Business corruption - a brief note

Corruption is defined as "Wrongdoing on the part of an authority or powerful party through means that are illegitimate, immoral, or incompatible with ethical standards. Corruption often results from patronage and is associated with bribery". (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/corruption.html). Corruption involves an abuse of power (Neelankavil, year unknown). In this case, an agent betrays the interests of its principal by accepting gifts from a client before offering the client a favour. Causes of corruptions can be classified into 3 main areas: environmental (e.g. excessive adminstrative power concentration among a few), individual (e.g. individual greed), and firm-related (e.g. bribing officials in a foreign country during the corporate market expansion process) (Neelankavil, year unknown).

There are two types of corruptions, namely, business corruption and political corruption (Neelankavil, year unknown) and I mainly focus on business coruption here. In this case, examples of business corruption include: bribing officials, insider trading, tax evasion, and embezzlement, etc. (Neelankavil, year unknown).
Some useful e-resources on business corruption

1. A thesis on business corruption: http://bora.nhh.no/bitstream/2330/1400/1/soreide%20tina%202006.pdf
2. A framework on international business corruption: http://www.aueb.gr/deos/EIBA2002.files/PAPERS/W74.pdf
3. Corruption prevention in HK: http://www.unafei.or.jp/english/pdf/PDF_rms/no56/56-26.pdf
4. On anti-corruption strategy: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/forensic-accounting-dispute-consulting-services/business-case-anti-corruption-programme.jhtml
5. Recent development in anti-corruption efforts in Hong Kong: http://www.kwok-manwai.com/Speeches/Recent_Development_in_Anti-corruption_Efforts_in_Hong_Kong.html

In the business realm, corruption very often takes place in major development activities, such as large scale industrial, commercial and infrastructure projects. The main impacts of business corruption are: (i) increase in cost of transactions, (ii) further neglect of business concerns, e.g. quality management problems which include choosing wrong suppliers, and (iii) moral damage, including a breach of trust and damage of firm reputation, etc. (Chan, year unknown).


References

1. ICAC: http://www.icac.org.hk/en/home/index.html
2. Chan, T. "Corruption prevention - the Hong Kong experience", Resource Material Series No 56, ICAC.
3. Corruption defined: http://cartledged.blogspot.com/2006/01/corruption-defined.html
4. Dattu, R., Boscariol, J.W. and Goh, T.Y. (2000) "A proactive step against bribery and corruption", Ivy Business Journal, September-October, pp, 72-74.
5. Judge, W.Q., McNatt, D.B. and Xu, W. (2011) "The antecdents and effects of national corruption: A meta-analysis", Journal of World Business 46, pp. 93-103.
6. Neelankavil, J.P. (year unknown) "International Business Corruption: A Framework of causes, effects, and prescriptions", Zarb School of Business, Hofstra University.

Engineering management and environmental protection - a brief note

My review question is:

Critically review the following statement: “Engineering managers should be more concerned with environmental protection in their practices even though such practices will substantially increase cost of operation.”

The statement indicates a similar concern that has been pointed out by Melnyk et al . (2003), which is that the relationship between pollution reduction and company profitability is unclear. There was even a view in the business community that pursuing environmental goals would increase lead time and reduce quality, thus considered as "a violation of the fiduciary duty of managers to shareholders" (Melnyk et al .,2003). The opposite argument holds that pollution is a waste and that pollution reduction increases companies' competitiveness (Melnyk et al .,2003).

My endorsed view is that corporate environmental management goals and activities should be integrated with that of corporate engineering management as well as other corporate business functions such that the company becomes more capable to meet various stakeholders' expectations in profit and non-profit goals with an appropriate dynamic balance of interests over time. While it is not clear how to achieve it, this view provides a constructive initial response to the concern raised in the statement for review above. Anyway, empirical studies appear to support the view that (a) integration of corporate environmental management with other corporate functions leads to net gain in enterprise benefits (which can be market and image-related) and (b) the integration process is complex involving a number of firm-specific factors internally and externally (Wagner, 2007).

The following are useful e-resources:

1. Environmental engineering: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_engineering
2. ISO 14000: engineering and financial aspects: http://www.nubkk.nu.ac.th/picnews/s_1263957019.ISO%2014000%20Environmental%20Management%20Standards.pdf
3. Corporate sustainability strategy: http://ethisphere.com/sustainability-strategy-as-corporate-strategy/
4. Environmental protection and global business: http://ethisphere.com/environmental-commitments-in-global-business/
5. Environmental shareholder value: http://www2.leuphana.de/umanagement/csm/content/nama/downloads/download_publikationen/Schaltegger_Figge_1998_ESHV.pdf

It is useful to do more literature review in order to form your own assessment view that is informed on this topic; once you feel that you have a reasonable grasp of the topic and want to express your own view on it, you could start to write a brief essay on it. Make sure you have time to review and polish your essay draft a number of times before you present your essay to your teacher or others.

References

1. Melnyk, S.A. and Sroufe, R.P. and Calantone, R. (2003) "Assessing the impact of environmental management systems on corporate and environmental performance", Journal of Operations Management 21, pp. 329-351.
2. Wagner, M. (2007) "Integration of environmental management with other managerial functions of the firm", Long Range Planning 40, pp. 611-628.
3. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/corporate-environmental-management.html

Motivation theories - a brief note

Motivation can be considered as the processes that account for a person's "intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal" (Robbins, 2003). Research on motivation has been carried out for many years and it is a very mature topic in general management. Still, it remains an important topic in the academic world and business world: how to motivate employees remain a key management concern in contemporary business world. The following are the major motivation theories:

1. Motivation
2. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory
3. McGregor's theory X and theory Y
4. Herzberg's two-factor theory
5. Alderfer's ERG theory
6. McClelland's theory of needs
7. Goal-setting theory
8. Reinforcement theory
9. Equity theory
10. Expectancy theory
11. Flow theory

There are two main types of motivation theories: content theories and process theories. These motivation theories are not totally compatible with each other. For example, some of these motivation theories view intrinsic motivators and extrinsic motivators as independent while other motivation theories do not uphold this view. Some of them, though famous, have not been validated, such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. A number of the motivation theories are not designed to be comprehensive; for instance, reinforcement theory ignores an individual's inner state. On the other hand, there are motivation models that integrate motivation theories developed by others, see Robbins (2003; chapter 6), thus, as theoretical frameworks, more comprehensive. My favoured integrative motivation model, though, is Lawler/Porter's version. Their model endorses a contingency approach on motivation. However, this model of Lawler and Porter has a major limitation in that it is not very useful to study employees in lower-level jobs that are essentially routine (Robbins, 2003, p. 179).
The notion of Motivation has been examined from time to time in business and management journals. It remains an important topic in contemporay management studies, e.g. Nohria et al. (2008), Cook and Jackson (2005) and Iun and Huang (2007).


