1,721,049 research outputs found
To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before: A Critical Realist Approach to Space Accounting
Get PDFPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how critical realism can be mobilised as a meta-theory, or philosophical under-labourer, for research on space accounting and how this may further inquiries into the known as well as the unknown implications of space exploration and commercialisation. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper that applies critical realism to the field of space accounting using cost management in space contracts as an illustrative example. Findings: Adopting a naturalised version of critical realism that recognises the complex interplay between natural and social realities, the author nuances the distinction between intransitive and transitive objects of knowledge and advances a framework that may be used as a starting point for a transfactual mode of reasoning. The author then applies this mode of reasoning to the topic of cost management in the space sector and illustrates how it may enhance our insights into what causes cost overruns in space contracts. Research limitations/implications: By adopting a naturalised version of critical realism, the author establishes a philosophical framework that can support the broadly based, inter-disciplinary research agenda that has been envisaged for research on space accounting and possibly inform policy development. Originality/value: This paper is the first to apply a critical realist perspective to space accounting and lays a philosophical foundation for future research on the topic.</p
For Structure: A Critical Realist Critique of the Use of Actor-Network Theory in Critical Accounting Research
Get PDFPurpose – The author contrasts actor-network theory (ANT) and critical realism (CR) as two contemporary approaches to critical accounting research and advances a critique centred on the neglect of social structures in the former perspective. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper based on a critical reading of ANT inspired by CR.Findings – Although the author does not question the ability of ANT to be imbued with critical intent per se, he is critical of its tendency to downplay the significance of pre-existing, social structures and the concomitant neglect of enduring and ubiquitous states of structural stability as an ontological possibility. This may lead to an overly optimistic view that naively valorises agency as a largely unfettered engine of emancipation. By contrast, CR offers a deeper and more nuanced ontological conception of how social structures constrain as well as enable emancipation. In contrast to the highly empiricist epistemology of ANT, it also provides an epistemological rationale for going beyond empirical descriptions of how social structures work to advance theoretically informed, explanatory critiques that are better suited for realising less easily observable opportunities for emancipation.Research implications – The paper advances the debate about how social structures should be examined in critical accounting research and the relative merits of doing so in advancing emancipatory projects.Originality/value – The paper is an attempt to contrast ANT and CR as two distinct approaches to critical accounting research and thus extends the debate about what such research is and could be.<br/
Rationale for adopting activity-based costing in hospitals : Three longitudinal case studies
Get PDFAbstractIn the 1990’s, a large number of Finnish hospitals began implementing new cost accounting systems, which were aimed at pricing the hospital outputs at full cost. Often the method of choice was activity-based costing, which was in the process of being transferred from the manufacturing industry to health care service production. The aim of this study is to analyse the motivations and rationale of this phenomenon in the light of three longitudinal case studies.The first case study is archival, using documents produced between 1996 and 2002. In the second case study, the data consists mainly of research diaries and personal observation and covers a hospital district activity-based costing and pricing project of 2000–2001. The third case study covers budgeting and costing development in a private, non-profit hospital by analysing documents and field notes. Institutional theory is used to interpret the findings in the three case studies.The theoretical framework used in analysing the data draws on Roberts and Greenwood’s (1997) ideas, according to which an organisation’s rational and efficiency-seeking actions are constrained by both economic (bounded rationality) and institutional factors. The results indicate that different constraints imposed on efficiency-seeking behaviour such as activity-based costing implementation may lead to different solutions concerning implementation. It is noteworthy that while all three case organisations represent the health care sector, their approaches to activity-based costing have been quite dissimilar. While institutional theory leads us to believe that managerial accounting systems may be converging due to the institutional pressures, evidence from the case studies supports the notion that this convergence seems limited to the adoption of the systems — function of the systems seems to remain characteristically different.TiivistelmäUseat suomalaiset sairaalat aloittivat 1990-luvulla laajamittaisia kustannuslaskentaprojekteja, joissa tähdättiin täyskatteiseen hinnoitteluun. Usein valittuna menetelmänä oli toimintolaskenta, jota siirrettiin teollisesta toimintaympäristöstä terveydenhuollon palvelutuotantoon. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tarkastella tämän ilmiön syitä ja motiiveja kolmen tapaustutkimuksen valossa, joista kaksi on sairaanhoitopiirejä ja kolmas on voittoa tavoittelemattoman yhteisön omistama yksityinen sairaala.Ensimmäisessä tapaustutkimuksessa aineisto on dokumentteihin perustuvaa arkistomateriaalia vuosilta 1996–2002. Lisäksi kustannuslaskentamallien rakennetta on tarkasteltu käymällä läpi laskelmissa tehtyjä rakenteellisia ja teknisiä ratkaisuja sekä laskentasääntöjä. Toisessa tapaustutkimuksessa aineisto koostuu pääasiassa tutkijan päiväkirjoista ja havainnoista, ja sisältää sairaanhoitopiirin laajuisen kustannuslaskenta- ja hinnoitteluprojektin kuvauksen vuosilta 2000–2001. Kolmannessa tapaustutkimuksessa käydään läpi yksityisen sairaalan budjetoinnin ja kustannuslaskennan kehitystä dokumentteihin ja tutkijan muistiinpanoihin nojautuen.Teoreettisena viitekehyksenä aineiston tulkinnassa käytetään Robertsin ja Greenwoodin (1997) rajoitetun tehokkuuden mallia, jonka mukaan organisaation tehostamispyrkimyksiä rajoittavat sekä taloudelliseen rationaalisuuteen liittyvät tekijät (rajoitettu rationaalisuus) että institutionaaliset tekijät. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että erityyppiset rajoittavat tekijät vaikuttavat organisaatioiden tehokkuuspyrkimyksiin (joihin toimintolaskentaprojektit on luettava) siten, että lopputuloksena on erilaisia sovelluksia toimintolaskennan käyttöönotosta. On huomionarvoista, että vaikka kaikki tutkimuksen kohteena olleet tapaukset ovat erikoissairaanhoidon organisaatiota, niiden tavat ottaa toimintolaskenta käyttöön ovat olleet toisistaan hyvin poikkeavia. Vaikka institutionaaliseen teoriaan perustuvasta tutkimuksesta voikin tehdä sellaisen johtopäätöksen, että ulkoiset paineet muovaavat organisaatioita samanlaisiksi, näiden tapaustutkimusten perusteella on mahdollista väittää, että samanlaisuuden paineet liittyvät laskentajärjestelmien käyttöönottoon järjestelmien toiminnan jäädessä varsin erityyppisiksi.Academic Dissertation to be presented with the assent of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Oulu, for public discussion in Auditorium TA105, Linnanmaa, on December 10th, 2005, at 12 noonAbstract
In the 1990’s, a large number of Finnish hospitals began implementing new cost accounting systems, which were aimed at pricing the hospital outputs at full cost. Often the method of choice was activity-based costing, which was in the process of being transferred from the manufacturing industry to health care service production. The aim of this study is to analyse the motivations and rationale of this phenomenon in the light of three longitudinal case studies.
The first case study is archival, using documents produced between 1996 and 2002. In the second case study, the data consists mainly of research diaries and personal observation and covers a hospital district activity-based costing and pricing project of 2000–2001. The third case study covers budgeting and costing development in a private, non-profit hospital by analysing documents and field notes. Institutional theory is used to interpret the findings in the three case studies.
The theoretical framework used in analysing the data draws on Roberts and Greenwood’s (1997) ideas, according to which an organisation’s rational and efficiency-seeking actions are constrained by both economic (bounded rationality) and institutional factors. The results indicate that different constraints imposed on efficiency-seeking behaviour such as activity-based costing implementation may lead to different solutions concerning implementation. It is noteworthy that while all three case organisations represent the health care sector, their approaches to activity-based costing have been quite dissimilar. While institutional theory leads us to believe that managerial accounting systems may be converging due to the institutional pressures, evidence from the case studies supports the notion that this convergence seems limited to the adoption of the systems — function of the systems seems to remain characteristically different.Tiivistelmä
Useat suomalaiset sairaalat aloittivat 1990-luvulla laajamittaisia kustannuslaskentaprojekteja, joissa tähdättiin täyskatteiseen hinnoitteluun. Usein valittuna menetelmänä oli toimintolaskenta, jota siirrettiin teollisesta toimintaympäristöstä terveydenhuollon palvelutuotantoon. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tarkastella tämän ilmiön syitä ja motiiveja kolmen tapaustutkimuksen valossa, joista kaksi on sairaanhoitopiirejä ja kolmas on voittoa tavoittelemattoman yhteisön omistama yksityinen sairaala.
Ensimmäisessä tapaustutkimuksessa aineisto on dokumentteihin perustuvaa arkistomateriaalia vuosilta 1996–2002. Lisäksi kustannuslaskentamallien rakennetta on tarkasteltu käymällä läpi laskelmissa tehtyjä rakenteellisia ja teknisiä ratkaisuja sekä laskentasääntöjä. Toisessa tapaustutkimuksessa aineisto koostuu pääasiassa tutkijan päiväkirjoista ja havainnoista, ja sisältää sairaanhoitopiirin laajuisen kustannuslaskenta- ja hinnoitteluprojektin kuvauksen vuosilta 2000–2001. Kolmannessa tapaustutkimuksessa käydään läpi yksityisen sairaalan budjetoinnin ja kustannuslaskennan kehitystä dokumentteihin ja tutkijan muistiinpanoihin nojautuen.
Teoreettisena viitekehyksenä aineiston tulkinnassa käytetään Robertsin ja Greenwoodin (1997) rajoitetun tehokkuuden mallia, jonka mukaan organisaation tehostamispyrkimyksiä rajoittavat sekä taloudelliseen rationaalisuuteen liittyvät tekijät (rajoitettu rationaalisuus) että institutionaaliset tekijät. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että erityyppiset rajoittavat tekijät vaikuttavat organisaatioiden tehokkuuspyrkimyksiin (joihin toimintolaskentaprojektit on luettava) siten, että lopputuloksena on erilaisia sovelluksia toimintolaskennan käyttöönotosta. On huomionarvoista, että vaikka kaikki tutkimuksen kohteena olleet tapaukset ovat erikoissairaanhoidon organisaatiota, niiden tavat ottaa toimintolaskenta käyttöön ovat olleet toisistaan hyvin poikkeavia. Vaikka institutionaaliseen teoriaan perustuvasta tutkimuksesta voikin tehdä sellaisen johtopäätöksen, että ulkoiset paineet muovaavat organisaatioita samanlaisiksi, näiden tapaustutkimusten perusteella on mahdollista väittää, että samanlaisuuden paineet liittyvät laskentajärjestelmien käyttöönottoon järjestelmien toiminnan jäädessä varsin erityyppisiksi
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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