Vol.41, No 5 (2008)

Darja Peljhan

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics, Kardeljeva ploščad 17, SI-1000 Ljubljana

Metka Tekavčič

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics, Kardeljeva ploščad 17, SI-1000 Ljubljana

Abstract

Background/Purpose: We study the interaction between management control systems and strategy and its impact on organisational performance considering the way in which multiple aspects of control systems and dimensions of context combine in a variety of ways to enhance performance. Our purpose is to investigate the relationship among management control systems, strategy and organisational performance in a particular company. The contribution of this study is that it upgrades the existing theory in that it does not only establish a relationship between strategy and management control systems, but also considers how this relationship impacts on organisational performance. The study shows that the combination of performance-driven behaviour and regular use of management control systems leads to improved results. The second contribution of the study is that it incorporates a wider range of controls, including informal controls as being equally important as formal controls, to provide a more comprehensive analysis, as opposed to the majority of prior studies focusing on a more limited range of controls. In this way, this paper contributes to the literature in terms of examination of the broader components of management control systems than was previously done.

Pakiz Taylan

Middle East Technical University, Institute of Applied Mathematics, 06531 Ankara, Turkey; Dicle University, Department of Mathematics, 21280 Diyarbakır, Turkey

Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber

Middle East Technical University, Institute of Applied Mathematics, 06531 Ankara, Turkey; University of Siegen, Faculty of Economics, Management and Law, 57076 Siegen, Germany

Abstract

Background/Purpose: A central element in organization of financal means by a person, a company or societal group consists in the constitution, analysis and optimization of portfolios. This requests the time-depending modeling of processes. Likewise many processes in nature, technology and economy, financial processes suffer from stochastic fluctuations. Therefore, we consider stochastic differential equations (Kloeden, Platen and Schurz, 1994) since in reality, especially, in the financial sector, many processes are affected with noise. As a drawback, these equations are hard to represent by a computer and hard to resolve. In our paper, we express them in simplified manner of approximation by both a discretization and additive models based on splines. Our parameter estimation refers to the linearly involved spline coefficients as prepared in (Taylan and Weber, 2007) and the partially nonlinearly involved probabilistic parameters. We construct a penalized residual sum of square for this model and face occuring nonlinearities by Gauss-Newton’s and Levenberg-Marquardt’s method on determining the iteration step. We also investigate when the related minimization program can be written as a Tikhonov regularization problem (sometimes called ridge regression), and we treat it using continuous optimization techniques. In particular, we prepare access to the elegant framework of conic quadratic programming. These convex optimation problems are very well-structured, herewith resembling linear programs and, hence, permitting the use of interior point methods (Nesterov and Nemirovskii, 1993).

Milan Ambrož

Institut za samorazvoj d.o.o., Kidričeva 75a, 4220 Škofja Loka, Slovenija

Martina Praprotnik

Kropa 95, 4245, Kropa, Slovenija

Abstract

Background/Purpose: This paper presents a test of the relationship between organizational culture as a crucial indicator of organizational effective­ness and customer satisfaction using service-unit data from two health resorts. Ensuring survival of the service organisation in the long run requires adaptations which are oriented towards achieving maximum customer satisfaction. This study inten­ded to unveil the effect organisational factors have on customer service orientation from the customer and employee point of view within a two health resort service setting. The finding suggests that when trying to predict the comparative degree which organisational effectiveness factors have in satisfying customers’ needs, performance, adaptability and mission can be of the highest importance. Some effects like performance were uniform for employees and customers, while others varied depending on the organisation and the customer or employee group. Furthermore, findings suggest that service performance and organisation mission of the service organisation predict customer satisfaction based on established and proven health services. In this context there is no room for innovation, despite the fact that employees and customers do not share similar views about the impact of organisational effectiveness. Developing an effective service organisation can provide a competitive advantage to the organisation. Critical for the success of the service organisation is that organisational agents have a clear view of the existing organisation effectiveness and a clear view of the customer expectations in this area.

Gregor Miklič

Volavlje 25, 1000 Ljubljana

Maja Zaman

Univerza v Ljubljani, Ekonomska fakulteta, Kardeljeva ploščad 17, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Economic success of tax havens derives from their established policies. Countries or territories, known as tax havens are eager to gain economic success as well as their competitor countries or territories that are not considered tax havens. Strong competition exists among them and globalization has participated its share increasing the world-wide competition among countries. On one hand, some countries compete on basis of knowledge, others on basis of high level of social security , cheap labor, economies of scale, geographic position etc.. On the other hand, tax havens compete with preferable and more flexible tax legislations. Numerous tax havens have developed worldwide and there is an increasing number of corporations searching for a territory with optimal conditions to carry out their activities. Individual tax havens have, in majority, developed competitive advantages for specific activities. Consequently, some of them have become more suitable for banking, other for insurance services, establishment of holding companies, investment funds or other activities. The purpose of the article is to support the initial assumption that different tax havens are more supportive for development of some activities than others.

Milena Bevc

Inštitut za ekonomska raziskovanja Ljubljana Kardeljeva ploščad 17, 1109 Ljubljana, in Univerza na Primorskem, Fakulteta za management, Cankarjeva 5, 6104 Koper, Slovenija

Abstract

Background/Purpose: The paper is based on the fact that the system of funding tertiary education (TE) may have important influences on efficiency of educational institutions (internal efficiency), returns to education (external efficiency), aggregate enrolment, and social equity of TE (equity in access to TE for different socio-economic groups). Characteristics of the funding system of undergraduate tertiary education in the public institutions in Slovenia are presented. The paper also deals with the effects of the funding system on the above-mentioned dimensions of the TE development. The trends in enrolment are presented as well. We have observed that the funding system results in a low internal economic efficiency (expressed by students’ study progress) and social inequity, so we propose the changes in the funding of educational institutions and the state financial support to students in order to increase the efficiency and equity of TE. This may be achieved by an increase in private funding. All dimensions of TE observed in the paper (enrolment, expenditure, system of funding, internal and external economic efficiency, and equity) are analysed in the time perspective (trends within the country) and in international perspective (comparisons with the EU and OECD countries). The economic feasibility of the increased private funding is presented as well. The paper ends with summarizing the main conclusions.