A related blog article: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/09/motivation-discussion-agenda.html

References

1. Cook, P. and Jackson, N. (2005) "Motivation Matters: The Business Energy Survey 2005", the Chartered Mangement Institute, UK.
2. Iun, J. and Huang, X. (2007) "How to motivate your older employees to excel? The impact of  commitment on older employees' performance in the hospitality industry", International Journal of Hospitality Management 26, pp. 793-806.
3. Nohria, N, Groysberg, B., Lee, L-E, (2008) "Employee Motivation: A powerful new tool", Harvard Business Review, July-August, pp. 78-84.
4. Robbins, S.P. (2003) Organizational Behavior, Prentice Hall.

How to evaluate a strategic management accounting technique: a brief note

There are two steps involved in evaluating a Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) Technique

Phase 1: conduct a literature review on Strategic Management Accounting per se. Try to pay attention to the following questions:

1. What is strategic management accounting?
2. What is the vision of strategic management accounting? E.g. to provide effective management accounting information to improve corporate competitive performance. To enable Management Accounting to regain relevance as a business technology in the business world with significant strategic value.
3. What are the characteristics and main concerns of strategic management accounting?
4. What are the criteria to judge the value of a strategic management accounting technique? E.g. relevance, accuracy, acceptability, feasibility, reduction of uncertainty in decision making, reliability, etc.
5. What are and what should be the roles of Management Accountants in implementing and practising SMA? E.g. as project sponsor, project manager, facilitator, etc.

Use the knowledge gained from Phase 1 literature review to inform your Phase 2 literature review.

Phase 2: conduct a literature review to evaluate a specific SMA technique, e.g. Value Chain costing, Target cost management, customer profitability analysis, etc. Try to pay attention to the following questions:

1. What is the nature of the SMA technque under review? How does it differ from conventional management accounting? E.g. Does it promote strategic thinking by considering more non-financial factors in decision-making? Does it take on a more process-view of organization?
2. What are the non-accounting management theories assimilated into the SMA technique under review? E.g. Value chain model, supply chain management theory, theory of constraints, etc?
3. What are the main practical values and limitations of the SMA technique under review?
4. To what extent do you think that the SMA technique, as a technique, a theoretical framework or a methodology, is well formulated? E.g. to what extent do you think that the target costing process model of Lokamy III and Smith (2000) is well formulated? Do you think their model can be further enhanced? How?
5. What are the main factors that drive and hinder the implementation and usage of the SMA technique under review? These can be external or internal factors; economic or non-economic factors?
6. What are and what should be the role of Management Accountants in the implementation/ usage of the SMA technique under review?
7. To what extent does the SMA technique under review facilitate an organization to increase its sustainable competitive advantage, thus legitimately claiming the label as a strategic management accounting technique? Does the technique, by incorporating strategic management models and/ or other business function models, e.g. supply chain model and brand management theories, promote more effective strategic decision-making, resulting in companies gaining more sustainable competitive advantage?
8. What can be done to enhance the SMA technique under review to make it a more effective SMA technique? E.g. do you think the existing SMA technique neglects some other management concepts that are also relevant for its intended support for corporate strategic decision-making? If so, how would you incorporate the neglected concepts into the existing SMA approach to enhance it?

I am not sure if there are any major questions missing in my list of questions above; anyway, in my own literature review of SMA, I found that the existing SMA literature has long been addressing these questions. It is clear that a single SMA article may not address all the questions above nor does it explicitly address these questions. That is why in your literature review exercise, you need to formulate your own critical, evaluative and imaginative views on your SMA topics based on your understanding gained from reading the SMA literature. Some students express difficulties in understanding the meaning of the questions above, I feel that it is useful to refine the questions. On the other hand, you could only have a firmer grasp of the meaning of these evaluation questions by thinking about them while doing your own reading of SMA articles.

While the SMA evaluation questions provided above are inter-related, academics, Management Accounting professional bodies, practising management accountants and managers in non-finance/ accounting functions tend to be interested in different questions listed above, as they have different personal preferences and career interests.

Finally, I need to emphasize that literature review is not lecture note: it is not solely about summarizing what others have said or explaining the concepts involved with a numerical example for illustration. Literature review requires you to compare, evaluate, synthesize and refine others' works; in conducting such an exercise, you demonstrate to others that you have independent, critical, intellectual and innovative thinking. Such a skill on literature review is mastered via continuous professsional development by yourself. Thus, the evaluation questions on SMA techniques provided by me can only direct your attention to certain key issues in the literature review. You do need to spend time to explore and reflect on what you learn via your own literature review efforts.

References

1. Blog article 1: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/09/strategic-management-accounting.html
2. Blog article 2: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/09/strategic-management-accounting-vision.html
3. Lockamy III, A. and Smith, W.I. (2000) "Target costing for supply chain management: criteria and selection", Industrial  Management & Data Systems 100/5, pp. 210-218.

Customer Equity Management: a brief note

The basic underlying view of Customer Equity Management (CEM) is this: treats a company's customers as a financial asset whose value is to be maximized with a total marketing system (Blattberg, Getz, and Thomas, 2001). To be specific, a company's total customer equity is (a) returns on acquistion + (b) returns on retention + (c) returns on add-on selling across its entire customer portfolio over time.  CEM assimilates customer relationship management and database marketing concepts in its thinking. CEM requires that the organization design be customer-centric.

Blattberg, Getz, and Thomas (2001) identify 4 cornerstones in Customer Equity Management:

1. Customer life cycle management (from prospects -> first-time buyers -> early repeat buyers -> core customers -> core defectors) 
2. Database power exploitation
3. Customer value quantification, notably on computing customer equity value as well as the statistical relations between marketing mix and equity value
4. Customer acquisition, retention, add-on selling mix optimization

There are a number of trends that foster the adoption of Customer Equity Management, e.g. behavior data explosion, disintermediation, warfare for customer loyalty, and channel proliferation, and one-to-one Internet communication, etc. (Blattberg, Getz, and Thomas, 2001). These trends can be grouped into two categories: (a) the advancement of IT as enablers and (b) competitive pressure for more customer-focused marketing efforts.


