Harri I. Kulmala

DIMECC Ltd.

In recent years, the role and importance of performance measurement in public organisations has been much emphasised. However, the discussion on the issue so far has been on a rather general level. This paper aims to understand the challenges faced by public organisations in developing performance measurement systems (PMSs) for a specific manageria...

It is rather typical in organizations that the oldest or the most experienced professionals are taken into the leaders' positions. However, the expertise in profession does not always refer to good skills in leadership. This phenomenon is recognized both in earlier studies and in this study. Leadership skills can be taught successfully to leaders i...

In this paper we model the real cost structures of three customer-supplier relationships through a game theory approach. The three cases demonstrate the benefits of mutual interfirm trust in financially measurable terms. Indeed, interfirm trust can decrease the transaction costs of the relationship, thus providing competitive advantage for the part...

The relational and dynamic aspects of interfirm trust and dependence produce a crucial, but insufficiently addressed, challenge for successful relationship coordination. In this paper we concentrate on this issue by examining how trust and dependence co-evolve in customer–supplier relationships. Building on a case study, we develop propositions and...

Profit-sharing rules applied together with open-book accounting are a syn-ergetic combination that encourages SME networks to continuous innovation. This paper studies profit-sharing rules that work as incentives for cost reduc-tion in networks. We describe a case study of a steel-roof manufacturing and assembly network, where profit sharing became...

Purpose This paper aims to identify the specific problems faced by the Finnish public sector organizations in designing and implementing performance measurement systems (PMS). Design/methodology/approach An understanding of the problems is obtained by examining three case organizations in practice. In order to support the analysis of the empirical...

Various supplier networks consist of many different types of interorganizational relationships. The coordination and evaluation of these kinds of networks is becoming more challenging as the importance and relative power of a single supplier increases due to the centralization of purchases. The main objective of this study is to measure mutual inte...

In this study, the basis of understanding and analyzing the business framework for measurement in competitive environment is created. Metering issues are currently discussed widely because investment decisions for automated meter reading (AMR) are currently under consideration in many European countries. The possibilities that new technology in the...

Innovation is about more than technology and in order to get the expected returns from investment in innovation it is essential that: 1. Product/service and process innovation efforts are combined with business model innovation efforts to optimize the benefits from the result of the technical innovation effort. 2. The lower the technology component...

Various supplier networks consist of many different types of interorganizational relationships. The coordination and evaluation of these kinds of networks is becoming more challenging as the importance and relative power of a single supplier increases due to the centralization of purchases. The main objective of this study is to measure mutual inte...

Purpose The aim of this paper is to create a framework in which the behaviour of unit costs in public sector outsourcing situations can be analysed. Design/methodology/approach Explorative case study concentrating on theory building. Findings Public sector organisations have not concentrated on analysing or modelling the unit cost behaviour in ou...

This paper suggests that a holistic network-level Performance Measurement (PM) system could be used to control the business process and to guide the actors in networks to pursue common targets of the network. However, in the current literature, empirical evidence on network-wide PM seems to be limited to financial measures. Financial information al...

Kokonaisten toimitusketjujen hallinta ja yritysten välisten yhteistoimintasuhteiden kehittäminen eli verkostoituminen on nousemassa myös metsätalouden palvelutuotannossa toimivien yritysten strategiseksi haasteeksi. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää verkostoitumisen nykytilanne, edellytykset ja mahdollisuudet metsäpalveluita tuottavien yr...

Electricity distribution business is shifting from traditional utilities to commercially driven companies operating in competitive service markets. Some business segments in the field of electricity distribution business are under corporatization. This change requires studies and development of new kinds of business models. To understand the possib...

Purpose The aim of the paper is to describe the differences between networked and non‐networked firms' methods intended to increase profitability, methods for intended growth, implemented and intended openness development, and experiences of networking. Design/methodology/approach The research approach is empirical and descriptive. Data were gathe...

The aim of the paper is to describe interorganizational operations in the value chains and experiences of networking. The research approach is empirical and descriptive. Data was gathered by a mail survey from Finnish software producers. The results of this study indicate that networked firms had conducted 64% of defined interorganizational operati...

Open-book accounting has been mentioned both as a means of improving the cost efficiency of supply chains and as a tool for building trust into customer–supplier relationships. However, there is little empirical evidence of how to make open-book accounting work and avoid potential pitfalls. This study, which is based on a contingency framework, con...

This study describes cost management development projects in three customer–supplier relationships and analyzes these projects from the perspective of relationships. Differences in suppliers’ objectives, actions taken, and results gained in the projects were found in the explorative study, although the customer's objective was the same in all cases...

Recent years have seen rising interest in network economy. The first reason is globalization. The world has been shrunk by information technology and open economies. The second reason is that companies have to take care of costs to meet the descending price rate of the market. Competition in the mature lines of business especially requires continuo...

Both the academic and business worlds discussed networking a lot in the 1990's. Many perspectives on networking issues have emerged. However, management accounting and especially cost management have not widely been studied in networks. This paper concentrates on assessing supply networks' cost management practices and analyzing cost management nee...

The aim of this paper is to describe the actions taken to implement the use of the win-win principle in a customer-supplier relationship. The case companies, one supplier and one customer, belong to a global equipment provider's supply network. In action, science researchers become active participants in the process under study: they become change...

ABSTRACT The aim of the paper is to present a new ,method ,for simplifying activity- based costing. The need ,to simplify ,relates to the ,implementation ,and updating of the ,accounting system. The simplifying is done ,by dividing activities into three levels and by using ,a product ,category portfolio. The case company,for the method,operates in...

This study describes cost management development projects in three customer-supplier relationships and analyzes these projects from the perspective of relationships. Differences in suppliers' objectives, actions taken, and results gained in the projects were found in the explorative study, although the customer's objective was the same in all cases...

Research and development costs may be an important cost factor in some industries. Even more importantly, many costs may be greatly affected by product design and development. Thus, product engineers and designers are very important customers for cost accounting. However, recent studies have shown that in general engineers and designers are dissati...

Proceedings of the 8th Manufacturing Accounting Research Conference. Trento, Italy, 18 - 20 June 2007 Inter-organizational cost management is a fairly new phenomenon that has been studied primarily in hierarchical networks of the car and electronics industry. As these networks are usually led by large multinational firms, inter-organizational cost...