Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management

Guthrie, James; Manes-Rossi, Francesca; Orelli, Rebecca Levy; Sforza, Vincenzo

2024 Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management

doi: 10.1108/jpbafm-10-2023-0176

This paper undertakes a structured literature review to analyse the literature on performance management and measurement (PMM) in universities over the last four decades. Over that time, PMM has emerged as an influential force in universities that impacts their operations and redefines their identity.Design/methodology/approachA structured literature review approach was used to analyse a sample of articles on PMM research from a broad range of disciplines over four decades. This was undertaken to understand the impacts of PMM practices on universities, highlight changes over time and point to avenues for future research.FindingsThe analysis highlights the fact that research on PMM in universities has grown significantly over the 40 years studied. We provide an overview of published articles over four decades regarding content, themes, theories, methods and impacts. We provide an empirical basis for discussing past, present and future university PMM research. The future research avenues offer multiple provocations for scholars and policymakers, for instance, PMM implementation strategies and relationships with various government programs and external evaluation and the role of different actors, particularly academics, in shaping PMM systems.Originality/valueUnlike a traditional literature review, the structured literature review method can develop insights into how the field has changed over time and highlight possible future research. The sample for this literature review differs from previous reviews in covering a broad range of disciplines, including accounting.

Sorrentino, Daniela; Ruggiero, Pasquale; Braga, Alessandro; Mussari, Riccardo

2024 Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management

doi: 10.1108/jpbafm-10-2023-0177

This paper delves into a pivotal juncture within the co-production literature, intersecting with the ongoing debate about performance challenges in public sector accounting scholarship. It explores how public managers conceive and measure the performance of co-produced public services.Design/methodology/approachA case study is conducted on three instances of neighbourhood watching – that is, a type of collective co-production – in a homogeneous institutional setting. The analysis and interpretation of empirical data are guided by a systematic conceptual space delineating the qualities that performance criteria can take in contexts where public services are produced.FindingsFindings reveal that when the co-production activation is driven by both state and lay actors, public managers tend to conceptualise and measure its performance in a way that contributes to building a more structured co-productive space, where the roles to play, how to interact and what to achieve are clearly defined.Originality/valueThis paper breaks new ground by scrutinising the conceptualisation of performance in settings where public services involve actors beyond traditional public administrations. By exploring the diverse “shapes” and meanings that performance can take in co-production arrangements, this paper enriches discussions on how public sector accounting can inform co-production literature.

Frid, Kristina; Funck, Elin K.; Glenngård, Anna H.

2024 Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management

doi: 10.1108/jpbafm-06-2023-0086

This paper aims to extend insights about the relationship between inter-organizational collaboration and approaches to control from the perspective of decision-makers. We investigate the relationship between approaches to control and intended forms of integration between actors responsible for solving the complex problem of integrated person-centered care for elderly with diverse and significant needs.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical study is based on a content analysis of contractual agreements. We have analyzed a total of 118 collaboration agreements and associative documents between all Swedish regions and municipalities.FindingsThe study shows that intended integration is subject to remarkable variation in intended forms of inter-organizational collaboration in this Swedish case. The paper illustrates that decision-makers’ intentions with proposed collaboration in each given context are important for the chosen approach to control. Regardless of intended forms of integration, our study suggests that an imminent soft approach to control is expressed alongside limited signs of hard control. Various forms of intended integration can be managed by the two approaches simultaneously insofar as the agreements appear to have a two-sided purpose.Originality/valueOur paper proposes an empirically driven taxonomy of intended forms of integration initiatives. The taxonomy provides resources for studies about how collaboration can be managed when it is stipulated by national legislation but local self-governance gives actors considerable freedom to decide on how to organize and manage services. By presenting the taxonomy and relating this to approaches of control, our iterative study builds on and adds to a recent stream of research arguing that the relationship between collaboration and approaches to control may by fuzzier and more complex than originally thought.

Fırtın, Cemil Eren

2024 Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management

doi: 10.1108/jpbafm-02-2024-0022

The aim of this paper is to add to knowledge regarding the role of accounting in managing a crisis, specifically to show the emergence of multiple and contesting accountings and their roles in governing crises.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical case concerns management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. The analysis is qualitative and based on documents.FindingsThe analysis reveals different enactments of the pandemic multiple: scientific, business, political, patient and household. Within these, accounting representations were used in contention with each other. On the one hand, efforts were made to control the pandemic by testing, quarantines, curfews and other restrictions, supported by the accounts of managerial, political and economic calculations. On the other hand, these accounts were challenged by counter accounts using medical professional calculations.Originality/valueThis study adds new knowledge about the role of calculations in crises by elaborating on the emergence, persistence, transformation and proliferation of accounts that enabled accountingization of the crisis. By understanding the pandemic as an object multiple, I unpack the multiplicity of accounting representations in different enactments. The study also provides new insights into discussions regarding the (in)completeness of accounting. More specifically, different enactments of the pandemic multiple were supported by the perception of completeness among the actors in their accounting representations. The study explored how accounting sustains different versions of objects that existed before accounting while simultaneously trying to relate the different versions: there were both flows and closures between the different enactments of pandemic. In contrast to the argument that the relative completeness of accounting can resolve multiple tensions and that absences trigger innovation, I observed differing interactions among accounting representations while perceived completeness became the source of managing and coordinating the object multiple. That is, accounting is not only used for coordination but also for maintaining the closeness of each enactment of the pandemic.