References

1. Blattberg, R.C, Getz, G. and Thomas, J.S. (2001) Customer Equity, Harvard Business School Press.
2. On Customer Equity: http://www.customerequity.com/ce/indepth.html
3. What drives customer equity: http://www.markenlexikon.com/d_texte/customer_equity_drivers_2001.pdf

The notion of brand: a brief note

Brands are usually viewed as "labeled products" (Gunther and kriegbaum-Kling, 2001).  More specifically, a brand has been defined by the American Marketing Association as a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. Gad (2001) discerns 4 dimensions of a brand, namely, functional, social, mental and spiritual. According to de Chernatony (2008), there are thirteen interpretations of brand:

1. As a logo
2. As legal instrument
3. As company
4. As shorthand
5. As risk reducer
6. As positioning
7. As personality
8. As a cluster of values
9. As vision
10. As adding value
11. As identity
12. As image
13. As relationship

These writings reflect the complexity as well as conceptual richness of the very notion of branding itself. Referring to http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/marketing_brands.html, there are 4 steps in strategic brand management process:

1. Identifying and establishing brand positioning and values
2. Planning and implementing brand marketing programs
3. Measuring and interpreting brand performance
4. Growing and sustaining brand equity

References

1. Gad, T. (2001) 4-D Branding, Prentice-Hall.
2. On Brand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand
3. On brand management: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/brand_management/brand_management.htm
4. de Chernatony, L. (2008) "Brand building" Chapter 16, in Baker, M. and Hart, S.J. (editors) The Marketing Book, Elsevier.
5. Gunther, T. and Kriegbaum-Kling, C. (2001) "Brand Valuation and Control: an empirical study", Schmalenbach Business Review 53, Oct., pp. 263-294.
6. On Strategic Brand Management: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/marketing_brands.html

Dissertation objectives and research methods: steps to study their relationship

In dissertation works, you need to work out the relationship between dissertation objectives and research methods used. And such effort need to be informed with your literature review efforts. Most students find it boring to read textbooks on Research Methods and the materials in Research Methods textbooks appear abstract. I construct the following table for students to examine the relationship between objectives and research methods based on their common sense. (I am aware that the table can be refined.)

First of all, I briefly explain the various items in the table. And then, I ask students to put an X into a cell as if they think that a particular research method can be used to achieve a specific research objective. I indicate that there is a means-end relationship between research methods (as means) and dissertation objectives (as ends). I then ask students to explain their viewpoints (ie why they put Xs in some of the cells).

Ultimately, figuring out the relationship between objectives and research methods cannot soley relay on common sense. You still need to do some reading of Research Methods references to learn the subject. Next, using the table above, try to develop a more specific table with your own dissertation objectives and research methods; in the cells, instead of using Xs, you fill in more specific reasons why you think your research methods are related to your dissertation objectives. At the same time, you try to justify (a) your dissertation objectives in terms of practical and academic values and (b) your specific research methods by relating them to managment theories and notions that have been examined in your literature review. By conducting literature review, you may want to revise and refine your dissertation objectives and research methods from time to time, see the following diagram:

Finally, you assess your research methods in terms of research method criteria such as internal/ external validity, reliability, relevance, feasibility and research ethics.

Organization Design - a brief note on main theoretical frameworks

My primary understanding of organization design is very much based on Henry Mintzberg (1983). For Mintzberg, an organization has 5 basic parts: (a) strategic apex, (b) middle line, (c) operating core, (d) technostructure and, finally, e) support staff. Mintzberg proposes that there are five views of how an organization functions, namely, (a) the flow of formal authority, (b) the of regulated activity, (c) the flow of informal communication, (d) the set of work constellations, and (e) the flow of ad hoc decision processes.

Based on this model, Mintzberg discerns 5 basic organization configurations: (a) simple structure, (b) machine bureaucracy, (c) professional bureaucracy, (d) divisionalized form and (e) adhocracy. These organization configurations make use of 5 coordinating mechanisms to various extents: (a) mutual adjustments, (b) direct supervision, (c) standardization of input skills, (d) standardardization of work processes, and (e) standardization of outputs. These five coordinating mechanisms are substitutable to a certain extent.

A key question on this subject of organization design is which form of organization configuration is most effective for a specific company. On that, Mintzberg explains that organization design covers a 3 key design domains: (a) individual position design, (b) superstructure design, and, finally, (c) superstructure linkage design. I like to point out that the discussion on superstructure design (Mintzberg, 1983, Chapter 3) is very much related to the topic of organization structure. Mintzberg maintains that organization design should be done in a way that achieves an internal consistency as well as a consistency with the organization's internal and external situations. Mintzberg offers a contigency framework that identifies a number of pulling and pushing forces that interact with each others to mold a specific organization configuration for an enterprise. In Ho and Jackson (1987), Mintzberg's ideas on organization  configuration and the various pulling/ pushing forces were considered in problem-context exploration.

My favoured criteria of effective organization design come from two systems models. They are the Viable System Model of Stafford Beer and the socio-technical systems model. Over the years, I have also come across various organization design theories; however, I tend to use these three theories identified here, ie, the Organization Configuration Model of Mintzberg, the Viable System Model (see Espejo and Harden (1989).) and the Socio-technical Systems Model (see Pava (1983).), as the theoretical frameworks to examine others' works.

For students new to the subject of organization design, try to study the following basic concepts for a start:

1. Centralization vs decentralization
2. Delegation vs empowerment
3. Formal vs informal organizational structure
4. Organization chart
5. Organizational  structure
6. Scalar principle
7. Tall vs flat organizational structure

Related blog article: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/09/organization-structure-discussion-agenda.html




References

1. Espejo, R. and Harnden, R. (editors) (1989) The Viable System Model, Wiley.
2. Guidelines for organization design: http://managementhelp.org/organizations/design.htm
3. Ho, J.K.K. and Jackson, M.C. (1987) "Building a "rich picture" and assessing a 'quality management" program at Thornton Printing Company", Cybernetics and Systems, Vol. 18: 381-405.
4. Mintzberg, H. (1983) Structure in Fives: Designing effective organizations, Prentice Hall.
5. Pava, C.H. (1983) Managing New Office Technology, The Free Press.

Business Management Theories for Engineering Management

Miles (1975) discern 3 main theories of management, namely, (a) the traditional model, (b) the human relations model, and (c) the human resources model. Each of these models have a specific set of (a) assumptions about human nature, especially employees' attitude to work, (b) management policies, and (c) expectations on employees' morale and performance. The assumptions on human nature make much use of motivation theories, such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs and McGregor's Theory X/Y. In this case, the traditional model is based on McGregor's Theory X while the human resources model adopts Theory Y as its assumption of human nature. From a historical perspective, management thinking evolves from the traditional model, towards the human relations model; Finally, it endorses more human resources model in its practices. This observation represents the general evolutionary trend in management thinking.

Management theories describe how and why employees behave in certain ways, under specific conditions. These management theories are descriptive and, very often, prescriptive. They are so constructed as to be logical in their reasoning based on their set of assumptions. Which management theory to adopt by management of a specific company depends a number of factors, e.g. the stage of economic development of a country, personal value of management, and national culture, etc. Miles (1975) also mentioned that some managers prefered themselves to be treated with the human resources model while they favoured using the traditional model to deal with their own subordinates.

Engineering management, especially in industrial engineering, has long been influenced by a specific school of management thinking that belongs to the traditional model, known as scientific management. As a result, engineering management thinking is very much in line with the traditional model of Miles. If we consider that engineering management is dominated by hard systems thinking, it is easy to understand that both the human relations model (a more humanized form of traditional model) and the human resources model (when based on hard systems thinking) can be assimilated in prevailing engineering management theories and practices. I consider the Just in Time (JIT) management philosophy as a human resources model, which is also a main subject in Engineering Management. The following diagram depicts the ideas here:

My view is that the human resources model can be anchored with Soft Systems Thinking. Meanwhile, it is interesting to examine the more problematic relationship between engineering management-based business management theories (which tends to be more hard systems based) and soft-systems-based business management theories. This is an interesting and important research topic in Engineering Management and Systems Research.

