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Relative levels of task uncertainty associated with various CPA firm services were examined in this study. Additionally, tests to determine whether systematic variation occurs at the office or at the firm level were conducted. Multiple measures of task uncertainty were developed. Multiple analysis of variance techniques were used to analyze data drawn from audit, tax, actuarial and benefits consulting, and general business consulting engagements. Data was drawn from two office of one Big Six CPA firm. As expected, after comparing audit and tax engagements from two office, the null hypothesis that there was no difference in task uncertainty levels between offices on either service type could not be rejected. The null hypothesis that no difference in levels of task uncertainty between the four service types exist was rejected. This result was also consistent with expectations. These findings provide empirical support for an assumption made by previous researchers that the individual firm is the appropriate level for analysis. Additionally, results suggest that, at the firm level, differences in levels of task uncertainty do exist. In general, audit and tax services appear to involve lower levels of task uncertainty than do consulting services; however, it should be noted that significant differences also existed between consulting services. The implications of these results for future research are that the firm appears to be the appropriate organizational level for examining research questions related to CPA firms. Also, consulting services need to be considered not as one service type, but potentially as distinct from one another. Future research involving other Big six firms as well as second and third-tier firms could lead to greater generalizability of these results / Ph. D.

Yes / We explore the process of professionalization pre- and post-buyout (MBO) or buyin (MBI) of former private family firms using longitudinal evidence from six UK family firms undergoing an MBO/I in 1998. Professionalization behaviour was monitored up to 2014. Previous studies have conceptualized professionalization as a threshold to be attained. We demonstrate that professionalization is a complex process occurring in waves, triggered by changes in firm ownership and management. Waves of professionalization converge during the MBO/I process. Buyouts provide a funnelling mechanism enabling diverse control systems to be standardized. Post-MBO/I, divergence in the professionalization process reoccurs contingent on firm-specific contexts. Professionalization focuses on operations when stewardship relationships predominate, but on agency control mechanisms when there is increased potential for agency costs. Buyout organizational form is an important transitory phase facilitating the professionalization process. Professionalization is not a once-for-all development stage.

