This thesis provides an attempt to better understand the design and operation of accounting control systems as part of an interrelated control package in an Australian higher education institution subject to an increasingly competitive environment. The study was designed: (1) to understand how and why the accounting control systems changed; (2) to understand how accounting shapes and can be shaped by other institutional processes; and (3) to understand the roles accounting control systems play in higher education institutions. The research aims and objectives lend to a longitudinal case study approach. The data collection consisted of two phases: (1) a pilot study to determine issues for the intensive study and to identify or develop a suitable theoretical framework; and (2) an intensive field study of the subject organisation to develop and explain the observations. Data collection involved a triangulation approach that mixes three sources: interview, observation, and document evidence over a two-year period between 2000 and 2002. The interviewees were selected from different hierarchical levels: Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Deans, Heads of School, general staff, and Education Queensland. This thesis draws on multiple theoretical perspectives to understand the complexities of accounting control systems change. These perspectives are: institutional theory, leadership theories, political and power theories, and resistance theories. Such an emergent research strategy was deemed pertinent to build a more holistic analysis and to offer alternative explanations of the phenomena under scrutiny. The case highlights a number of findings. First, despite the suggestion that universities operate as autonomous institutions, the University studied still succumbed to external pressures, especially from the Federal Government, for a more managerialist approach. In this study Federal Government pressures were the primary source of change identified. Second, the design and operation of the accounting control systems was found to be contingent on the related control systems and vice versa. Third, the accounting control systems played several roles in the organisation. In particular, they provided visibility to external constituents giving the impression that rational techniques had been employed consistent with Government prescriptions. This was the case for both the budget system and the performance management system. In addition to this, from an internal perspective, the budget was used to promote a sense of equity and fairness, at the same time reducing conflict in the organisation. Finally, the budget system was found to be a source of power in the organisation; it determined the level of control used to direct organisational activity. Implications for future research are presented in the concluding section.

På senare tid har en kritisk diskussion växt fram kring användandet av budget som styrmedel. Budgeten anses vara tidskonsumerande, resurskrävande och den anses även inte tillhandahålla relevant information, vilket har medfört att det finns företag som avskaffat budgeten som styrmedel. Men hur styrs företag utan budget och är det möjligt att styra ett företag utan budget? Det finns forskare som anser att företag som styrs utan budget får problem med planering, samordning samt styrning av aktiviteter då de saknar ett ramverk. Ahlsell AB är företag som har styrt sin verksamhet utan budget i 17 år. Den här studien fokuserar på att fastställa vilka styrmedel som används i företaget istället för budget till planering, samordning, kommunikation, prestationsmätning, belöningar, samt motivation, vilket är aktiviteter som budgeten anses täcka. / Background and problem: Lately a critical discussion about the use of budget as a controltool has increased. A budget is considered to be time and resource consuming and not providing adequate information. The outcome regarding this is that there are companies that have abandoned the budget as a control tool. Research finds that companies in which are not using budget as a control tool faces problems with planning, coordinating and controlling activities because of the absence of a framework. Ahlsell AB is a company that abandoned the budget as a control tool 17 years ago. This study focuses on establishing which control tools that are used instead of the budget to plan, coordinate, communicate, measure performance, reward and motivate, which are activities that the budgets deems to cover.Purpose: This study aims to establish how Ahlsell works with planning, coordination, communication, performance measurement, rewarding and motivation without budget at different levels within the organization.Method: A deductive case study on Ahlsell has been used for this thesis. The empirical data was conducted as the primarily source through semi structured interviews but also through secondary data such as internal education material and other published company information.Conclusion: To control the business the organization needs to be decentralized and consist of a relatively large number of small profit centers. “Relative performance” is another assumption, which aims to compare the business to performances of previous year, other units and competitors in order to continuously improve the outcome. By using only one IT-system available for everyone within the company, benchmarking and target figures for KPI, Ahlsellenables to control the company without a budget.