Some specific points as related to Engineering:
(re: Morse, L.C. and Babcock, D.L. (2007) "Chapter 1: Engineering and Management" Managing Engineering and Technology, Prentice Hall)

1. The profession of Engineering defined: the art of directing the great sources of power in nature, for the use and convenience of man.
2. Professional requirements: intensive preparation via lifelong learning.
3. Main professional practices:
• Managing machines
• Application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to man in structures, machines, products, systems and processes.

References

1. Miles, R.E. (1975) Theories of Management, McGraw-Hill
2. Lockett, M. and Spear, R. (editors) (1983) Organizations as Systems, Chapter 5, written by Trist, E. "A socio-techhnical critique of scientific management", pp, 56-65, The Open University Press.

Research methods - a reading list of blog articles

The following blog articles are related with Research methods, grouped by 4 categories:


I. Related with writing skills, report format and general considerations

1. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-to-contemplate-contemporary-issues.html
2. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/07/catwoe-analysis-on-dissertation-work.html
3. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-achieve-high-marks-in-academic.html
4. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/applying-management-consulting-theories.html
5. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/plagiarism-what-plagiarism.html
6. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/software-engineering-dissertation.html
7. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/09/proposal-abstract-and-dissertation.html

II. Related with Literature review

1. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/07/stem-as-critical-success-factors-in.html
2. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/use-of-theoretical-frameworks-in.html
3. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/using-cognitive-mapping-in-disseration.html
4. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-knowledge-compilation-process-break.html
5. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/literature-review-of-research-subject.html

III. Related with Research methods

1. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/research-methods-in-dissertation-report.html
2. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/on-research-design-evaluation.html
3. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/subjective-research-philosophies-and.html
4. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/research-methods-terminology-list.html
5. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/09/3-main-levels-in-research-methods-brief.html
6. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-research-methods-and-dissertation.html

IV. Related with analysis quality

1. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/determination-of-your-standpoint-in.html
2. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-achieve-high-marks-in-academic.html

Reference

• Business Research Forum: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150155439532090.342166.713727089&type=1#!/groups/194088197319308/

Engineering Management - a list of specific topics

The following list provides specific topics in Engineering Management

1. Essence of Engineering Management
2. Inventory Management
3. Demand Forecasting
4. MRP
5. JIT
6. General management theories
7. Organization structure
8. Motivation theories
9. Linear Programming
10. On business corruption practices and professional ethics
11. Leadership theories
12. Transportation methods
13. Managing engineering design
14. Intellectual properties and product liability
15. Decision theory and decision  tree
16. Industrial hazards
17. Law of contract
18. Staffing and equal opportunities issues
19. Environmental issues in engineering management
20. Financial control

On e-payment systems - a brief note

In ecommerce study, e-payment is one of the major topics. There are lots of business and technical details about this topic. I would like you to focus on the following 3 issues in learning this topic:

1. Examine the physical counterparts of the e-payment system to learn its design nature and critical success factors. For example, when you study e-cash, you need to ask what are the main characteristics of cash: normally no transaction cost of using cash even in the case of micro-payment, anonymity of the payers; wide acceptability of coins for payment settlement (as a legal tender), etc. A e-cash system, such as the octopus card in Hong Kong, should possess the same characteristics (or should almost possess all these characteristics); in the case of e-wallet, you need to take out your wallet to see what are stored there. You will find your ID card, your public library card, a few credit cards and some money, etc. In this case, your e-wallet should be able to do the same things to be considered as a e-wallet.
2. For a specific e-payment system to be adopted successfully in a society, it needs to be supported by a number of stakeholders, e.g. hardware and software vendors of such a system, merchants, consumers, etc., who should find it valuable to them in the first place. The e-payment system needs to be approved by the central bank of your country, because, issuance of e-payment instrument affects the money supply of your country; and the law-enforcers of your country are concerned that such a e-payment system will not be used for money-laundering purpose.
3. The legal status of your e-payment system should be clear to the stakeholders concerned; this explains, for example, why e-check is a good e-payment system because there is already an established system of business law on bill of exchange and check.

The physical implementation of a e-payment system requires specific Information Technology knowledge, e.g smartcard technology and encryption technology, etc., while a few of the critical success factors of its adoption are related to business and legal considerations, which differ by countries.

References

1. Credit card on the Internet: http://www.goodtime.net/mscredit.htm
2. On electronic bill payment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Bill_Payment_%26_Presentment
3. e-commerce payment system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce_payment_system
4. Law on bill of exchange: http://is.muni.cz/do/1499/el/estud/praf/ps06/bills/materialy/files/019text.html
5. On e-check: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/electroniccheck.asp#axzz1Xa7bFZSL
6. On electronic money: http://everything.explained.at/Electronic_money/
7. On EPS: http://www.eps.com.hk/eng/cust_eps.asp
8. On e-wallet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_wallet
9. On micro-payment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment
10. On smart card: http://www.webopedia.com/index.php/TERM/S/smart_card.html
11. On purchasing card: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_card

Material Requirements Planning - a brief note

Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is a planning and scheduling technique for manufacturing. It is sometimes called "little MRP" to distinguish it from Manufacturing Resource Planning. It uses:

1. bills of materials,
2. inventory data,
3. the master production schedule.

To function of MRP can be understood when it is viewed from its encompassing framework of Manufacturint Planning and Control (MPC) System, which is depicted roughly as follows (Vollmann, Berry, and Whybark, 1992):

An MPC system provides information to efficiently manage material flows, people and equipment utilization, as well as coordinate internal/ external activities to meet market requirements. MPC systems can be classified into a number of approaches, e.g. flow, repetitive, just-in-time, MRP, and project approaches (Vollmann, Berry and Whybark, 1992).



Other important MRP terms are:

Available to promise
Backlog
Capacity
Capacity Requirements Planning
Lot size
Operations sequencing
Order release
Planned order receipt
Rough cut capacity planning
Shop floor control
Where used list
Work centers

References

1. Capacity planning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacity_planning
2. Lunn, T., and Neff, S.A. (1992) MRP: integrating material requirements planning and modern business, Business One Irwin.
3. Vollmann, T.E., Berry, W.L. and Whybark, D.C. (1992) Manufacturing Planning and Control Systems, Irwin.

Just in time in manufacturing - a brief note

Just in time management (in manufacturing) is covered in a few of my taught subjects, e.g. Engineering Management and Strategic Management Accounting. It is useful to highlight the major JIT concepts as an introduction to my students. They can be categorized as (a) JIT philosophy and (b) core JIT techniques and concepts. JIT techniques can further be grouped into 3 categories: (a) in-company JIT, (b) inter-company JIT and (c) supporting mechanisms (Harrison, 1992).

