The budget is widely criticised for consuming time and resources without adding sufficientvalue, however, it is undeniably one of the most important tools for planning andcoordination. This case study examines a company that has abandoned the budget andreplaced it with new planning and forecasting processes to achieve a dynamic process with aforward-looking mentality and less focus on details. The objective of the study is toinvestigate the experiences of the new processes and how the ways of working have beenaffected from a management accounting change perspective, with a focus from thecontroller’s perspective. The changed planning processes are conceptualised as a part of theorganisation’s rules and routines.The findings showed that the purpose of the new processes was unclear in some respects,and although the new rules were accepted, many old routines had not yet changed.Perceived lack of system support combined with a conviction that certain aspects of the oldprocesses were essential to perform qualitative work, are two explanatory factors. The levelof detail had decreased in many aspects, but time has not yet been freed up for thecontrollers in favour of value-adding activities.

Today's society is a vulnerable society. Climate change and social injustices are genuine threats to how the lives of future generations are going to be, and humans are the cause of these problems. Sustainable development needs to be achieved if we want future generations to have a good and dignified existence. Companies have a significant impact on society, and therefore play an essential role in how successful we are in achieving sustainable development. Past research has found that control systems, especially reward systems, can be important to implement sustainability in companies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to get a deeper understanding of how organizations implement and steer sustainability by including it in their control systems, and particularly, how reward systems are used in the context of sustainability. By studying past research and theories regarding sustainable development, management control, performance measurements and reward systems, we have gained knowledge and an understanding of how these areas are connected. To achieve the purpose of this study, a qualitative study was done in which we conducted eleven semi-structured interviews with managers and sustainability experts from six different companies. Based on the empirical findings of the study, we were able to make several conclusions. First, sustainability is integrated into already existing control systems, which often interact and are related to each other, and we found that there is a balance between social and environmental dimensions. Companies choose to focus on sustainability issues were they have the most negative impact, and they include sustainability mostly in their cybernetic and administrative controls, for instance through performance measurements (KPIs) and policy documents. Also, several companies incorporate sustainability into their reward systems, such as rewards for safety parameters and reducing CO² emissions. What kind of rewards that are given for sustainability performance differ, some companies give monetary rewards while other give non-monetary. Non-monetary rewards are in the findings presented as most valuable for sustainability. We can also conclude that there are challenges with rewarding sustainability, but many respondents have overcome them and use reward systems as a way of implementing sustainability. Those who do not reward sustainability today can imagine doing so in the near future.

Abstract Small businesses are numerous in any country. However, we have very limited knowledge regarding their management accounting (MA) and management control systems (MCS). Traditionally, it has been stated that small firms do not need and use MCS due to their simple structures and poor resources. On the other hand, a few studies on high technology firms have shown that these firms have developed their MCS and are also utilizing sophisticated management accounting practices and information. The aim of this study is to analyse small firms' use of MCS practices as well as to examine the role of MCS practices and information of small firms in a contingency theoretical framework. Furthermore, the study is not only focusing on small, rapidly growing firms but also on traditional, more stable small firms, all employing from 10 to 49 persons. Based on the survey responses of 183 managing directors of small Finnish firms, the study describes the diffusion and penetration of MCS practices and information among small firms. Two theoretical models are constructed linking the use of MCS with strategy, perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU), use of diversified management team and financial performance of small firms. Tests are made by using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results suggest that small firms do use a wide range of MCS practices and information. The main results also indicate that the use of a more diversified management team seems to increase the use of MCS practices and information. The use of more advanced practices is related to small firms which have been more profitable or which have had lower growth rates in sales. In addition, the use of MCS seems to be associated with small firms' strategies, both realized and intended. The pursued strategy seems to drive small firms' profitability and growth in net sales. However, such an association was not found between the intended strategy and financial performance after two years. The use of MCS seems to have only a few positive effects on small firm's financial performance. Nevertheless, more use of advanced dimensions of MCS seems to predict significant improvements for longer-term growth in net sales.

