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Even though Lean is a management concept with roots stretching back several decades, it did not take off on a large scale in Norway until around 2010. Since then, Lean has received frequent attention in the Norwegian media, and recent surveys indicate that the diffusion and popularity of Lean can be considered relatively high in both the private and public sectors. This article focuses on the sustainability of Lean as a management practice in Norway. The Google dictionary defines the term “sustainability” as “the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.” The article therefore seeks to examine the evolution in the diffusion and use of the Lean concept in Norway in the period 2015–2017. For this purpose, we draw on data from two surveys administered in 2015 and 2017, as well as a small number of follow-up interviews carried out in 2017. The results generally show that the diffusion rate in Norway appears to be relatively stable, and Lean users appear to have a very positive perception of the concept, which indicates that the Lean concept currently has an institutionalised position as a management practice in Norway. Therefore, the evolution pattern of Lean in Norway differs from what has been observed in other countries where the concept appears to be on a downward trajectory in terms of its popularity. Moreover, the results reveal considerable variation in terms of how Lean is interpreted, understood and used in practice, for instance, when it comes to abstraction levels and the use of different Lean-related principles and tools. Overall, the results have several theoretical and methodological implications for future studies on the diffusion, use and long-term sustainability of popular management concepts such as Lean.

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This paper investigates the change in accounting quality when firms shift from a revenue-oriented historical cost accounting regime as Norwegian GAAP (NGAAP) to a balance-oriented fair value accounting regime as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Previous studies have demonstrated mixed effects on the accounting quality upon IFRS adoption. One possible reason is that the investigated domestic GAAP to a large extent has been adjusted to IFRS prior to IFRS adoption. This is not the case in NGAAP where IFRS adoption led to significant changes in the recognition and measurement rules. To investigate the change in accounting quality, the paper makes use of a panel design with 640 firm-year obserations from 2001 up to the financial crisis year 2008, including four years of pre-IFRS NGAAP observations and four years of IFRS-observations. The paper employs four commonly used approaches to investigate accounting quality: test of value relevance of net earnings and book values, accrual quality of net earnings, incidence of small positive net earnings and test of timely loss recognition. The paper demonstrates that the adoption of IFRS increases the relevance accounting information has for valuation purposes. IFRS requires recognition of intangible assets and off-balance sheet liabilities not allowed under NGAAP. Moreover, IFRS allows the use of fair value to a larger extent than NGAAP. The paper also demonstrates that NGAAP leads to timelier recognition of losses than IFRS. This supports the notion that historical cost accounting, which is the basic accounting principle under NGAAP, provides more conservative accounting numbers. Overall, this suggests that IFRS provides information more useful for valuation purposes, but to a lesser extent stewardship purposes which generally favours conservatism. NGAAP on the other hand, provides information less relevant for valuation purposes, but more relevant for stewardship purposes.

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has over the last two and a half decades received much attention as a management model for both private and public sector organizations. However, the BSC concept’s use and application in local governments and municipalities remains relatively understudied. This is particularly the case for the Norwegian context. Therefore, the aim of this article is to conduct a descriptive analysis of the diffusion and implementation of the BSC in the Norwegian municipality sector. The article draws on two sources of data: (1) an electronic survey sent to all 428 municipalities in Norway, yielding a response rate of 26%, and (2) follow-up interviews with representatives from 15 municipalities. In the empirical analysis, the article first provides an overall overview of patterns related to the diffusion and implementation of the BSC in the Norwegian municipality sector. With respect to BSC diffusion and implementation, the data show that the BSC is still widely used among Norwegian municipalities and has not yet entered a clear downturn phase. With respect to adoption and implementation, a more fine-grained analysis of five categories of respondents (non-adopters, planners, implementers, current users, ex-users) is also carried out, focusing on the motives, perceptions and applications of the concept. The analysis reveals considerable variation when it comes to perceptions and experiences associated with BSC adoption and implementation.