JIT philosophy ---------------------> (JIT techniques & concepts)
(1) Elimiation of waste -------------------->  ( Waste; simplification of systems)

(2) Total quality ------------------------> (Continuous improvement; ownership; integration of effort; prevention; quality control tools)

(3) People preparation -----------------------> (Discipline, flexibility, personal development, autonomy, quality of working life)

Another way to classify JIT techniques is:
JIT1: these techniques are concerned with the preparation of the company in their operations management for competitiveness; JIT1 examples are totaly quality, focus, people preparation, setup reduction, etc.
JIT2: these techniques are concerned with running the facilities in operations management according to JIT philosophy, notably on pursuit of perfect quality and waste elimination; JIT 2 examples include flow scheduling, total people involvement, inventory reduction, visibility, enforceed improvement, and comakership, etc.

These JIT terms and concepts are linked to various Internet  resources for your reference here.

References

1. Harrison, A. (1992) Just-in-time manufacturing in perspective, Prentice Hall.
2. Implementation of JIT in a small company: a case study: http://www1.umassd.edu/charlton/birc/jit-sme.pdf
3. Implementation of lean manufacturing in China: a case study as related with industrial hazard: http://mhssn.igc.org/IJOEH_1303_Brown.pdf
4. JIT manufacturing: http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/dstools/process/jit.html
5. Kanban production control system: http://just-in-time2005.tripod.com/id11.html
6. OR notes on JIT: http://people.brunel.ac.uk/~mastjjb/jeb/or/jit.html
7. What is JIT manufacturing? : http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-just-in-time-manufacturing.htm
8. A related blog article (JIT vs JIC): http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/10/jit-vs-jic-some-resources.html

Sales forecasting and demand planning: a brief note

When studying the statistical techniques on sales forecasting, you are told that there is a need to assess accuracy performance of your chosen forecasting model from time to time so as to tune it or replace it with a better one in the recurring forecasting exercises in corporations. The fact is, forecasting (and prediction) is a complicated topic at the theoretical level; the challenge of using forecasting is not solely at the technique level, see for example Ho (2011). It is useful to see how the statistics-based forecasting exercise fits into the overall operations management subject domain, see the following diagram:

Basically, you use real demand statstics to develop your forecasting models. Your model can involve the calculation of trend line, seasonality indexes or it can be based on exponential smoothing. You also need to take into the consideration of impacts of various events in the past and in the future, notably marketing promotion efforts by your company as well as your competitors.

You then make use of the sales forecast as major input to support your company's demand planning, which should be based on your company's Sales and Operations Planning Framework. Very  often, the demand planning process is a collaborative one involving your company's staff as well as your business partners; this planning process can take the form of CPFR. Thus, your company will not directly use your sales forecast as the demand plan nor as the figure for your sales budget.

From time to time, you do need to assess the accuracy performance of your sales forecast (e.g. using mean squared error), demand plan as well as sales budget. Moreover, you need to assess how the quality of these three sets of data affect your operational performance, such as customer service quality, inventory level, and distribution costs, etc..

At the end of the day, you do need to tune your sales forecasting model to improve its performance; at the same time, you can also try to reduce the various lead times in your logistics cycle so as to reduce your company's reliance on forecasting for demand management. You can try to compress your logistics cycle lead time with the JIT approach or with the technique of postponement, for examples.

References

1. Demand planning: http://searchmanufacturingerp.techtarget.com/definition/demand-planning
2. Forecasting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forecasting
3. Gattorna, J.L., Ogulin, R. and Reynolds, M.W. (editors) (2003) Gower Handbook of Supply Chain Management, Gower.; note Chapter 2.7: "Forecasting and demand planning" by Scott F. Githens.
4. Morris, C. (2003) Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies, Prentice Hall.; note Chapter 17: "Forecasting: time-series, semi-log graphs and exponential smoothing".
5. Sales and Operations Planning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_and_operations_planning

Inventory management - a brief note

In the study of inventory management in the subject of operations management, I think we need to consider the following points:

1. Inventory management is not a separate problem domain in operations management; it belongs to one of the three main inter-related problem domains in operations managment, ie, capacity management, inventory management and scheduling.
2. Overall, the main objectives of managing these 3 problem domains in operations management are to maximize the twin objectives of "customers service level" and "resource utilization". (re: http://www.masterproductionscheduling.com/int-production-management.pdf)
3. To address the concerns in inventory management, increasingly companies focus at the supply chain level rather than at the individual firm level.
4. To address the concerns in inventory management, companies should address the root causes of the problems in this problem domain as well as to create a favourable operational environment so that inventory management problems become less serious or dissolved, e.g. by fostering a quality culture in corporations and by employing JIT practices.

In the literature on inventory management, there are specific approaches to deal with inventory management of raw materials, semi-finished products/ work-in-progress and finished products, as their operating environments are different, see the following diagram:

And we are told that, very often, there are conflicting priorities in inventory management among the departments of marketing, production and finance.

Finally, you also need to learn the mathematical technique in inventory management, notably on the EOQ formula.

References

1. On EOQ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_order_quantity
2. On operations management (from Ray Wild): http://www.masterproductionscheduling.com/int-production-management.pdf

Proposal, abstract and dissertation report: note their differences

In doing dissertation works, you are required to draft a dissertation proposal, and subsequently, to submit a final dissertation report with an abstract. From the textbooks on research methods or from the Internet, you should be able to find guidelines on how to draft these documents. Nevertheless, some students still submit complete dissertation reports as their dissertation proposals; or in their dissertation proposals, they also provide information on "findings and analysis" as well as "conclusions". Such students' acts indicate dishonesty in dissertation works. These students also tend to be unwilling and unable to change the contents of "their" proposals or dissertation reports.

The main point is: as compared with a dissertation report, a dissertation proposal should not have information on "findings and analysis" nor "conclusions", as the dissertation project has not even started when a dissertation proposal has just been submitted to the dissertation supervisor for review, see the following diagram:

Typical dissertation report structure

Title-----------------------------------------> appear in proposal (prelim)
1. Introduction ----------------------------> appear in proposal (prelim)
2. Literature review-----------------------> appear in proposal (prelim)
3. Research methods----------------------> appear in propoal (prelim)
4. Findings and analysis
5. Conclusions and recommendations
References---------------------------------> appear in proposal (prelim)
Appendix

The main tasks involved in writing up a proposal are noted in the following diagram:

As to the dissertation report abstracts, some students just copy their dissertation proposals as their dissertation abstracts. Again, this is unacceptable, because dissertation proposals are in future tense while dissertation abstracts are in present perfect (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Present_perfect) or past tense. Dissertation abstracts also highlight dissertation findings and achievements which are not provided in the dissertation proposals, because the actual research works have not started when the dissertation proposals are submitted to the dissertation supervisors for review.

I think these mistakes from students should not be made in the first place if these students are serious and honest when doing their dissertation works.