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:24:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Roberta de Oliveira e Corvo Ribas.pdf: 1054831 bytes, checksum: e8be9f624843b58a75cd3979d628e77b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-22 / This paper aims to demonstrate that the protection of creditors of the legal entity that grants limited liability to its shareholder shall focus on controlling the use and disposal of assets of the legal entity itself. The study of grounds of civil liability in Brazilian Law together with the principle of assets autonomy of the legal entity and the purpose of limited liability confirm that the national law does not admit to relativize the rule of limited liability, except in cases of fraud and abuse of the legal entity. Given this limitation, resulting from a systematic analysis of the Brazilian Law, and in order to offer a proposition of fair coexistence between the interests of creditors and encouragement of free enterprise provided by limited liability, which is a constitutional command, it proves the importance of the mechanisms of control of assets of the corporation through its financial statements. In this sense, if assets and rights of a legal entity are intended to fulfill a specific purpose, it is for the Law to provide suitable tool to ensure that the risks inherent in the developed activity are covered exclusively by these assets and rights. This tool is accounting, which through the financial statements it produces, it records and controls assets of the entity, providing conditions for decision-making. Its proper use can (and should) prevent intrinsic adversities of any activity subject to risks. The purpose is to resume the mechanism that allows the existence of limited liability, since this doctrine/established principle is not intended to curtail the guarantee of creditors, but rather to encourage those who seek to produce and circulate assets and services to society through the organized economic activity / O presente trabalho tem por objetivo demonstrar que a proteção dos credores da pessoa jurídica que admite a responsabilidade limitada deve se concentrar no controle do uso e disposição do patrimônio da própria pessoa jurídica. O estudo da responsabilidade civil no Direito brasileiro, associado ao estudo da autonomia patrimonial da pessoa jurídica e da finalidade da limitação da responsabilidade confirmam que o ordenamento nacional não admite a relativização da regra de responsabilidade limitada, exceto nos casos de fraude e de abuso da personalidade jurídica. Em vista dessa limitação, constatação decorrente de uma análise sistemática do Direito pátrio, e com o intuito de oferecer uma proposição de convivência justa entre os interesses dos credores e o estímulo à livre-iniciativa proporcionado pela responsabilidade limitada, que é comando constitucional, comprova-se a importância dos mecanismos de controle do patrimônio da pessoa jurídica, por meio de suas demonstrações financeiras. Nesse sentido, se bens e direitos de uma pessoa jurídica são destinados ao cumprimento de uma finalidade específica, cabe ao Direito fornecer ferramenta adequada para assegurar que os riscos inerentes à atividade desenvolvida sejam cobertos exclusivamente por estes bens e direitos. Essa ferramenta é a contabilidade, que por meio das demonstrações financeiras que produz, registra e controla o patrimônio da entidade, dando condições à tomada de decisões. Seu uso adequado pode (e deve) prevenir as adversidades intrínsecas a qualquer atividade sujeita a riscos. O intuito é de retomar o mecanismo que permite a existência da responsabilidade limitada, dado que este instituto não tem por objetivo cercear a garantia dos credores, mas sim estimular aqueles que buscam, por meio do exercício de atividade econômica organizada, produzir e fazer circular bens e serviços para a sociedade

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:40:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcio Claudio Contini.pdf: 587514 bytes, checksum: 2539ca8094ea23adc3e6820aa94d7e18 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-02-08 / The activity of tourism maritime cruise operation started in Brazil over 60 years ago, although it has gained space in the national economic scenario just recently, thus emerging as one of the country's main and most promising tourism modalities. Encouraged by the excellent cruise seasons of the decade, foreign ship companies, local businessmen, governmental entities and the society in general, turn their attention to this segment. In the 2008/2009 season, for example, ship companies served about 520 thousand guests in their 16 ships. If this volume were not enough high, the segment announces 18 ships for the 2009/2010 season, with capacity to attend 920 thousand guests. Estimates in the sector on the potential of this activity point out that the market may reach the mark of 2 million passengers in short time. For all this volume of guests served and the segment potential scope, the operation of maritime cruises in the country is still little known, mainly as to the accounting and management approach. Many are the actors involved in this process who take part in the several steps of this activity's production chain. The cruise operating company relates to each one of them and carries out basic functions