Yes / We explore the process of professionalization pre- and post- buyout (MBO) or buyin (MBI) of former private family firms using longitudinal evidence from six UK family firms undergoing an MBO/I in 1998. Professionalization behaviour was monitored up to 2014. Previous studies have conceptualized professionalization as a threshold to be attained. We demonstrate that professionalization is a complex process occurring in waves, triggered by changes in firm ownership and management. Waves of professionalization converge during the MBO/I process. Buyouts provide a funnelling mechanism enabling diverse control systems to be standardized. Post-MBO/I, divergence in the professionalization process reoccurs contingent on firm-specific contexts. Professionalization focuses on operations when stewardship relationships predominate, but on agency control mechanisms when there is increased potential for agency costs. Buyout organizational form is an important transitory phase facilitating the professionalization process. Professionalization is not a once for all development stage. / The Enterprise Research Centre is an independent research centre which focusses on SME growth and productivity. ERC is a partnership between Warwick Business School, Aston Business School, Imperial College Business School, Strathclyde Business School and Birmingham Business School. The Centre is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS); Innovate UK; and, through the British Bankers Association (BBA), by the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC; HSBC Bank PLC; Barclays Bank PLC and Lloyds Bank PLC. The support of the funders is acknowledged. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the funders.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Management consulting refers to the area of intervention, which is assistance to entrepreneurs, managers and other decision-makers in business management and the public sector. The study will cover the area of management consulting and the primary focus of this study is companies presently doing business as Management Consulting firms with a global presence. The study excludes software vendors and management consulting firms that specialise only in implementing computer software systems like Oracle, SAP, etcetera. There are a great number of firms offering management consulting among other services like auditing for example. Prominent among these are the major accounting firms namely Ernst and Young, Deloitte Consulting, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Arthur Andersen. They form part of this study. Marketing has become a more critical need than ever and it has become an important and influential factor in building and maintaining a profitable enterprise. The marketing of a product and or service is very important and the question can be posed whether management consulting firms have clear marketing strategies and tactics, or whether they stumbled onto their success in attracting clients per chance. The purpose of this study is to identify existing marketing strategies and tactics being used by management consulting firms. The objective is to determine the nature of the compilation of a structured framework for an effective standardised marketing strategy plan. The problem statement is the following: "How can marketing strategies and tactics for management consulting firms be used as an effective marketing tool to attract business for the consulting firm?" The greatest problem concerning this study is the fact that minimal research and literature has been directly compiled on thé topic. It was therefore a study on opinions, viewpoints, books in general on the topic of marketing as well as the daily media was researched to determine and evaluate possible existing marketing strategies and tactics. Since the field of marketing strategies and tactics for management consulting services and firms is relatively new, the exploratory research approach was used. Chapter 1 deals with the purpose, objective, problem statement and research methodology. Chapter 2 involves a literature study to define the term and scope of management consulting, and an overview of the management consulting process is given. Chapters 3 identifies and evaluates the existing marketing strategies and tactics of management consulting firms. Chapter 4 explores differentiation based on service and skills as well as industry specialisation. The question that needs to be answered is whether management consulting firms should be specialists or generalists. Chapter 5 addresses pricing. The different approaches to costing and fee setting are discussed. The study is completed in chapter 6 with conclusions and recommendations. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Bestuurs konsultasie verwys na die area van intervensie waar hulp aan entrepreneurs, bestuurders en ander besluitnemers in die private en publieke sektor verleen word. Hiedie studie dek die area van bestuurs konsultasie en die primêre fokus van die studie is firmas wat tans konsultasie firmas bedryf met 'n internasionale teenwoordigheid. Hierdie navorsings verslag fokus op die bemarkings taktiek en strategieë van bestuurs konsultasie firmas. Die studie sluit sagteware firmas en bestuurs konsultasie firmas uit wat uitsluitlik spesialiseer in die implementering en instandhouding van rekenaar sagteware. Voorbeelde van sulke firmas is Oracle en SAP. Daar is 'n groot aantal firmas wat bestuurs konsultasie saam met ander dienste soos byvoorbeeld ouditering aanbied. Prominent onder hierdie groep is Ernst and Young, Deloitte Consulting, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Arthur Andersen. Hulle vorm deel van hierdie studie. Bemarking van die diens word al hoe meer belangriker as ooit en dit is 'n kritiese faktor om 'n winsgewende firma te bedryf. Die bemarking van 'n produk of diens is baie belangrik en die vraag kan gevra word of bestuurs konsultasie firmas uitgewerkte bemarking strategieë en taktiek het om kliënte te werf, en of hulle per toeval daarin slaag om besigheid te kry. Die doel van hierdie studie is om bestaande bemarkingstrategieë en-taktiek wat deur bestuurskonsultasie firmas gebruik word, te evalueer. Die doelwit is om die aard van die gestruktureerde raamwerk vir 'n effektiewe gestandardiseerde bemarkingsplan te bepaal. Die probleem stelling is as volg: "Hoe kan bemarkings taktiek en strategieë vir bestuurskonsultasie firmas gebruik word as 'n effektiewe bemarkingsmiddel ten einde besigheid vir die konsultasie firma te lok?" 'n Groot probleem is dat minimale navorsing en literatuur aangaande die onderwerp opgestel is. Dit gaan dus 'n studie wees van opinies, standpunte, asook boeke in die algemeen oor die onderwerp bemarking. Die daaglikse media gaan ook nagevors word om die moontlikheid van bemarkingstartegiëe en taktiek te bepaal. Aangesien die veld van bemarkingtaktiek en -strategiëe vir bestuurskonsultasie firmas redelik nuut is, gaan die eksploratiewe navorsings metode gebruik word. Hoofstuk 1 behandel die doel, doelwit, probleemstelling en navorsingsmetodologie. Hoofstuk 2 dek 'n literatuurstudie aangaande die aard en omvang van bestuurs konsultasie, asook 'n oorsig van die bestuurs konsultasie proses. Hoofstuk 3 identifiseer en evalueer die bestaande bemarkingstrategiëe en taktiek van bestuurs konsultasie firmas. Hoofstuk 4 ondersoek differensiasie gebaseer op diens en bevoegdhede sowel as industrie spesialisasie. Die vraag wat beantwoord moet word is of bestuurs konsultasie firmas slegs in een veld moet spesialiseer en of hulle 'n meerdoellige fokus moet hê. Hoofstuk 5 spreek prys aan. Die verskillende benaderings tot prys en koste word bespreek. Die studie word afgesluit in hoofstuk 6 met 'n samevatting en aanbevelings.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Geography / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This paper tests the notion that private firms are more tax aggressive than public firms. Tax avoidance measures, e.g. effective tax rates, cannot be used to compare private and public firms when private and public firms have different levels of importance on financial accounting earnings (Hanlon and Heitzman 2010). To disentangle financial reporting incentives from tax aggressiveness, I use the fact that European groups must prepare two sets of financial statements: first, group statements (consolidated), which provide information to investors, and, second, individual statements (unconsolidated), which are used for legal purposes, but not to inform investors. Since in individual statements financial reporting incentives do not vary between public and private firms, I use these effective tax rates to compare private and public firms. My findings show that public, not private, firms are more tax aggressive, as the effective tax rates of public firms are lower in individual and group statements. (author's abstract) / Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Series

