Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the sensitivity of economic efficiency rankings of water businesses to the choice of alternative physical and accounting capital input measures. Design/methodology/approach: Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to compute efficiency rankings...

Purpose – Annual reports are perceived to be important sources of information about government departments' performance, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness. This paper aims to report on an empirical study that explores the current disclosure practices by Australian government...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the workings of the internal specifier/provider arrangement, a new organizational form that is not required by government mandate but has become common place in the Australian public sector. Design/methodology/approach – The...

Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to merge two traditions in management accounting change – design theory and action research – to explain findings from a case study of introducing a cost leadership initiative. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is an example of action...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to document the types of and any changes in the budgeting and performance management practices of New Zealand primary educational organisations and explain why they occurred using an institutional theory framework. In doing so, it will provide an...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and critically evaluate the systems of accounting and accountability for the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in Kenya. It suggests a new framework of accounting and accountability that places the goals and aspirations expressed in public...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine an effort by management of a private higher education institution in Indonesia to replace its informal, relationship‐based performance system which relied on physical discourse – overseeing operational details that focus on physical...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain the institutionalization process of the performance management system (PMS) in a Malaysian government‐linked company (GLC). The study specifically looks at the changes brought by the GLC transformation programme introduced by the government....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain three phases of modernisation change in the Sydney water sector from the early 1980s to 2007 and comments on how those phases of change are likely to be impacting the nascent development of water management processes in Sydney‐based water...

Purpose – Two reasons are identified for studying the impact of capacity measurements on organizations. First, firms which make the best use of their resources can be expected to outperform their competitors. The second arises from the potential structuration effect of capacity metrics. Such...