The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance publishes the 5th UK Alternative Finance Industry Report with the support of CME Group Foundation. The UK online alternative finance market reached £6.12 billion in 2017.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the diffusion and adoption motives for benchmarking in Norwegian firms. Based on a questionnaire survey, we conduct a descriptive analysis of the types of benchmarking used, to what extent firms expect to implement or increase the use in the future, and its potential use in combination with other management practices. The data indicate that Norwegian firms formally use benchmarking as a management practice. Benchmarking is clearly used in conjunction with and alongside other management accounting and control practices. Benchmarking is often understood as a practice that could replace budgets. We suggest a more complex picture, where benchmarking seems complementary to budgeting. Finally, use of KPIs, as well as Big Data Analytics add complexities in choosing efficient management control packages. Overall, our paper theorizes about benchmarking and reflects on the future usefulness of benchmarking and interdependencies with other management practices.

In this essay, we provide a macro-level historical perspective on the emergence of Budgetary Control as a discipline about 100 years ago. The classic book by James O. McKinsey on Budgetary Control is compared with more recent works critical of Budgetary Control. The purpose is to unravel the origins and emergence of Budgetary Control and provide a reflective perspective on one of the 20th century's most important and studied management ideas and practices. We find that the normative descriptions of Budgetary Control from 100 years ago are less different than those portrayed by the supporters of more recent ideas on management control, such as Beyond Budgeting. Ideas of delegation, dynamic resource allocation, and the importance of using numbers to support and enable managers share strong similarities. Nevertheless, there are certain differences, particularly regarding fixed versus relative targets. Our essay provides a more nuanced view of traditional Budgetary Control than as expressed in the contemporary rhetoric of ideas critical toward Budgetary Control. Since we base our work on desk research, its empirical foundation is not finite. Future research could, for example, draw on bibliometric methods to map a more detailed pattern of Budgetary Control's historical emergence. Given the rapid diffusion of ideas in present-day organizations, examining historical ideas and their contestants could be fruitful. Practitioners may benefit from this essay as we will suggest that new ideas and innovations may not be as game-changing as claimed by their instigators dramatic and even hyperbolic rhetoric. Organizations could benefit from a critical mind-set when considering and evaluating new concepts and ideas.

AbstractIn this paper the virus theory is applied to gain insight into the intra-organizational diffusion and evolution of the Balanced Scorecard. The study draws on longitudinal data about the use of the Balanced Scorecard in a Norwegian bank, by interviews with managers and rich internal documents. The findings suggest that virus theory offers a diverse set of theoretical mechanisms that can describe a multitude of organizational processes in the evolution of a management idea. Specifically, it is found that the case organization was infected directly through top management´s contact with the idea and indirectly through an external institution. Interestingly, there was an incubation period and the idea was lingering in the organization without implementation. However, organizational immunity to the idea was averted by management, and new routines and structures led to replication. Furthermore, the idea mutated to resemble more a measurement than a strategical tool. The concept was eventually deactivated in the organization but may still lie dormant. The paper concludes that virus theory is well-suited for analysing the intra-organizational diffusion and evolution of management ideas. In this way, virus theory can fill in some of the blind spots of management fashion theory.

ChatGPT, a language-learning model chatbot, has garnered considerable attention for its ability to respond to users' questions. Using data from 14 countries and 186 institutions, we compare ChatGPT and student performance for 28,085 questions from accounting assessments and textbook test banks. As of January 2023, ChatGPT provides correct answers for 56.5 percent of questions and partially correct answers for an additional 9.4 percent of questions. When considering point values for questions, students significantly outperform ChatGPT with a 76.7 percent average on assessments compared to 47.5 percent for ChatGPT if no partial credit is awarded and 56.5 percent if partial credit is awarded. Still, ChatGPT performs better than the student average for 15.8 percent of assessments when we include partial credit. We provide evidence of how ChatGPT performs on different question types, accounting topics, class levels, open/closed assessments, and test bank questions. We also discuss implications for accounting education and research.

Purpose This study investigates which factors are conducive to individual job performance in large-scale work from home (WFH) arrangements that rely on the current generation of technology, such as information and communications platforms. Design/methodology/approach The researchers proposed a research model based on research on WFH arrangements. The model was tested based on a survey of 1,183 respondents who engaged in large-scale WFH arrangements during an extensive national COVID-19 lockdown. Findings The proposed research model explains 41% of the variance in individual job performance in WFH arrangements. The findings show that the strongest positive predictors for job performance are home office quality and the reach and communication quality of information and communications platforms. A sense of professional isolation was found to have a negative impact. Originality/value This study is based on a unique situation of large-scale mandatory WFH arrangements that are comparable to a natural experiment, and it is one of the first studies to conduct an extensive exploration of WFH that relies on the current generation of digital technology.