How shall a business adapt its management control systems when learning machines enter the arena? Will the control system continue to focus on humans aspects and continue to consider a learning machine to be an automation tool as any other historically programmed computer? Learning machines introduces productivity capabilities that achieve very high levels of efficiency and quality. A learning machine can sort through large amounts of data and make conclusions difficult by a human mind. However, as learning machines become even more complex systems, they introduce an uncertainty not previously considered by automation tools. The algorithms can make their own associations, and the automation engineer will no longer know exactly how a learning machine produces its outcome. What is the motive for a learning machine’s decision? A learning machine in this context becomes more human-like compared to the older generation of automation computers. This thesis concludes that most contemporary Management Control System principles are relevant when deploying machine learning, but some are not. A Management Control System must in contradiction to a historically programmed computer, consider multiple human-like aspects while controlling a deployed learning machine. These conclusions are based on empirical data from web-articles, TED-talks, literature and questionnaires directed to contemporary companies using machine learning within their organizations.

Bakgrund: Under det senaste året har Skatteverkets södra region genomfört omfattande förändringar i sitt sätt att styra den inkommande ärendehanteringen. Tidigare styrde vart och ett av kontoren sin egen verksamhet för att numera styras gemensamt via det införda nätverket. Då den nyligen implementerade styrningen ännu inte har analyserats, fick vi i uppdrag av Skatteverket möjlighet att kritiskt analysera hur denna förändring upplevs av medarbetare i den södra regionen. Syfte: Syftet är att kritiskt analysera hur den genomförda förändringen av styrningen upplevs av medarbetare samt hur dessa typer av förändringar påverkar värdeskapandet. Detta ska slutligen generera i förbättringsförslag till Skatteverket och andra offentliga verksamheter. Metod: För att uppnå syftet med uppsatsen har vi genomfört en kvalitativ fallstudie vilken har inkluderat flertalet intervjuer med personer inom Skatteverkets södra region som arbetat där före och efter den genomförda förändringen av styrningen. Resultat/Slutsats: Vi anser att den genomförda förändringen av styrningen kommer att möjliggöra ett mer kostnadseffektivt arbete i det inkommande ärendeflödet. Efter att ha analyserat teori och empiri finner vi att Skatteverket till stor del har brustit i sin kommunikation med medarbetaren under förändringens gång. / Background: During the last year, the southern region of the Swedish Tax Agency's have made major changes in the way of controlling the incoming declarations to the agency. Earlier, each of the offices managed their own business and today the are managed jointly through the recently introduced network. Since the recently implemented management has not yet been analyzed, we, on behalf of the Swedish Tax Agency, were able to analyze how this change is experienced by employees in the southern region. Purpose: The purpose is to critically analyze how the change in management is experienced by employees and how these types of changes affect the value creation. This will eventually generate improvement proposals for the Swedish Tax Agency and other public activities. Method: In order to achieve the purpose of the essay, we conducted a case study which consists of interviews with persons within the Swedish Tax Agency's southern region who worked at the agency before and after the change in management. Result /Conclusion: We believe that the change in control will generate more efficient work in the incoming case flow, which will generate cost savings. After analyzing theoretical- and empirical parts we have also found that the Swedish Tax Agency has in general failed in their way of communicating with the employees during the course of change.

Frågeställning: Vad motiverar ICA Gruppen respektive MAXI-butikerna till hållbarhetsarbete och hur skiljer sig deras hållbarhetsmål åt? Hur integreras ICA Gruppens hållbarhetsarbete i de olika MAXI-butikerna? Vilka strategier kännetecknar ICA Gruppens och MAXI-butikernas hållbarhetsarbete? Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva samverkan mellan ICA Gruppens och mellansveriges handlarägda MAXI-butikers hållbarhetsarbete. Metod: Denna kvalitativa uppsats med en abduktiv ansats, baseras på primärdata från fem separata intervjuer med chefer från fyra olika MAXI-butiker och en hållbarhetsansvarig på ICA:s huvudkontor. Förutom intervjuer har vetenskapliga artiklar med relevanta teorier, forskningsrapporter inom hållbarhetsarbete och adekvat litteratur studerats. För att utvärdera resultatet, har det empiriska materialet analyserats genom kodning. Slutsats: Både ICA Gruppen och MAXI-butikerna har ekonomiska såväl som filantropiska incitament för hållbarhetsarbetet. Det som skiljer dem åt är att butikernas hållbarhetsarbete främst sker i dess närmiljö med konsumenten i åtanke medan ICA Gruppen vill göra en insats för världen. Genom dialog och demokratiska processer sätts gemensamma mål upp. Det finns riktlinjer och olika digitala verktyg samt coacher för att hjälpa butikerna i arbetet. I butikerna sker hållbarhetsinitiativen mer spontant än hos ICA Gruppen. Där är arbetet mer långsiktigt och strategiskt med en tanke på hur varumärket kan stärkas. / Research questions: What motivates ICA Gruppen and the MAXI stores for their sustainability efforts and how do their sustainability goals differ? How do the sustainability efforts of ICA Gruppen integrate throughout the Maxi stores? What strategies characterize the sustainability efforts of ICA Gruppen and the MAXI stores? Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the interaction between ICA Gruppen and the independent MAXI stores of central Sweden, concerning their sustainability efforts. Method: This qualitative study with an abductive approach is based on primary data from five separate interviews with corporate managers of four MAXI stores and one of the CSR managers at the head office of the organisation. In addition to the interviews, scientific articles on relevant theories, research reports on sustainability efforts, and adequate literature have been studied. In order to evaluate the results, the empirical data has been analysed by coding. Conclusion: Both ICA Gruppen and the MAXI stores have financial as well as philanthropic incentives for their sustainability efforts. What differs is that the CSR efforts of the stores take place in the immediate vicinity of the customer, while ICA Gruppen wants to make an effort for the world. Through dialogue and democratic processes, common goals are set. There are guidelines and various digital tools as well as coaches to assist the stores. The stores’ CSR initiatives take place more spontaneously than at ICA Gruppen, where the work is more long-term and strategic, with a view on how the brand can be strengthened.