References

1. On dissertation abstracts: http://www.ukdissertation.co.uk/dissertation_abstract.htm
2. On dissertation proposals: http://chris.golde.org/filecabinet/disspropose.html

On research methods and dissertation works for Engineering students

Engineering students doing research works and dissertation works need to study the subjects of Research methods and Dissertation report writings. In general, their research skills and dissertation report writing skills are about the same as that of business students. Due to their Engineering profession background, they have to pay attention to the following specific requirements

1. Their research methods tend to be more positivitic in theoretical stance, with more emphasis on using scientific and objective research approaches in their research investigation.
2. As related to the first point, their research approaches used tend to be "engineering in management" in nature; that is, they tend to adopt a hard systems approach to address management issues.
3. Their subject of investigation tend to be more related to physical and mechanical objects that are subject to physical laws.
4. Their literature review should cover academic sources in the Engineering field.

Other than the points raised above, Engineering students should study the subjects of Research methods and dissertation writing without worry that they are not applicable to your engineering field.

References

1. Engineering management: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/09/essence-of-engineering-management-brief.html
2. Hard systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_systems
3. Positivism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism

Stakeholder analysis - scope of application in business study

Stakeholder analysis has a broad scope of applications. To use it, you first have to understand what is stakeholder. It is essentially a party that has a vested interest in your company's certain initiative or business activity (or even function). In a stakeholder analysis, thus, you need to identify the stakeholders involved, what are their expectations, their power, their interests and their preferred modes of communication, etc. You also need to pay attention to how they are related to each other as they are not independent groups of people.

Stakeholder analysis are used in the following ways:

1. To explore a problem-context, for example, to facilitate the construction of a rich picture of a problem situation.
2. To conduct an ethical analysis, see, for example, Spinello (1997).
3. To surface the strategic assumptions underlying a strategy, see Mason and Mitroff (1981).
4. To evaluate the performance of a business or a business function, see for example Sirgy (2002). (re: http://www.springerlink.com/content/4f21hkl91mbp2mem/.)

There is also a debate in corporate governance on shareholder-oriented corporate governance vs stakeholder-oriented corporate governance.

Due to it broad scope of application in business study, stakeholder analysis is very often a useful analytical approach in business assignment works and dissertation works. Therefore, it is worthwhile to study it at some length.

References

1. Mason, R.O. and Mitroff, I.I. (1981) Challenging Strategic Planning Assumptions, Wiley, New York.
2. On rich picture building: http://systems.open.ac.uk/materials/T552/
3. On stakeholder: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder
4. On stakeholder analysis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_analysis
5. Spinello, R.A. (1997) Case Studies in Information and Computer Ethics, Prentice Hall.

The business value of e-procurement

When assessing the business value of e-procurement, we could consider 3 criteria: internal control, efficiency and effectiveness:

a. Internal control: companies can use e-procurement application to enforce compliance of corporate purchasing policies, ie who can buy what up to what budget limits
b. Efficiency: companies use e-procurement applications to streamline purchasing processes (ie as a form of process improvement) and reduce the administrative cost of corporate procurement. By reducing the corporate Purchasing Dept.'s time spent on clerical procurement duties, the Purchasing Department can spend time on more strategic activities in Purchasing and Supply (P&S), such as strategic sourcing and developing partnership relationship with important suppliers.
c. e-procurement applications enable companies to leverage their power in purchasing more effectively, e.g. by consolidating purchase orders from different departments, by using information generated by the e-procurement applications to manage suppliers, etc.

By using e-procurement, it is possible that companies can strengthen their Purchasing and Supply (P&S)function while their P&S staff have the opportunity to improve their significance in their companies by spendng more time on activities that are more strategic in nature.

References

1. e-procurement advantages: http://www.purchasing-procurement-center.com/e-procurement-advantages.html
2. On e-procurement: http://www.epiqtech.com/e-procurement.htm
3. On e-procurement solutions: http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/e-procurement.htm

Strategic Management Accounting techniques - a list of resources

Here is a list of Strategic Management Accounting techniques for your reference

1. Customer profitability analysis: ref 1: http://www.helsinkisummerschool.fi/media/userfiles/file/hss2008/Customer%20Equity/Articles/3%20-%20Mulhern_Customer_profitability_analysis.pdf; ref 2: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-customer-profitability-analysis.htm; ref 3: http://www.cpl-consultoria.com.br/conteudo/artigos/N%C3%ADvel%20de%20Servi%C3%A7o%20e%20lucratividade%20do%20cliente.pdf; ref 4: http://www.acis.canterbury.ac.nz/NZMA2009/pdf/Bates_Does%20management%20acc%20support%20customer%20strategy.pdf
2. Value chain costing: ref 1: http://www.answers.com/topic/value-chain-costing; ref 2: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1474138; ref 3: http://www2.newpaltz.edu/~roztockn/amcis04.pdf
3. Target costing: ref 1: http://www.accountingformanagement.com/target_costing_pricing_products_and_services.htm; ref 2: http://hafeezrm.hubpages.com/hub/Managerial-Accounting-Target-Costing; ref 3: http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/ReformingtheNHSfromwithin.pdf; ref 4: http://www.uhu.es/ijdar/10.4192/1577-8517-v5_6.pdf; ref 5: http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/1630/Okano.pdf?sequence=2; ref 6: http://www.drkresearch.org/Publications/Download/IMDS-b.pdf
4. Economic Value Analysis (EVA): ref 1: http://www.meditari.org.za/docs/2005v2/De_Wet_23_-_Meditari_Vol_13_No_2.pdf; ref 2: http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/tech_resrep_implementing_eva_business_philosophy_jun05.pdf; ref 3: http://www.crfonline.org/orc/pdf/ref8.pdf; ref 4: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/2568/1/2568.pdf; ref 5: http://www.netlinguae.com.br/adm/arquivos/value_based_management.pdf; ref 6: http://www.offtech.com.au/abc/ABC_PDF/virginia98.pdf
5. Accounting for manufacturing - Just in Time: ref 1: http://maaw.info/ArticleSummaries/ArtSumSwensonCassidy93.htm; ref 2: http://apmstuff.blogspot.com/2009/12/just-in-time-jit-philosophy-explained.html; ref 3: http://www2.accaglobal.com/students/acca/exams/p5/technical_articles/2950555; ref 4: http://www.delhibusinessreview.org/v_3n2/dbrv3n2m.pdf; ref 5: http://home.kelley.iupui.edu/tatikond/webpage/Publications/K_Just-in-time%20and%20modern%20manufacturing%20environments_Implications%20for%20cost%20accounting.pdf; ref 6: http://fbe.emu.edu.tr/journal/doc/34/34Article03.pdf
6. Environmental Accounting: ref 1: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/publications/proceduresandprinciples.pdf; ref 2: http://www.kwt.or.at/en/PortalData/2/Resources/downloads/umwelt/IFAC_Guidance_document.pdf; ref 3: http://www.imanet.org/PDFs/Public/MAQ/2011_Q1/maq_winter_2011_butler.pdf; ref 4: http://sdsap.org/data/ema.pdf; ref 5: http://www.institutopharos.org/home/ema.pdf
7. Life cycle costing: ref 1: http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx1208xPA-LifeCycleApproach-Howbusinessusesit.pdf; ref 2: http://www.suite101.com/content/lifecycle-costing-a52266; ref 3: http://classof1.com/homework_answers/cost_accounting/life_cycle_cost/; ref 4: http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/local_2423.pdf; ref 5: http://ftp.rta.nato.int/public//PubFullText/RTO/MP/RTO-MP-096///MP-096-05.pdf; ref 6: http://www.p2pays.org/ref/27/26821.pdf
8. Accounting for manufacturing methods - throughput accounting: ref 1: http://www.toc-lean.com/PDF/What_Is_Throughput_Accounting.pdf; ref 2: http://www2.accaglobal.com/students/acca/paperf5/syllabus_a/3303800; ref 3: http://www.synchronoussolutions.com/images/articles/Throughput%20Accounting%20Fundamentals.pdf; ref 4: http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/26_Theory_of_Constraints_and_Throughput_Accounting.pdf; ref 5: http://www.kenshobi.com/downloads/toc/TA_TOCC.pdf
9. Competitor performance appraisal: ref 1: http://www1.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/cid_tg_competitor_analysis_nov08.pdf.pdf; ref 2: http://economics-times.blogspot.com/2010/01/competitor-accounting.html; ref 3: http://www.cpaireland.ie/UserFiles/File/students/2011%20Examinations/Exam%20Related%20Articles/2011%20SPM%20Focussing%20on%20Competitors%20in%20Strategic%20Performance%20Management.pdf; ref 4: http://directory.umm.ac.id/Data%20Elmu/jurnal/A/Accounting,%20Organizations%20and%20Society/Vol24.Issue7.Oct1999/264.pdf: ref 5: http://www.cmawebline.org/joomla4/images/stories/JAMAR%202005%20Winter/jamar-v3-1-heinen.pdf?28e5bbf660cb545fc854f5c048c7be7c=c1b15941af5780dabbb8b50e3ae20b23; ref 6: http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/management/acctfin/courses/9.110/9110cm/hoffjan.pdf
10. Brand Value Accounting: ref 1: http://knol.google.com/k/management-accounting-brand-valuation#; ref 2: brand managment and management accounting: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/16/23/1947902.pdf; ref 3: http://www.periquin.com/articles/valubrnd.pdf; ref 4: http://www.brandassetconsult.nl/assets/publications/Journal_of_Accounting_Auditing_and_Finance_Verbeeten_Vijn.pdf; ref 5: http://www.icacanada.ca/pdf/publications/MeasuringBrandEquity.pdf; ref 6: http://www.prophet.com/downloads/whitepapers/sinclair-brand-equity-firm-value.pdf; ref 7: http://www.fachverlag.de/sbr/pdfarchive/einzelne_pdf/sbr_2001_oct-263-294.pdf; ref 8: http://www.tefen.com/fileadmin/editorial/Maximizing_Brand_value.pdf; ref 9: http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/sites/default/files/siftmedia-accountingweb/old_downloads/accounting_brand_value.pdf; ref 10: http://www.hbs.edu/research/facpubs/workingpapers/papers2/0102/02-098.pdf