of promoting and selling cruises, as well as that of administering a few activities while the ships are in national waters. For this purpose, they interact with the very foreign ship company, travel agencies, representative agencies, port agencies, government entities, several suppliers and, of course, passengers. The organization and management of all these relationships is something that can be very complex on the operational point of view. In this sense, the importance of the accounting control of these companies has been confirmed. The operating company's controllership division has been outstanding as it develops and exceptional work of managing these relationships. Based on a solid accounting foundation, these divisions have been meeting the needs of managers, thus producing information of a relevant nature and in proper time, helping the business management process. It is in the accounting sphere that these companies search for a relevant part of the operation information and which encompasses a few interesting specificities under the accounting perspective. The management of charter contracts, advance payments received by passengers, advance payment of commissions to travel agents or marketing expenses, the entry of revenues resulting from the sale of coastal or international cruises, among others, are aspects that are considered part of this set of specificities. Likewise, the relationships with the ship companies are also specific topics of this segment. We can note that the management of the cash flow and these coastal cruise contracts are key factors for the success of these businesses. This case study, developed with two of the main cruise companies of the Brazilian cruise industry, Ibero Cruzeiros and Costa Cruzeiros, does an analysis in detail of the aspects of this activity, contributing for the knowledge formation of the tourism cruise operation and the importance of the accounting control in these companies as well as the accounting practices used by the operators in the control of the main operations / A atividade de operação de cruzeiros marítimos de turismo teve início, no Brasil, há mais de 60 anos, embora, somente agora, ganhe espaço no cenário econômico nacional, despontando como uma das principais e mais promissoras modalidades do turismo do país. Incentivada pelas excelentes temporadas de cruzeiros da década, armadoras estrangeiras, empresários locais, entidades governamentais e sociedade em geral, voltam suas atenções ao segmento. Na temporada de 2008/2009, por exemplo, as armadoras atenderam em seus 16 navios cerca de 520 mil hóspedes. Como se esse volume não fosse bastante elevado, o segmento anuncia 18 navios para a temporada 2009/2010, com capacidade para o atendimento de 920 mil hóspedes. Estimativas do setor sobre o potencial dessa atividade indicam que o mercado pode atingir a marca de 2 milhões de passageiros em pouco tempo. Apesar de todo esse volume de hóspedes atendidos e do potencial de alcance do segmento, a operação de cruzeiros marítimos no país ainda é pouco conhecida, principalmente sobre o enfoque contábil e de gestão. São muitos os atores envolvidos nesse processo e que participam das diversas fases da cadeia de produção dessa atividade. A operadora de cruzeiros relaciona-se com cada um deles e executa as funções básicas de promoção e vendas dos cruzeiros, bem como a de administração de algumas atividades enquanto os navios se encontram em águas nacionais. Para tanto, interage com a própria armadora estrangeira, as agências de viagem, as agências representantes, as agências portuárias, as entidades governamentais, diversos fornecedores e, é claro, com os passageiros. A organização e a gestão de todas essas relações é algo que, sob o ponto de vista operacional, pode ser considerado bastante complexo. Nesse sentido, a importância do controle contábil, nessas empresas, tem se confirmado. A divisão de Controladoria das operadoras tem se destacado à medida que desenvolve um excepcional trabalho de gerenciamento dessas relações. Calcada em um forte embasamento teórico contábil, essas divisões vêm atendendo às necessidades dos gestores, produzindo informação de natureza relevante e em tempo adequado e auxiliando no processo de gerenciamento do negócio. É na contabilidade que essas empresas buscam uma parte importante das informações da operação e que englobam certas particularidades interessantes sob a ótica contábil. O gerenciamento de contratos de afretamento, antecipação recebida de passageiros, pagamento antecipado de comissões a agentes de viagem ou de despesas de marketing, o registro das receitas provenientes da venda de cruzeiros de cabotagem ou internacional, entre outros, são aspectos considerados parte desse conjunto de particularidades. Da mesma forma, as relações com as armadoras, também, são temas específicos desse segmento. Note-se que a gestão do fluxo de caixa e desses contratos de cabotagem são fatores-chave para o sucesso desses negócios. Este estudo de caso, desenvolvido com duas das principais empresas de cruzeiros do mercado brasileiro, a Ibero Cruzeiros e a Costa Cruzeiros, faz uma análise detalhada de todos esses aspectos da atividade, contribuindo para a formação de conhecimento sobre a operação de cruzeiros de turismo e a importância do controle contábil nessas empresas, bem como as práticas contábeis utilizadas pelas operadoras no controle das operações de maior relevância