Teori og praksis innen økonomistyring har endret seg som følge av teknologisk utvikling og nye digitale verktøy. I denne artikkelen utvikler vi diskusjonen gjennom å undersøke to sentrale konsept og verktøy i norske virksomheter: balansert målstyring og business intelligence. Basert på en spørreundersøkelse beskriver vi spredning, utforming og bruk av de to verktøyene. Resultatene viser at begge konsept har stor utbredelse i norske virksomheter. Undersøkelsen indikerer at de ofte brukes side om side. Det fører videre til en diskusjon om interaksjonen mellom balansert målstyring og business intelligence-systemer.

The Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing is, quite simply, the definitive reference work in the field. Carefully curated by leading tourism scholar Dimitrios Buhalis, this is the largest tourism management and marketing ontology that has ever been put together and offers a holistic examination of this interdisciplinary field This is a 4-volume set. Volume 1 contains entries A–D, Volume 2 contains entries E–I, Volume 3 contains entries J–R and Volume 4 contains entries S–Z. Page numbers start from 1 in each volume.

This paper examines the history and trajectory of economic value added (EVA), an accounting concept and calculative technique introduced and popularised by the US-based consulting firm Stern Stewart in the early 1990s. The paper applies the lens of management fashion, a theoretical perspective in management and organisation studies focusing on the macro-level evolution of management concepts and ideas as they rise and fall in popularity and salience. The historical popularity trajectory which emerges in the case of EVA is a typical 'rise and fall' story often seen in the cases of popular management concepts and ideas. During the upswing phase of the 1990s, supporters and boosters of EVA hyped the concept and created a fashion wave. Since the mid-2000s, there has been a perfect storm of events, which has led the EVA concept to lose out in the marketplace for management concepts and ideas.

This study examines the influence of cultural regions on the interdependence between delegation of authority and other management control (MC) practices. In particular, we assess whether one of the central contentions of agency theory, that incentive contracting and delegation are jointly determined, holds in different cultural regions. Drawing on prior literature, we hypothesise that the MC practices that operate as a complement to delegation vary depending on societal values and preferences, and that MC practices other than incentive contracting will complement delegation in firms in non-Anglo cultural regions. Using data collected from 584 strategic business units across three Western cultural regions (Anglo, Germanic, Nordic), our results show that the interdependence between delegation and incentive contracting is confined to Anglo firms. In the Nordic and Germanic regions, we find that strategic and action planning participation operate as a complement to delegation, while delegation is also complemented by manager selection in Nordic firms. Overall, our study demonstrates that cultural values and preferences significantly influence MC interdependence, and suggests that caution needs to be taken in making cross-cultural generalisations about the complementarity of MC practices.

Tidligere forskning har vist at norske foretak benytter ulike typer styringsverktøy. I dette kapitlet fokuserer vi på et spesifikt styringsverktøy, balansert målstyring (BMS). og ser nærmere på utviklingstendenser knyttet til spredningen, bruken og effektene av BMS i praksis i perioden 2015–2018. Studien bruker data fra to elektroniske spørreundersøkelser av bruken av BMS i norske foretak gjennomført i 2015 og 2018. Undersøkelsen fra 2015 omfattet bare store foretak, mens den fra 2018 omfattet både store og mellomstore foretak. Resultatene viser at BMS er et utbredt styringsverktøy blant store og mellomstore norske foretak. Selv om flertallet bruker BMS som et relativt enkelt prestasjonsmålingssystem, er det en tendens at bruken blir mer avansert. Disse funnene blir diskutert i lys av den internasjonale forskningslitteraturen om BMS spesielt og økonomistyringsverktøy generelt.