Family firms the most common form of business in the world and the academic interest around them has grown significantly over the past decades. When a company is experiencing financial growth their information needs increases and they are encouraged to draw up plans to cover the information need. Previous studies on the subject have pointed out that the research on formal plans in family firms is incomplete in many areas. The research that has been done indicates that planning is not a priority in small family firms for various reasons and that the planning carried out is largely informal. Whether family firms implement more planning practices as they increase in size is haven’t been tested in qualitative research. The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how small family firms in Skaraborg change their use of formal plans when they are experiencing a period of financial growth and if the growth of the family firm is affected by it being planned or not. To answer this, we have selected 13 formal planning practices that we have studied the presence of in our case companies and if there was any change in the use of these practices over their most recent growth period. The study was conducted with a qualitative research method where data collection has been in the form of semi-structured interviews. This is to increase our ability to create a deeper understanding of our selected area of research. The results of the study have shown that small growing family firms perform few changes in their planning practices. We have not been able to demonstrate in the context of this study that financial growth increased the use of formal planning practices in family firms in Skaraborg. Our conclusion of this study is that if small growing family firms are going to change their use of formal planning and benefit from it, it is not enough to rely on external help for this. Instead these companies should focus their resources on educating current management staff in the use of formal planning practices and the difficulties that arises along financial growth to see the connection between the two. Just because financial growth increases the need for information that doesn’t mean that any planning to cover the information need will be implemented. A leader in the enterprise must discover the need and choose to use a planning practice to cover it. / Familjeföretag är den företagsform som är vanligast i världen och det akademiska intresset kring dessa har ökat markant under de senaste decennierna. När ett företag upplever tillväxt ökar deras informationsbehov och de uppmanas att upprätta planeringar för att hantera informationsbehovet. Tidigare studier inom ämnet har tryckt på att forskningen kring formella planeringar i familjeföretag på många områden är ofullständig. Den forskning som är gjord tyder på att planering inte är prioriterat i mindre familjeföretag av olika anledningar och att den planering som utförs är informell till stor del. Huruvida familjeföretag implementerar fler planeringspraktiker när de ökar i storlek saknas det dock kvalitativ forskning om. Syftet med denna studie är att öka förståelsen för hur små familjeföretag i Skaraborg ändrar nyttjandet av deras formella planeringar när de upplever en tillväxtperiod och om tillväxten i ett familjeföretag påverkas om den är planerad eller ej. För att besvara detta har vi valt ut 13 formella planeringspraktiker som vi studerat förekomsten av i våra fallföretag och om det skedde någon förändring i användningen av dessa över deras senaste tillväxtperiod. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod där datainsamlingen har skett i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Detta för att öka våra möjligheter att skapa en djupare förståelse kring vårt valda undersökningsområde. Studiens resultat har påvisat att små växande familjeföretag utför få förändringar i deras planeringspraktiker. Vi har därför inte kunnat påvisa inom ramen för denna studie att tillväxt ökar användningen av formella planeringspraktiker i familjeföretag i Skaraborg. Vår slutsats i studien är att om små växande familjeföretag ska förändra deras användning av formella planeringar och ha nytta av dem är det inte tillräckligt att anlita extern hjälp för detta. Istället bör dessa företag fokusera resurser på att utbilda nuvarande ledningspersonal i användningen av formella planeringspraktiker och svårigheter som uppkommer med tillväxt för att de ska se kopplingen mellan dessa. Bara för att tillväxt ökar informationsbehovet implementeras ingen planering för att täcka det, en ledare i företaget måste upptäcka behovet och välja att använda sig av planeringar för att täcka det.

Este trabalho de pesquisa objetivou investigar os determinantes do caixa das companhias brasileiras a partir de uma inédita amostra pareada de empresas de capital aberto e fechado. Mais do que explorar as principais vertentes teóricas que tentam explicar os fatores que influenciam a gestão das reservas de caixa, analisou-se conjuntamente os impactos das fricções financeiras e dos custos de agência sobre o nível de caixa, particularmente. Nesse contexto, buscou-se explorar a política de caixa em uma economia emergente como o Brasil, cujo ambiente legal e sistema financeiro ainda não estão plenamente consolidados. Além disso, estudou-se a influência da concentração da propriedade acionária sobre o caixa, assim como a velocidade com que as firmas ajustam seu nível de caixa em direção ao nível alvo em diversas situações. Os principais resultados encontrados apontaram que no período analisado as companhias de capital aberto apresentaram um nível de caixa significativamente superior ao das companhias de capital fechado, isto é, evidenciaram que os efeitos do problema de agência sobre a liquidez corporativa são mais acentuados que os efeitos das fricções financeiras. / This research aimed to investigate the determinants of the cash holdings of Brazilian companies from an unprecedented sample of public and private firms. More than just exploring the main theories that attempt to explain the factors that influence the cash management, the impacts of financial frictions and agency costs on the cash level were analyzed together. In this context, I sought to explore the cash policy in an emerging economy such as Brazil, whose legal environment and financial system are not fully consolidated. In addition, I have also studied the influence of the concentration of equity ownership on the cash holdings, as well as the speed of adjustment with which the firms manage their cash reserves towards a target level in several situations. The main results showed that public companies had a significantly higher cash level than private companies in the analyzed period. In other words, they presented that the effects of the agency problems on corporate liquidity are more pronounced than the effects of the financial frictions.

by James Chi-wang Lau, David Sai-shing Lu. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1982. / Bibliography: leaf 52.