Reconceptulising Accounting and its Connections to Strategy

1. Reconceptulising Accounting and its Connections to Strategy Wai Fong Chua University of New South Wales

2. Aim To reconceptualise how we research accounting and its connections to strategy.

3. Accounting – verb or noun? Over-emphasis on noun form. Strategy – verb or noun? Over-emphasis on noun. Accounting, Measuring, Reporting and Strategizing – Re-Using Verbs

4. 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 is wrong with the over-emphasis on nouns?

5. 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? Accounting / Strategy Mediator ↓ Active Translator Transformer Mediated Activities Translated Activities

6. The enactment of strategy is: A constant movement; circulates in networks. A fluid translation and re-translation. Occurs in multiple sets and times. Is mediated by numerous actors (human and non-human), texts, numbers. What does it mean to study accounting/strategy as verbs?

7. Research Design and MethodsLocalising the global co-product • The field study • OzCom • 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) • The alliance: OzCom Infrastructure • OzCom, Atlantic, EuroCom, Suppliers A and B

8. Research Design and Methods • Data collection • Data Analysis • NUDIST • Strauss and Corbin’s coding framework

9. Network of Relationships in OzCom Infrastructure

10. The formative years Building a telecommunication network “Ready-made” technology “Value generating” partners “Ready-made” prices An attempt to manage: “time is the essence” Project milestones measure Privileging time over cost Cost overruns Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net

11. Designing two control frameworks Fixed price schedules Business performance indices (BPIs) Idiosyncratic interpretation of “value” and “BPI failure” Ambiguities Asymmetries Control frameworks as sources of controversy and conflict Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. Incentive scheme and budget constraints Recasting the cost problem as an incentive problem Segregating ‘total’ cost into: “network support costs”, and “other network costs” Linking payment for “network support costs” to BPIs Weak diagnostic capacity Ambiguity Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)

15. Incentive scheme and budget constraints (Cont’d) Imposing budget constraints on “other network costs” Asymmetrical distribution of knowledge Growth in market demand for ICT Linking BPIs and total spend to supply managers’ compensation Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)

16. Enlisting the support of allies “Internal” support Engineering vs. Finance “International user group” Benchmarking EuroCom Negotiating “global prices” Analyzing OzCom Infrastructure in its Action Net (Cont’d)

17. 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? Theorizing the empirics