Download An Investigation of the Placing and Timing of Financial

Reconceptulising Accounting
and its Connections to Strategy
Wai Fong Chua
University of New South Wales
Aim
To reconceptualise how we
research accounting and its
connections to strategy.
Accounting, Measuring, Reporting and Strategizing
– Re-Using Verbs
 Accounting – verb or noun?
 Over-emphasis on noun form.
 Strategy – verb or noun?
 Over-emphasis on noun.
What is wrong with the over-emphasis on nouns?
 Accounting and strategy become black boxes.
 We ignore an analysis of:

Activities.

Connections between activities.

Connections among activities.

Connections among actors, actants in particular space-times.

Multiple translations and transformations of accounting and
strategy.
 We ignore accounting and strategising.
What does it mean to study accounting/strategy
as verbs?
Accounting / Strategy
Mediator
↓
Active
Translator
Transformer
Mediated
Activities
Translated
Activities
 Localizing the global
(Latour 2005).
 Redistribute the local
(Latour 2005).
 Connecting sites and
time.
 Globalising the local.
What does it mean to study accounting/strategy as
verbs?
 The enactment of strategy is:
 A constant
 A fluid
movement; circulates in networks.
translation and re-translation.
Occurs in multiple sets and times.
Is mediated by numerous actors (human and non-human),
texts, numbers.
Research Design and Methods
Localising the global co-product
 The field study
 OzCom
 The

Major telecommunications carrier

Incorporated in Australia in 1991

Large capital investments in early years averaging
AUD$600 million per annum

Market capitalization of AUD$20 billion (as at 2000)
alliance: OzCom Infrastructure

OzCom, Atlantic, EuroCom, Suppliers A and B
Research Design and Methods
 Data collection
Approximate Period Covered
Length of Time
Interviews
Meetings and Presentations attended
Observation Days (ranging from ½ day to full day)
Documents
October 1997 - December 1999
26 Months
27
61
28
##
 Data Analysis

NUDIST

Strauss and Corbin’s coding framework
Network of Relationships in OzCom Infrastructure
OzCom Infrastructure
EuroCom
Global Prices
OzCom
Finance
Engineering
‘Inadequate’ Forecasting Technology
Procurement
Government
Atlantic
License
80% Australian Content
Ready-made Technology
Accounting
Technologies
Project Milestones
BPIs
Price Schedules
Cost Experiments
Suppliers
Benchmarking
Buyer
Group
Market
Demand
Benchmarking
More Expertise
Ready-made Prices
80% Australian Content
Local Support
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net
 The formative years
 Building
 An
a telecommunication network

“Ready-made” technology

“Value generating” partners

“Ready-made” prices
attempt to manage: “time is the essence”
 Cost

Project milestones measure

Privileging time over cost
overruns
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
 Designing two control frameworks


Fixed price schedules
Business performance indices (BPIs)
 Idiosyncratic
failure”


interpretation of “value” and “BPI
Ambiguities
Asymmetries
 Control
conflict
frameworks as sources of controversy and
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
 Devising accounting control measures
 Cost per subscriber measure
 Focusing
on committed/capacity cost
 Total
cost does not matter! Cost per subscriber will
control costs
 “Low
success” with the cost per subscriber measure

Growth in the subscriber base

Inadequate sales forecasting system
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
 Operation break-even (OBE) measure
 Focusing
on committed cost and “network support
cost”
 Struggles
to define OBE

Inviting suppliers to craft a measure

Accessing vital commercially-sensitive data

Cooperation??
 Abandoning
OBE
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
 Incentive scheme and budget constraints
 Recasting

the cost problem as an incentive problem
Segregating ‘total’ cost into:
 Linking

“network support costs”, and

“other network costs”
payment for “network support costs” to BPIs

Weak diagnostic capacity

Ambiguity
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
 Incentive scheme and budget constraints (Cont’d)
 Imposing
budget constraints on “other network costs”

Asymmetrical distribution of knowledge

Growth in market demand for ICT
BPIs and total spend to supply managers’
compensation
 Linking
Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)
 Enlisting the support of allies
 “Internal”

support
Engineering vs. Finance
 “International

user group”
Benchmarking
 EuroCom

Negotiating “global prices”
Theorizing the empirics
 Localizing the Global

Embedding a ‘strategic alliance’ in local action.
 Redistributing the local

The unseen presence of EuroCom, Atlantic

Diverse actors

Struggles over accounting

Remaking of accounting

Remaking of strategic alliance.
 Connecting sites and times

Atlantic, EuroCom. Then and now.
 Globalizing the local?