PurposeThe diffusion of management accounting innovations (MAIs) is the focus of much debate in the management accounting research community. Extant contributions have drawn on a large of number of theories, including innovation diffusion theory and various sociologically inspired theories such as management fashion. The purpose of this paper is to examine and develop Røvik’s virus theory in the context of how MAIs diffuse. The paper further evaluates and elaborates on the potential usefulness of the virus perspective to empirical research on MAIs.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a conceptual and explorative research approach. The paper introduces the virus perspective and compares this perspective with several other theoretical perspectives often used in studies of the diffusion of MAIs. This enables the identification of characteristics specific to the virus perspective. The paper also re-examines a number of prior studies of MAIs and identifies different virus characteristics implicit in these studies.FindingsThe findings of the paper imply that the virus perspective is a useful basis for empirical research on MAIs. The virus perspective differs from other theoretical perspectives in several respects and is particularly suited for longitudinal studies of both MAIs and organizational change. However, the perspective could be used at other levels of analysis as well. The extant studies reviewed in this paper provide support for the viral characteristics of MAIs. The paper also identifies and discusses avenues for future research using the virus perspective as a theoretical lens.Originality/valueThe virus perspective has been given little attention in research on MAIs, as well as more generally within accounting research. This research paper demonstrates that the virus perspective offers a rich and valuable conceptual framework for studying how demand-side organizations are affected by MAIs over extensive periods of time. The paper also discusses the implications of the virus perspective with respect to the research method.

The diffusion of management accounting innovations (MAIs) is the focus of much debate in the management accounting research community. Extant contributions have drawn on a large of number of theories, including innovation diffusion theory and various sociologically inspired theories such as management fashion. In this paper we demonstrate how Røvik’s virus theory offers an alternative perspective on how MAIs diffuse. Whereas other theories have offered much insight into the supply-side of MAIs, the demand-side of MAIs is relatively understudied, and adoption and implementation is often treated as an either-or decision. The perspective outlined in this paper offers a rich set of theoretical mechanisms that can be used to study how demand-side organizations are affected by MAIs over an extensive period post-adoption. The paper also discusses how the virus perspective can be used in empirical research on MAIs.

The UK online alternative finance industry market volume grew by35% year-on-year to reach£ 6.19 billion in 2017. P2P Business Lending retained the top spot as the largest market segment in online alternative finance with£ 2 billion in transaction volume in 2017 and 66% year-onyear growth rate. P2P Consumer Lending recorded just over£ 1.4 billion in 2017, whilst P2P Property Lending achieved£ 1.2 billion and Invoice Trading registered£ 787 million. Equity-based Crowdfunding grew by 22% year-on-year to reach£ 333 million, but Debt-based Securities stagnated to£ 79 million, a drop of£ 5 million compared to 2016. Whilst Real Estate Crowdfunding increased by more than 200% to grow to£ 211 million, Donation-based Crowdfunding only grew by 2.5% and Reward-based Crowdfunding decreased by£ 4 million year-on-year to register£ 44 million for 2017.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to the benchmarking literature by examining the historical emergence and evolution of benchmarking using the management fashion perspective as a theoretical lens. Design/methodology/approach The research approach followed in this paper can be characterized as explorative and theoretical. Insights from different data sources have been combined to provide a rich description of the emergence and evolution of benchmarking. Findings This analysis casts new light on several aspects of benchmarking’s emergence and evolution pattern. The characteristics of the benchmarking idea give it potential as a fashionable management tool. The widespread popularity and longevity of benchmarking can to a large extent be explained by the efforts of various actors to turn benchmarking into an institution. Research limitations/implications The paper is explorative and is limited by a reliance on secondary sources. Originality/value Although some researchers have noted that benchmarking could be viewed as a management fashion, management fashion theory has, only to a very limited extent, been used as a theoretical lens in the context of benchmarking. This research paper demonstrates that management fashion theory can provide valuable insights for research on benchmarking.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether certain configurations of management controls dominate in certain societies (socio-cultural contexts) and whether the effectiveness of a given archetype of management control systems (MCSs) varies depending on the socio-cultural setting the society in which it operates. The study focuses on three socio-cultural groups and the corresponding institutional contexts (an Anglo-Saxon group, a Central European group, and a Northern European group) and three MCS archetypes (delegated bureaucratic control, delegated output control, and programmable output control). We use unique data from a cross-national, interview-based survey encompassing 610 strategic business units from nine countries (seven European countries plus Canada and Australia). The idea that firms tend to adapt MCSs to the socio-cultural context does not gain empirical support in this study. No significant differences in the distribution of MCSs between the three socio-cultural groups are noted. However, we do find that programmable output control has a more positive impact on effectiveness in Anglo-Saxon cultures, while delegated output control has a more positive impact on effectiveness in Northern Europe. Taken together these findings indicate that distinct differences between societies make a particular MCS design more appropriate in a given society, but where such differences are not dramatic (as in the present case), multiple MCS designs can be found in the same society.