References

1. On SMA (JH): http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/09/strategic-management-accounting-vision.html
2. Guilding, C., Cravens, K.S. and Tayles, M. (2000) "An international comparison of strategic management accounting practices", Management Accounting Research, Vol. 11, pp. 113-135.

Assignment writing - some advice

You (as a student) are sometimes required to write assignment reports as your subject courseworks; these assignment reports are different from a typical dissertation report in the following ways:

a. There is no need to formulate a specific research design. Especially, it is not required to gather primary data for analysis
b. There is no need to develop a theoretical framework in the literature review exercise to guide a specific reseach design. On the other hand, it may still be useful to come up with a synthesized theoretical framework for carrying out some form of theory-driven analysis and evaluation in the assignment work, for example, to evaluate other writers' publications
c. There is no need to validate management theories with empirical data gathered by you (also refer to point a above).
d. You are not expected to conduct serious statistical analysis using secondary data.
e. The requirement to come up with assignment objectives that have academic and practical values is less demanding as that of a dissertation report.

Thus, assignment reports are not the same as dissertation reports. However, certain dissertation/ research skills are applicable in assignment works, namely.

a. Literature review skills
b. Theory-driven analysis of facts gathered from the literature review
c. Clear referencing in harvard referencing format
d. Clear assignment essay title, and subtitles (preferably with outlining)
e. Ability to write in descriptive, evaluative and discussion modes. It is useful to make use of real-life examples as illustrations to support your viewpoints in your discussion.
f. Ability to express ideas clearly and logically in English without grammatical errors and in an organized way

In general, an assignment report has the following structure:

Assignment essay titlc
1. Introduction
2. Describe the main concepts and theories of the assignment topic chosen
3. An evaluation of the topic area (by comparing the ideas/ viewpoints of various writers on the topic chosen; by reviewing the status of application of the theories under review; and presenting your own views on the topic with justifications, preferably with real-life examples)
4. Conclusions and recommendations
References
Appendix

The assignment may require you to write an executive summary, sometimes not. Usually, it is a good practice to provide a table of content for your assignment.

Some assignment tasks require you to do a case study on a specific company. Often, the case provided to you does not provide all the information that you would like to have. In this case, you need to do some Internet search to learn about the company and its context. Often, it is useful to explore the problem situation facing the company by drawing a rich picture diagram (a soft systems methodology technique) of it.

Overall, you can still learn from articles on certain topics in dissertation/ research report writings for your assignment work preparation. I offer the following articles for your references:

1. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/literature-review-of-research-subject.html
2. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/plagiarism-what-plagiarism.html
3. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/determination-of-your-standpoint-in.html
4. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/use-of-theoretical-frameworks-in.html
5. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/07/stem-as-critical-success-factors-in.html
6. http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-to-contemplate-contemporary-issues.html

When you write an assignment, consider the following ideas:

• try to write what you know about the subject based on your literature review
• try to write something that can make an impact on your readers;
• try to write what you want to know (ie make use of writing as a means of thinking and exploring the subject matter.)

Strategic Management Accounting: the vision and practices

In studying Strategic Management Accounting (SMA), it is useful to learn what the Management Accounting (MA) theorists, the MA professionals and the MA users say and actually do. To start with, SMA is accounting for strategic positioning or accounting for strategic management. It can also be stated  that SMA provides accounting support to a company's management to formulate and implement business strategy so as to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, and subsequently to monitor the effectiveness of its strategy.

Guilding, Cravens and Tayles (2000) maintain that conventional management accounting is mainly tactical, not strategic in orientation. These writers have identified a number of MA techniques that are considered as SMA techniques because these techniques possess one or more SMA characteristics, that is: marketing/ environmentally oriented, competitor-focused, long-term/ forward-looking oriented. Shank and Govindarajan (1993) state that SMA differ from conventional management accounting in terms of of their view of:

(a) what the most useful way to analyze costs
(b) what is the cost analysis objective
(c) how to try to understand cost behavior

Thus, to understand SMA, we need to understand (a) the subject of strategic management and then (b) what management accounting techniques are relevant to support strategic management practices in enterprises. (a) and (b) are closely related mainly in that a number of SMA techniques (or approaches) are firmly grounded on strategic management theories. For example, Shank and Govindarajan's (1993) strategic cost management is very much based on Michael Porter's value chain model. [Note: SMA techniques also adopt notions from other management disciplines, such as marketing, supply chain management, quality management, knowledge management, etc; thus, the subject is quite difficult to master, see Ho (2011) .]

