This thesis aims to contribute to research in management accounting and control systems (MACS) in a developing country context: that of Fiji. It seeks to gain a theoretical understanding of how MACS reflect the social and political contexts in which they operate by using a case study of Telecom Fiji Limited (a major supplier of telephone communications in Fiji). The definition of MACS for the purpose of the thesis is broad- a social constructivist perspective is adopted in which systems are used to align employee behaviour with organisational objectives and to assist external relationships (with the State, Commerce Commission, aid agencies and customers). The thesis draws on institutional theory while raising questions as to how to refine and extend institutional theory. This theory has often been associated with institutional embeddedness (stability). The social constructivist approach helps to incorporate agency and cultural issues normally missing in conventional applications of institutional theory to accounting change. Telecom Fiji Limited (TFL) was restructured under the Fiji government's public sector reforms. Such reforms were insisted upon by the international financial agencies of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Under the reform policy, TFL was transformed from a government department into a corporatised organisation and was subsequently privatised. The MACS changes which eventuated helped to change TFL management and employees' interpretive schemes. However, employees resisted initial changes to commercial business routines and it took some years for TFL actors to assimilate commercial practices. While the literature dealing with MACS changes has mostly portrayed changes as occurring with little resistance, MACS changes at TFL took several years to become institutionalised, partly because of cultural and political factors specific to Fiji. The study has practice implications as it shows that management accountants can act as institutional entrepreneurs in organisations, shaping new accounting technologies in reformed entities, and changing actors' interpretive schemes. The study has implications for policy makers, consultants and other stakeholders in terms of promoting a need for better understanding of the sensitivity to cultural and political circumstances in Less Developed Countries (LDC's) like Fiji in relation to the introduction of MACS changes. The study has implications for other recently corporatized/ privatised and state-sector organisations in Fiji and elsewhere. It also has implications for other researchers as institutional theory can be refined on the basis of new empirical evidence.

The importance of entrepreneurship has been widely acknowledged by many scholars, however, there is an argument that entrepreneurship tends to pose a unique dilemma with management accounting – a part of management control in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to find a solution for the apparent conflict between management accounting and entrepreneurship through a single case study of Litium – a new economy firm operating in information technology industry. The study of Litium reveals that a simple and solid management accounting is an effective way in order to keep management accounting in harmony with entrepreneurial spirit. This finding goes in line with the suggestion of loosely coupled management control in new economy firms by Lukka and Granlund (2003). The paper reviews various relevant literatures so as to build a collected framework about management accounting in new economy firms. The framework then provides a guideline for empirical findings and analysis part. We acknowledged that the studies of Lukka and Granlund (2003), Granlund and Taipaleenmaki (2005), Lovstal (2001) and Morris, Allen, Schindehutte, and Avila (2006) are very useful for studying management accounting in new economy firms where entrepreneurship is highly emphasized. In addition, life-cycle perspective is also valuable to understand thoroughly the practice of management accounting in new economy firms. In accordance with the topic and the purpose of our case study, we recognized that qualitative research method is most suitable. Moreover, the interview – one type of qualitative methods – was chosen as a main tool for colleting data in our study since it can provide the authors with important insights into a situation and use-ful shortcuts to the prior history of the situation

According to Atkinson, Banker, Kaplan and Young (1995) management accounting and control practices have an important role within today’s organizations. In order for the organization to be successful, information on the finances and performance are crucial. But in the media industry there are indications that management accounting and control practices are not as accepted as in many other industries (Tjernström, 2002). Since there have not been much research about management accounting in the media industry, compared to what have been done in other industries, like manufacturing and new economy firms, there are less knowledge from this industry. The purpose of our thesis is to investigate, explain and analyze the management accounting practices, with focus on performance measurement and what the attitude to performance measurement is within four newspapers in Sweden. This will be done from a management perspective. Previous research about agency theory, stewardship theory, budget, responsibility centres, operating- income and margin, reward and incentive plans, balanced scorecard and intellectual capital statement and theories about the newspaper industry are described and used. A qualitative research with four interviews was conducted. Three were newspaper managers and one editor in chief. From our four researched newspapers we have found that managers described management accounting and performance measurements to be important but still not communicated. Therefore, it is interesting that none of the newspapers measure performances in the editorial department. Journalists have been and are sceptical to management accounting practices and performance measurements but this attitude has changed and is not so strong and not a problem nowadays. Focus on profit has increased but is not considered as a threat to newspaper quality as long as it is not too extreme. Operating margin is the key ra-tio that all four newspapers use.

In today’s world information and knowledge is the most valuable asset and an increasing number of people are working with selling their specialized knowledge. In this knowledge economy professional services are increasing in importance and consultants play an increasingly important role. This master thesis investigates the interplay between management control and the strategizing process in IT-Consultancy firms. With the purpose of gaining an understanding on how management control systems are being sed in IT consultancy firms and to identify the role it plays within the strategic dimension a case study approach was utilized. The method is based on a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews as the mean for data collection. A total sample of 7 respondents from two IT-consultancy firms and one Management Consultant participated. The interviewees possess different positions within the two organizations ranging from top management down through the organizational levels in order to achieve a triangulation of the studied phenomenon. A framework consisting of different perspective on strategic management accounting, performance measurement in professional services, Levers of control and IT-Consultancy was built and used in order to analyze the collected data. The data shows that the strategizing process is for the main part conducted in the front line of the organization where the consultantsinteract with the customer on a daily basis. The conclusion drawn is that the interaction between strategizing process and management control systems is that the management control is designed in a way that not only allows for a clear strategizing activity to take form in the lower levels of the organization, but to constantly assure that this is what is done throughout the organization.

