almost no similar practice for designing a large-sized integrated system from scratch in the target region associated with our case study while the off-the-shelf products are prohibitively expensive.Practical implicationsThis paper includes implications for providing a standard practice on integrating a substantial module of ERP down to the smallest detail.Originality/valueThe value of the current paper is associated with fulfilling a critical research gap in the context of studying the QC integration into an enterprise solution. In fact, despite the importance of the QC module and its plethora of interconnection with other functional units, the literature review shows a centric lack of considering such integration in a real case study, particularly the large-scale one. Further, this paper works as a valuable study in the literature owing to not only focusing on the design and development of an integrated QC solution but also considering the deployment facet of such a practice.

scholarly journals The management accounting system oriented to university management – a case study

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (101 (157)) ◽  
pp. 61-78
Author(s):  
Jacek Kalinowski
Keyword(s):  
Management Accounting ◽  
Significant Rise ◽  
Readiness For Change ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
University Management ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
The University ◽  
Management Accounting System

Readiness for change is currently one of the most critical challenges that universities, and the people managing them, face today. The effect of this is a significant rise in the demand for financial and nonfinancial information about the management processes of universities. In this context, a suitably adapted management accounting system whose task is to provide such details becomes the fundamental element necessary for the effective management of the university. The article aims to analyze the suitability of the management accounting system for the management of a higher education system on the example of the solution applied at the University of Lodz. Five qualitative research methods were used for its implementation: a literature analysis, participant observation, free interviews, structured interviews, and a case study. The article presents the key users’ opinions of the system on its usefulness in daily work, and it enumerates the benefits obtained by the University of Łódź thanks to the use of the system. It allowed us to formulate a conclusion about the applicability of this solution as an example of the creation of similar management accounting systems in other universities.

A novel model to implement ERP based on dynamic capabilities

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 1053-1068 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsung-Sheng Chang ◽  
Hsin-Pin Fu ◽  
Cheng-Yuan Ku
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Learning ◽  
Integrated Circuits ◽  
Enterprise Resource Planning ◽  
Dynamic Capabilities ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Resource Planning ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Implementation Model ◽  
Coordination System

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose an implementation model for enterprise resource planning (ERP) based on resource-based view, and using the dynamic capability theory as its theoretical foundation. This model includes: the establishment of the objectives of the implementation, an assessment of the available resources and the scope of the implementation, the redesign/integration and organizational learning during the process, the implementation of the system, and the measurement and evaluation of its performance. Design/methodology/approach – An integrated circuits design company in Taiwan was used in a case study to examine the validity of the proposed model. Findings – When the proposed ERP implementation model was applied in this study, the results show that organizational coordination, system-process redesign and integration, and organizational learning are the critical strategies for enterprises, in order to reduce the risks during the implementation of ERP projects. Practical implications – This model can help enterprises recognize the resources needed when implementing an ERP. In addition, they need to consider the reliability of these resources, as this will increase the efficiency of the implementation, and thus the probability of success. Originality/value – Studies of past models in the implementation of ERP have been conducted in various industries. There is a need for further studies that evaluate the different concepts in terms of the effectiveness of specific methods, in order to enhance the probability of successfully implementing a dynamic system. This paper is one of the first to explain how an enterprise can implement an ERP that is based on the theory of dynamic capabilities. The case study illustrates the important, critical success factors.

scholarly journals The effectiveness of management accounting systems in SMEs: a multidimensional measurement approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-515
Author(s):  
Elsa Pedroso ◽  
Carlos F. Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Management Accounting ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Chief Financial Officers ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
Accounting Systems ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Accounting Systems ◽  
Order Construct ◽  
Information Characteristics ◽  
Management Accounting System

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present and validate a multidimensional approach to measure the effectiveness of management accounting systems.Design/methodology/approachBased on an extensive literature review, the most appropriate information dimensions were identified. To validate the multidimensional tool, survey data were obtained from 284 chief financial officers of Portuguese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A structural equation model, evaluating the influence on the managerial performance, was used to verify the nomological validity of this new construct.FindingsThe results of this study suggest that the effectiveness of management accounting systems can be measured using a second-order construct. This construct includes 14 items, covering four dimensions of the management information characteristics.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough contributing to the advancement of knowledge, it is, however, limited to the Portuguese organizational environment and culture. Therefore, further studies should be carried out in other organizational contexts and cultures, to test and validate this multidimensional tool.Practical implicationsThe multidimensional tool presented and validated in this study can be used by executives of SMEs for assessing the effectiveness of their management accounting systems, which can help to improve SMEs' performance measurement and benchmarking processes.Originality/valueOn the best of our knowledge, this is the first study wherein the management accounting system is modeled as a second-order construct from the perspective of multidimensional information characteristics. This second-order approach recognizes the contribution and retains the distinctive nature of each first-order construct, representing the management accounting system. This multidimensional construct could be very important for future research by allowing to capture synergies resulting from the balanced development of its four information dimensions, and consequently, offer new contributions to management accounting knowledge.