In this article, I am not prepared to elaborate what strategic management is; here, I want to emphasize that strategic management thinking is more external and future focused, as compared with operations management thinking. Thus, management accounting support for strategic management offers externally oriented accounting information such as customer accounting and competitor cost assessment as well as future oriented accounting information such as activity based costing (more concerned about cost behaviour in the long run) and balanced scorecard (with balanced performance assessment criteria for long term and short term considerations). In their discussion of strategic cost management, Shank and Govindarajan (1993) have a very compact way to relate SMA to strategic management, which is: a company can gain sustainable competitive advantage by (a) controlling strategic cost drivers better than competitors, and (b) reconfiguring its value chain appropriately. The following diagram depicts the relation of SMA with strategic management:




In general, we can classify SMA techniques as falling into the following categories (Cinquini and Andrea, 200): (i) competitor-oriented techniques, (ii) long-term/ future-oriented techniques, (iii) process/ activity oriented techniques, and (iv) customer-oriented techniques. Management Accountants make use of these SMA techniques to fulfill their business functions in scorekeeping, attention-directing and problem solving with regard to corporate strategic management. By doing so, they are then able to change their colleagues' perception of them as bean counters.

MA academics and professionals have been formulating and reviewing SMA techniques. One fundamental question in review of SMA techniques is: is a specific SMA techique really "strategic" in orientation, see for example CIMA (2007) paper on throughput accounting review. Besides, MA academics have been conducting empirical studies on actual SMA usage in business enterprises; they are aware that business enterprises may not practise SMA the ways the academics or the Management Accounting professional bodies expect even if ther SMA techniques are based on sound economic logic. The adoption of SMA  techniques, like other forms of organizational innovation, can create organizational conflicts and tensions. This is because SMA practices are carrried out in enterprises that are human systems with rational-economic as well as non-rational-economic logic in operation. At other times, corporate management are interested in certain SMA information, e.g. competitor performance appraisal info., but their management accountants have difficulties to obtain and compile this information. It can also be the case that the management accountant of a specific company is not the best person (e.g. not senior enough) to champion an SMA implementation project in this enterprise. Besides, some of the SMA techniques have been mainly implemented by staffs other than management accountants, e.g. target cost management (Jack, 2008). On this topic of evaluation of SMA adoption, some SMA theorists have investigated the factors that affect the introduction of SMA in enterprises, such as Ma and Tayles (2009). I am sure evaluation of SMA practices will go on.


References

1. CIMA (2007) "Theory of constraints and throughput accounting" Topic Gateway Series No. 26.
2. Cinquini, L, and Andrea, T. (2007) "Is the adoption of Strategic Management Accounting techniques really "strategy-driven"? Evidence from a survey", MIPRA paper no. 11819. (url: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/11819/)
3. Comparative analysis of SMA: http://www.fachverlag.de/sbr/pdfarchive/einzelne_pdf/sbr_2006_july-234-258.pdf
4. Guilding, C., Cravens, K.S. and Tayles, M. (2000) "An international comparison of strategic management accounting practices", Management Accounting Research 11, pp. 113-135.
5. Jack, L. (2008) "Cost management discussion paper: From gate to plate: towards collaborative target cost management in agriculture and food", October, CIMA, UK.
6. Ma, Y. and Tayles, M. (2009) "On the emergence of strategic management accounting: an institutional perpsective", Accounting and Business Research, 39(5), pp. 1-22.
7. On Strategic Management Accounting (ACCA): http://www2.accaglobal.com/archive/sa_oldarticles/43981
8. Shank, J.K. and Govindarajan, V. (1993) Strategic Cost Management, The Free Press.
9. Strategic management accounting and control: http://astro.temple.edu/~banker/Accounting/StrategicManagementAccountingHandbookChapter.pdf
10. Strategic Management Accounting techniques: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/09/strategic-management-accounting.html
11. Strategic management accounting and balanced scorecard: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0077098595/74296/ch17.pdf
12. Strategic management accounting and decision making: http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/104/2/02Whole.pdf
13. The strategic scorecards: http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/58/47/72/PDF/SSRN.pdf
14. Organizational configurations and strategic management accounting: http://webs2002.uab.es/dep-economia-empresa/documents/09-2.pdf
15. Strategic management accounting and contingency framework articles: http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9789514287091/isbn9789514287091.pdf
16. Strategic management accounting: lost in a name: http://www.sml.hw.ac.uk/documents/dp2010-aef05.pdf

3 main levels in research methods: a brief note

Students studying research methods should be aware of the different "levels" in research methods. For example, Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2007) introduced an onion model on research with the following levels:

Level 6 (top): philosophies (e.g. positivism, realism, interpretivism, etc.)
Level 5: approaches (e.g. deductive and inductive approaches)
Level 4: strategies (e.g. experiment, survey, case study, action research, grounded theory, etc)
Level 3: choices (e.g. mono method, mixed methods, and multi-method)
Level 2: time horizons (e.g. cross-sectional, longitudinal)
Level 1 (bottom): techniques and procedures (ie various data collection techniques)

In my own research on systems thinking (Ho, 1996), I discerned three main levels in research work:

Level 3: Theoetical levels (e.g. hard systems thinking, soft systems thinking, and critical systems thinking)
Level 2: Methodological levels (e.g. hard systems methodology, soft systems methodology and critical systems methodology)
Level 1: Techniques (e.g rich picture building exercise, cognitive mapping technique, various quantitative methods)

When you formulate your research design in research work, try to anchor your research methods to your choseen research philosophy properly (ie perspective anchoring); try to be aware of when you have made a theoretical switch from one mode of thinking to another, e.g. from hard systems thinking mode to soft systems thinking mode (ie perspective switch). The following diagram is illustrative (Ho, 1996):

In general, you need to be aware of the works of Burrell and Morgan (1979) on sociological paradigms, Avision and Fitzgerald's (20003) discussion on methodologies, contemporary systems thinking, and other research methods publications as related to the various levels in research methods.


Related notes
Note 1

Note 2

References

1. Avison, D. and Fitzgerald, G. (2003) Information Systems Development: Methodologies, Techniques and Tools,  McGraw Hill.
2. Burrell, G., & Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis: Elements of the Sociology of Corporate Life. London: Heinemann
3. Ho, J.K.K. (1996). “MPSB Research Explained”, pp. 843-852, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 47, Stockton.
4. Saunders, M., Lewis, P., and Thornhill, A. (2007) Research Methods for Business Students, Prentice Hall.