This paper seeks to explain the frameworks that the risk accountant likely operates in. It begins with a discussion of risk in the business context. Then the paper examines existing frameworks in light of the work of management accountants. The paper looks more closely at the tools the management accountant has at his disposal to identify, assess, and communicate risk as well as issues surrounding the use of these tools such as the calculative culture of the firm and biases in risk perception. It is meant to be useful to academics pursuing future research in risk accounting and also to management accountants in risk management.

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This study investigates the effect of locus of control on the relationships among product innovation, management accounting system (MAS), and organizational performance. 300 participants were randomly drowned from the electronic industries¡¦ managers in Taiwan Security Exchange and 132 useful responses were used to validate the hypotheses by path analysis. The results shows that: 1. Product innovation and organizational performance have a significant positive relationship 2. Product innovation and perceived usefulness of MAS information have a significant positive relationship 3. Perceived usefulness of MAS information and organizational performance are positively correlated 4. Product innovation has an indirect effect on organizational performance through perceived usefulness of MAS information 5. When managers tend to be internal locus of control, the linkage between product innovation and perceived usefulness of MAS information will be stronger 6.When managers tend to be internal locus of control, the linkage between perceived usefulness of MAS information and organizational performance will be stronger. However, when manager tend to be external locus of control, the hypothesis between perceived usefulness of MAS information and organizational performance is not supported. Management implications of this study are suggested. Businesses facing the global competition have to adopt the strategies of product innovation to create profits, promote market shares and improve strength of competition and then achieve organizational performance. Business using higher degree of MAS information will improve their adopting strategy of product innovation and enhance their organizational performance. Managers with internal locus of control will aggressively use MAS information and improve the linkage between product innovation and organizational performance effectively.

This study examines the effect of strategy and task uncertainty on management accounting system (MAS) design. Mas design was defined in terms of the perceived usefulness of several information characteristics which may be associated with an MAS. We collected 87 respondents by surveying 500 middle managers of public owned companies in Taiwan, and used path analysis to test our hypotheses. The findings indicated that¡G1. There is a significant positive relation between strategy and task uncertainty. Furthermore, task difficulty and task variability also have significant positive relations with strategy respectively. 2. Strategy and the perceived usefulness of broad scope MAS information have both positive direct and indirect relations through task uncertainty. Besides, through task variability, there is an indirect relation between strategy and the perceived usefulness of broad scope MAS information, but there isn¡¦t an indirect relation between strategy and the perceived usefulness of broad scope MAS information via task difficulty. 3. A direct relationship between strategy and the perceived usefulness of aggregated MAS information was not found.

This study examines the three-way interactive effects of organizational commitment¡B perceived environmental uncertainty and the perceived usefulness of the use of management accounting systems (MAS) information on the relationship of managerial performance. In addition, this research supplements the conclusion of Gul(1991), that is, the prospect of perceived environmental uncertainty can moderate the effect of the usefulness of MAS information leading to improved managerial performance was under the premise of managers with high organizational commitment. Our conclusion could also be regarded as the extension of the research of Mia and Chenhall (1994). The results indicate that aggregation characteristic of MAS information is the key characteristic of the interactive effects. The responses of 138 managers, drawn from manufacturing departments of Taiwanese public companies, to a questionnaire survey were analyzed by examining the regression equations for the three-way interaction model.

<p>In today’s world information and knowledge is the most valuable asset and an increasing number of people are working with selling their specialized knowledge. In this knowledge economy professional services are increasing in importance and consultants play an increasingly important role.</p><p>This master thesis investigates the interplay between management</p><p>control and the strategizing process in IT-Consultancy firms.</p><p>With the purpose of gaining an understanding on how management control systems are being sed in IT consultancy firms and to identify the role it plays within the strategic dimension a case study approach was utilized.</p><p>The method is based on a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews as the mean for data collection. A total sample of 7 respondents from two IT-consultancy firms and one Management Consultant participated. The interviewees possess different positions</p><p>within the two organizations ranging from top management down through the organizational levels in order to achieve a triangulation of the studied phenomenon.</p><p>A framework consisting of different perspective on strategic management accounting, performance measurement in professional services, Levers of control and IT-Consultancy was built and used in order to analyze the collected data. The data shows that the strategizing process is for the main part conducted in the front line of the organization where the consultantsinteract with the customer on a daily basis.</p><p>The conclusion drawn is that the interaction between strategizing process and management control systems is that the management control is designed in a way that not only allows for a clear strategizing activity to take form in the lower levels of the organization, but to</p><p>constantly assure that this is what is done throughout the organization.</p>