An Investigation of the Placing and Timing of Financial
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Transcript An Investigation of the Placing and Timing of Financial
Reconceptulising Accounting
and its Connections to Strategy
Wai Fong Chua
University of New South Wales
Aim
To reconceptualise how we
research accounting and its
connections to strategy.
Accounting, Measuring, Reporting and Strategizing
– Re-Using Verbs
Accounting – verb or noun?
Over-emphasis on noun form.
Strategy – verb or noun?
Over-emphasis on noun.
What is wrong with the over-emphasis on nouns?
Accounting and strategy become black boxes.
We ignore an analysis of:
Activities.
Connections between activities.
Connections among activities.
Connections among actors, actants in particular space-times.
Multiple translations and transformations of accounting and
strategy.
We ignore accounting and strategising.
What does it mean to study accounting/strategy
as verbs?
Accounting / Strategy
Mediator
↓
Active
Translator
Transformer
Mediated
Activities
Translated
Activities
Localizing the global
(Latour 2005).
Redistribute the local
(Latour 2005).
Connecting sites and
time.
Globalising the local.
What does it mean to study accounting/strategy as
verbs?
The enactment of strategy is:
A constant
A fluid
movement; circulates in networks.
translation and re-translation.
Occurs in multiple sets and times.
Is mediated by numerous actors (human and non-human),
texts, numbers.
Research Design and Methods
Localising the global co-product
The field study
OzCom
The
Major telecommunications carrier
Incorporated in Australia in 1991
Large capital investments in early years averaging
AUD$600 million per annum
Market capitalization of AUD$20 billion (as at 2000)
alliance: OzCom Infrastructure
OzCom, Atlantic, EuroCom, Suppliers A and B
Research Design and Methods
Data collection
Approximate Period Covered
Length of Time
Interviews
Meetings and Presentations attended
Observation Days (ranging from ½ day to full day)
Documents
October 1997 - December 1999
26 Months
27
61
28
##
Data Analysis
NUDIST
Strauss and Corbin’s coding framework
Network of Relationships in OzCom Infrastructure
OzCom Infrastructure
EuroCom
Global Prices
OzCom
Finance
Engineering
‘Inadequate’ Forecasting Technology
Procurement
Government
Atlantic
License
80% Australian Content
Ready-made Technology
Accounting
Technologies
Project Milestones
BPIs
Price Schedules
Cost Experiments
Suppliers
Benchmarking
Buyer
Group
Market
Demand
Benchmarking
More Expertise
Ready-made Prices
80% Australian Content
Local Support
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net
The formative years
Building
An
a telecommunication network
“Ready-made” technology
“Value generating” partners
“Ready-made” prices
attempt to manage: “time is the essence”
Cost
Project milestones measure
Privileging time over cost
overruns
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
Designing two control frameworks
Fixed price schedules
Business performance indices (BPIs)
Idiosyncratic
failure”
interpretation of “value” and “BPI
Ambiguities
Asymmetries
Control
conflict
frameworks as sources of controversy and
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
Devising accounting control measures
Cost per subscriber measure
Focusing
on committed/capacity cost
Total
cost does not matter! Cost per subscriber will
control costs
“Low
success” with the cost per subscriber measure
Growth in the subscriber base
Inadequate sales forecasting system
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
Operation break-even (OBE) measure
Focusing
on committed cost and “network support
cost”
Struggles
to define OBE
Inviting suppliers to craft a measure
Accessing vital commercially-sensitive data
Cooperation??
Abandoning
OBE
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
Incentive scheme and budget constraints
Recasting
the cost problem as an incentive problem
Segregating ‘total’ cost into:
Linking
“network support costs”, and
“other network costs”
payment for “network support costs” to BPIs
Weak diagnostic capacity
Ambiguity
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
Incentive scheme and budget constraints (Cont’d)
Imposing
budget constraints on “other network costs”
Asymmetrical distribution of knowledge
Growth in market demand for ICT
BPIs and total spend to supply managers’
compensation
Linking
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
Enlisting the support of allies
“Internal”
support
Engineering vs. Finance
“International
user group”
Benchmarking
EuroCom
Negotiating “global prices”
Theorizing the empirics
Localizing the Global
Embedding a ‘strategic alliance’ in local action.
Redistributing the local
The unseen presence of EuroCom, Atlantic
Diverse actors
Struggles over accounting
Remaking of accounting
Remaking of strategic alliance.
Connecting sites and times
Atlantic, EuroCom. Then and now.
Globalizing the local?