Organization development through ad hoc problem solving

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davar Rezania ◽  
Noufou Ouedraogo
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Enterprise Resource Planning ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Resource Planning ◽  
Erp Implementation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Knowledge Resources ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to study the ad hoc problem of developing capabilities for knowledge transfer between various constituencies of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation project. The paper studies how an ERP project develops ability to network, link, and integrate its various knowledge resources over time. Design/methodology/approach – The paper conducted a case study of an ERP project, from its initiation in 2008 to its completion in 2011. Findings – The case demonstrates the dynamics of development of knowledge transfer capacities through ad hoc problem solving. The paper identifies five mechanisms used in this case for the development of knowledge transfer capacities. Practical implications – Ad hoc problem solving mechanisms demonstrated in this paper can be intentionally planned and utilized in similar projects to enable interaction, integration, and institutionalization. Originality/value – Even though ad hoc problem solving as a model for change is prevalent in many organizations, studies of ad hoc problem solving capabilities as a mechanism for change are not extensive. This case describes ad hoc mechanisms that foster change and development of knowledge transfer capacities during large IT project implementations.

Trustworthiness of digital records in government accounting system to support the audit process in Botswana

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olefhile Mosweu ◽  
Mpho Ngoepe
Keyword(s):  
Enterprise Resource Planning ◽  
Resource Planning ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
Audit Process ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Record Keeping ◽  
Erp System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Government Accounting ◽  
The Government

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore how the trustworthiness of digital records generated in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system known as the government accounting and budgeting system (GABS) is maintained to support the audit process in the public sector of Botswana. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study used modern archival diplomatics as a theoretical framework to examine the procedures for authenticating digital accounting records in GABS to support the audit process in Botswana. Data were collected through interviews and documentary reviews. Findings The study established that although GABS is not a record-keeping system, it generates digital records. In the absence of procedures, auditors rely on social and technical indicators (system application controls) to authenticate records. Research limitations/implications The findings of the study are limited to the case study and cannot be generalised to other organisations. Practical implications The findings of the study can inform the necessary measures that can be taken to ensure that digital records generated in ERPs are maintained authentic to support financial auditing processes. In addition, the paper also presents differing approaches by records managers, auditors and information technology specialists to evaluate the authenticity of records in digital systems, thus contributing to the literature about professional allies and competitors to archivists and records managers. Originality/value This paper provides empirical evidence from an original study.

Advantages and disadvantages of developing an enterprise resource planning to manage quality in an accredited reality. COSMOB S.p.A case study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Bravi ◽  
Federica Murmura ◽  
Gilberto Santos ◽  
Luca Tomassini ◽  
Alessio Gnaccarini
Keyword(s):  
Enterprise Resource Planning ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Conceptual Development ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Resource Planning ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Integrated Software

Purpose This study aims to analyze the innovations introduced, with reference to enterprise resource planning, in the Italian wood–furniture sector, focusing attention on the COSMOB S.p.A. case study, identifying how this small company tried to exploit the advantages offered by the introduction of new digital technologies to remain competitive in the context of the accredited Test Laboratories in the furniture industry. Design/methodology/approach The research has been developed with a qualitative approach. The study is a conceptual development and it uses exploratory interviews to create a single case study of COSMOB. The case study was developed with the realization by the researcher of a long period of support to the company’s Quality Manager, and periodic bi-monthly interviews for an update of their perceptions on the development of the activity. Findings The need for rapid decision-making processes, the management of high volumes of data and the need for inter- and intra-organizational connection had a critical relief in company’s decision to adopt the integrated software. As for the main problems related to its adoption, these were the duration of the implementation of the operation, the complexity of the system and its limited adaptability. Originality/value The value of the paper relies on the development of an in-depth company case study, where the researcher supported the implementation of the system for the entire activity, obtaining therefore, a qualitative base of information that cannot be obtained through limited interviews.

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