Exploiting existing resources or exploring new ones is an old dilemma. As exploitation consists in “the refinement and extension of existing competences, technologies and paradigms” (March, 1991, p. 85) and exploration means “experimentation with new alternatives” (March, 1991, p. 85),...

To raise children, to guarantee a certain way of life, and to retire with a certain amount of capital can be accomplished in many different ways, particularly when couples are faced with the possibility of unemployment or poor returns to savings while trying to balance current and future...

This survey reviews the micro-economic foundations of the analysis of life insurance markets. The first part outlines a simple theory of insurance needs based on the life-cycle hypothesis. The second part builds on contract theory to expose the main issues in life insurance design within a...

Is an implementation of a management control system in a public company a lever of change ? A case study was carried out with the French National Railway Company between 1996 and 1998. The management control adapts to the strategic and structural change. The objectives are to decentralize the...

Profit manipulation has been largely studied through Positive Accounting Theory (PAT). However, the weakness of the results obtained would suggest using different theoretical and methodological approaches to examine this subject. In France, management controllers play a central role in profit...

During the last decades, research in the field of management control has been characterised by the emergence of a great variety of trends which are referred to as “critical”. This study reviews critical management control research in Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS) from 1976...

The budget process has been a subject of debate for many years and in some companies this has implied the suppression of budgetary control. The first examples of companies managing without budgets can now be studied in order to understand how new these ways of managing are. We’re presenting in...