Kenneth Merchant – författare

What part does customer and employee satisfaction play in overall business success?

Management Accountants developing business models must consider this question, especially if they are taking the popular "balanced scorecard" or "strategy mapping" approaches to performance measurement. When doing so, stating cause-and-effect relationships between measurable factors like satisfaction and profitability is common practice. However, few companies test their own hypotheses. If the links are incorrect, these models can actually guide the firm down a path to failure.

Strategy Mapping: An Interventionist Examination of a Homebuilder's Performance Measurement and Incentive Systems�reveals the findings of state-of-the-art interventionist research on a major US homebuilder. The core claims of this company's business model were positive effects in the future due to improvements in customer and employee satisfaction. Tests were made on the validity of these claims to discover how much we can rely on these factors to improve performance. This report also examines how effective various measurement alternatives are through analysis of data compiled by different consulting companies.

The results reveal that the links between satisfaction and performance is less strong and more complex than the company had assumed: these measures cannot be relied upon to guarantee increased performance. Managers must have a sophisticated understanding of performance measurement systems and to test their strategy maps empirically, rather than relying on their intuitions. This report demonstrates how you can achieve both.

State-of-the-art interventionist research: new method in which researchers interact with the subject of the research, monitoring the effects of their input Helps managers protect their businesses from bad�business models�through sophisticated understanding of likely causes of success Shows managers how to analyse data in balanced scorecards and strategy maps to draw reliable conclusions to make the best decisions for their business

The bestselling advanced management accounting textbook.

For Management Control or Advanced Management Accounting modules on undergraduate, postgraduate or MBA courses.

Management Control Systems, 5th edition is the latest edition of the bestselling textbook in the field of management accounting, renowned for its authorship and excellently researched material. An essential learning resource presenting a wealth of international examples from real companies, this text will help you gain a solid grasp of this important subject.

Whether or not you have a management background, the clear explanations in this textbook will introduce you to the authors' leading framework and approach, helping you understand a wide variety of performance measures and controls as well as how to use them. Its extensive range of 75 case studies grounds the concepts in reality, emphasising the difference that well-designed controls can make.

Key features

A brand-new chapter on environmental, social and governance issues, including corporate social responsibility, reflects new initiatives and policies and their impact on today's organisations. Comprehensive and detailed coverage of measures that focuses not only on results, but also broader management controls, with aims other than profit maximisation. Updated examples and cases bring the subject to life by exploring examples of well-known businesses such as Microsoft and the implications of infamous scandals such as Carillion. New content considers the impacts of recent global shocks and world events and their influence on companies.

This title is recommended as a significant textbook within Bruno S. Frey and Christoph A. Schaltegger (eds), 21st Century Economics – Economic Ideas You Should Read and Remember (Springer, 2019).