Bakgrund: Enligt en studie av Svensk Handel (2015) ökar konsumenters krav på företagens hållbarhetsarbete. Första december 2016 trädde en ny lag om hållbarhetsrapportering i kraft (Årsredovisningslagen, SFS 1995:1554). Den innebär att stora bolag blir tvungna att upprätta en hållbarhetsrapport för att redovisa vad företaget gör för social och miljömässig hållbarhet. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att bidra till förståelse för hur företag kan använda sin hållbarhetsrapport som ett strategiskt styrmedel för att motivera medarbetare att arbeta mot en mer miljömässigt hållbar organisation. Metod: Studien utgår ifrån ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv och en abduktiv ansats. En kvalitativ metod har använts med fallstudie på IKEA Linköping och nio semistrukturerade intervjuer med chefer på varuhuset, hållbarhetskoordinator och medarbetare på operativ nivå. Slutsats: Hållbarhetsrapporten kan användas som informationsdokument för att göra medarbetarna medvetna om vad företaget gör för miljömässig hållbarhet och för att göra hållbarhet till ett kärnvärde inom organisationen genom kultur, produkter och arbetsrutiner. Stolthet om företagets insatser gör dem motiverade att arbeta mer mot miljömässig hållbarhet. Använd hållbarhetsrapporten som huvudkälla för information och gör informationen relevant för medarbetarna för att undvika informationsöverflöd. Involvera medarbetarna och utforma lokalt relevanta mål utifrån hållbarhetsrapportens globala mål. / Background: According to a report from Svensk Handel (2015) consumers requirements on swedish companies’ sustainability work increases. The first of December 2016 a new law about sustainability reporting came into force (Årsredovisningslagen, SFS 1995:1554). The law requires big companies to execute a sustainability report to show what the company does for social and environmental sustainability. Purpose: The purpose with this study is to contribute with understanding about how companies can use their sustainability report as a strategic management control tool to motivate co-workers to work for a more sustainable organisation. Research method: The study is based on a hermeneutical perspective and an abductive approach. A qualitative method has been used together with a case-study at IKEA Linköping and nine semistructured interviews with managers at the store, the sustainability coordinator and co-workers at the operating level. Conclusion: The sustainability report can be used as a document for information to make the co-workers aware of the environmental sustainability work the company does, but also to make environmental sustainability to a core value within the organisation. Pride of the company’s work makes the co-workers motivated to work more with environmental sustainability. Use the sustainability report as a main source for information and make the information relevant for the co-workers to avoid information overload. Involve the coworkers and use the global goals in the sustainability report to set targets that are relevant for the local business.

The aim is to study the empirical relevance of performance management systems in the public sector, based on the performance management systems framework. A qualitative approach was chosen, making three case studies of Swedish municipalities by conducting personal interviews. The municipal chief executive, municipal CFO and a financial manager at a department were chosen at every municipality, providing us with diversified as well as accurate information. The interviews were based on the PMSs framework developed by Ferreira and Otley (2009), giving a broad and detailed description of the systems. This information, together with the theoretical framework, was then processed, leading up to the analysis and conclusions. Pursuant to the new public management, performance management is a relatively new concept in the public sector. The three studied municipalities all have relatively new PMSs, showing that this area is empirically relevant to study. As expected, the municipalities displayed both positive and negative sides of their systems, described in more detail in the paper. The PMSs framework is considered a useful tool in this study, making it relevant in the public sector. Still, both benefits and drawbacks are found, presented together with possible improvements.

