Governance and control as mediating instruments in an inter-firm relationship: towards collaboration or transactions?

Zahir-ul-Hassan, Muhammad Kaleem; Minnaar, Reinald A.; Vosselman, E.G.J.

doi:10.1080/00014788.2015.1123601

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 45 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Accordingly, the controls actually shape the inter-organisational relationship and delineate the organisations’ boundaries (Mouritsen et al , 2001; Thrane and Hald, 2006). Again, while boundary-spanners within the layers of management may clearly shape the relationship via controls (Zahir-ul-Hassan et al , 2016), much less is known about boundary-spanners at lower levels. In any case, they are subject to inter- and intra-organisational controls alike, all of which are in play to align the conflicting interests.…”

Section: Theoretical and Conceptual Guidelinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the discussion above attests, it is important to consider how the inter-organisational relationship develops, which is often associated with the controls used and their interrelations (Carlsson-Wall et al , 2011; Kraus and Lind, 2007; Zahir-ul-Hassan et al , 2016). In a prime example, ensuring efficiency via actions such as cost-cutting and corresponding controls may be in the client’s interest, but those actions have effects on both the contractor and its employees, whose interests are at stake.…”

Section: Theoretical and Conceptual Guidelinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As demonstrating utility exchange involves the definition and co-ordination of day-to-day activities, the procedures, evaluation and monitoring are rendered important in these efforts (Kumar and Andersen, 2000) and performance measurement and evaluation may serve as not only technical assurance but also symbolic displays (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2012). Favourable metrics can symbolise the conformance of certain behaviours and expression of values shared with the client or other stakeholders, thereby building dispositional legitimacy, in that these represent foundations for the interactions that build collaboration (Dent, 1991; Meira et al , 2010; Zahir-ul-Hassan et al , 2016). Similarly, formalisation and procedures do not just co-ordinate actions to create exchange legitimacy; they can aid in creating a sense that the operations are standardised, predictable, and straightforward, thus serving comprehensibility.…”

Section: Theoretical and Conceptual Guidelinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, boundary-spanners, working between the co-operating organisations to manage the relationship, need to pursue a mixture of goals: they must safeguard their own interests such that their career does not suffer if they pursue the best of the relationship (Dekker, 2016). While extant research has shown that boundary-spanners may have a pivotal role in creating and developing conflicting interests in their use of controls (Zahir-ul-Hassan et al , 2016), the definition of “boundary-spanners” has been restricted to people who can use controls from a managerial position. Though scholars have examined how controls shape the relationship by determining the boundaries of the partner organisations (Mouritsen et al , 2001; Thrane and Hald, 2006) and how boundary-spanners may be active in this process (Zahir-ul-Hassan et al , 2016), no research has heretofore explored the role of boundary-spanners lower in the organisations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While extant research has shown that boundary-spanners may have a pivotal role in creating and developing conflicting interests in their use of controls (Zahir-ul-Hassan et al , 2016), the definition of “boundary-spanners” has been restricted to people who can use controls from a managerial position. Though scholars have examined how controls shape the relationship by determining the boundaries of the partner organisations (Mouritsen et al , 2001; Thrane and Hald, 2006) and how boundary-spanners may be active in this process (Zahir-ul-Hassan et al , 2016), no research has heretofore explored the role of boundary-spanners lower in the organisations. Subject to controls themselves, these boundary-spanners balance the partners’ possibly conflicting interests and decide between them, with their own interests at stake (Dekker, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Controlling outsourced management accounting to build legitimacy

Lepistö

Dobroszek

Lepistö

et al. 2020

QRAM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose This paper aims to explore controls within an inter-organisational relationship involving outsourced management accounting services from the contractor’s perspective. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data from within the relationship are analysed in a legitimacy-theory framework, illustrating how controls within the relationship are intended to build the contractor’s legitimacy and what kinds of implications the controls have in relation to conflicts between interests inherent in the relationship. Findings The legitimacy perspective clarifies that while controls are aimed at ensuring efficiency for the client, they may also provide symbolic displays of the appropriateness of the contractor’s actions both at an inter-organisational level for the client and at an individual level for the contractor’s employees. While the contractor intends to build legitimacy with the client by demonstrating utility in the form of efficiency, the process also gives the client influence and allows the disposition in terms of shared values to be demonstrated. However, this process has some negative consequences for the contractor’s employees as it is insufficient for serving the boundary-spanning employees’ interests connected with the nature of their work. Hence, the same controls need to yield benefits and fair outcomes for employees. The controls simultaneously foster interconnections that contribute to permanence and formalise the outsourcing of complex services, thereby rendering such processes comprehensible and transferable to other settings, which can be seen to serve the contractor’s continuity interests. Originality/value The paper contributes to academic research by illustrating how controls within inter-organisational relationships not only steer boundary-spanners’ work to conform to a client’s needs but may also help to build legitimacy via symbolic properties in the presence of conflicting interests at both an inter-organisational and individual level. It specifically highlights the important role of boundary-spanners lower in the organisational structure, who both affect and are influenced by the intentions to build legitimacy with the client.

show abstract

Section: Theoretical and Conceptual Guidelinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical and Conceptual Guidelinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical and Conceptual Guidelinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Controlling outsourced management accounting to build legitimacy

Lepistö

Dobroszek

Lepistö

et al. 2020

QRAM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Corporate Governance and Sustainability

Principale

2023

SIDREA Series in Accounting and Business Administration

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A relational perspective on the contract-control-trust nexus in an interfirm relationship

Minnaar

Vosselman

Veen-Dirks

et al. 2017

Management Accounting Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper makes sense of the contract-control-trust nexus in interfirm relationships by exposing the performativity of a contract and its incorporated control structures in generating trust. In our study of an outsourcing relationship between Semorg (an international manufacturer of semi-conductors) and Fasorg (the provider of facility management services), we find that trust is interactively related to control in complex and often unpredictable ways rather than in linear ways that result from managerial decision-making. In the network of associations that constitutes the interfirm relationship, trust is not a stable solution that generates predictability, but a quasi-actor that is made to act by the contract and the incorporated control structures. As a quasi-actor, trust is fluent and performative. Once in existence, it mobilises human actors and shapes the relationship. Thus, from a relational perspective trust is a possible and to a large extent unpredictable network effect. This differs from the rational perspective in which trust is an expectation that (in multiple categories) straightforwardly emerges and develops from managerial decisions.

show abstract

Governance and control as mediating instruments in an inter-firm relationship: towards collaboration or transactions?

Cited by 10 publications

References 45 publications

Controlling outsourced management accounting to build legitimacy

Controlling outsourced management accounting to build legitimacy

Corporate Governance and Sustainability

A relational perspective on the contract-control-trust nexus in an interfirm relationship

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About