This dissertation explores regulation’s influence on risk management and management control systems (MCS) in banks. The dissertation comprises of an introductory chapter, two published book chapters, one of which is an extensive literature review, and two working papers, presented at several European conferences. The overall objective of this dissertation is to explore how banks are responding to banking regulation in light of the 2007-08 financial crisis and what the implications of those responses are, particularly in relation to risk management and MCS, and their interactions. The overall research question is therefore: what influence does regulation have on risk management and management control systems in banks over time? The intended ambition is to contribute to existing knowledge on the relationship between bank regulation, risk management, and MCS by providing several practical and theoretical contributions. The dissertation employs an adapted theoretical framework and uses institutional theory and contingency theory to expose tensions between, the demands for uniformity residing in banking regulation, and the demands for uniqueness residing inside banks themselves as they seek to maintain control over the design and use of their organizational controls. The empirical material used in the longitudinal case study is gathered from a large European bank. The main findings of the dissertation are as follows. In Paper I, the findings show that banking regulation’s influence on risk management and management control is mixed, which in turn can influence risk management’s integration with MCS. The paper also finds that very little knowledge exists about regulation’s influence on risk management and MCS. In Paper II, the findings show that while regulatory influence in IT control has increased over time, banks continue to exercise significant influence over regulatory demands. In Paper III, the findings show how regulation’s influence varies considerably over time and that increased regulatory pressure can lead to a higher degree of integration between risk management and MCS across the three dimensions of integration. In Paper IV, the findings show how regulation’s influence is shaping the mental processes of management and employees, and can vary significantly based on several identified factors.

La littérature en marketing souligne l’importance du personnel en contact avec la clientèle dans le secteur des services. Nous développons une recherche ancrée en contrôle de gestion qui intègre ce résultat en analysant le lien entre (1) le contrôle de la performance opérationnelle et (2) la performance organisationnelle dans l’hôtellerie. Nous considérons plus précisément les relations entre l’assignation des droits décisionnels, le système de mesure de la performance, et le système d’incitation dédiés au personnel en contact avec la clientèle ; et leur influence sur la performance de l’organisation. Ces relations sont étudiées à la lumière du critère stratégique d’orientation marché, traduit à partir d’une étude qualitative par le concept de proposition de valeur hôtelière. Afin de tester notre modèle fondé sur la théorie de l’agence et sur la base d’une étude menée auprès des hôteliers en PACA, nous utilisons une méthodologie quantitative, l’approche PLS. Les résultats conduisent, d’une part, à valider les liens de complémentarité entre les trois composantes du design organisationnel ; et d’autre part, à rejeter les hypothèses liées à l’existence de relations entre (1) le design organisationnel et la performance organisationnelle, et (2) la proposition de valeur et le design organisationnel. D’un point de vue global, ces résultats sont cohérents avec littérature, et montrent la nécessité de considérer l’assignation des droits de décision lors de l’étude des systèmes de contrôle de gestion. Ils offrent un éclairage sur le secteur des services en montrant l’importance de la mesure non financière dans les pratiques d’incitation aux niveaux inférieurs de la hiérarchie. / The marketing literature indicates that employees in contact with the customers in the service sector are prominent. This research in management accounting considers this result and investigates the relations between the control of operational performance and the organizational performance in the hotel industry. Specifically, we are interested in the relations between assignment of decision rights, performance measurement system and incentive system dedicated to employees in contact with customers, and we consider the effects of this organizational design on organizational performance. These relations are studied in light of the strategic concept of market orientation, this one being operationalized through a qualitative study of the concept of hotel value proposition. In order to test our agency model, we use a PLS approach on the basis of an empirical study of hotels in PACA. Our results indicate support to the hypothesized positive relations between assignment of decision rights and use of incentive systems, and between use of incentive systems and non-Financial measurement. We find no support to the hypotheses that organizational design is positively related to organizational performance, and that hotel value proposition influences organizational design. Overall, these results are consistent with prior literature indicating that assignment of decision rights and management control systems are complementary choices. Furthermore, they provide insights on the specificities of service activities, as they indicate the importance of non-Financial performance measurement in incentive systems at the worker level.