The aim of this research is to present the current state and future research opportunity around Japanese inter-firm management control. Through comprehensive literature review, we find that prior research of Japanese inter-firm management control has mainly focused on (1) close relationships, (2) interactive collaborations, and (3) information sharing with partners. Additionally, we point out some future research opportunities in this field based on the relevant research of interfirm management control.

View full abstract

　 A questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate the utilization and effect of the balanced scorecard (BSC) in 1496 acute care hospitals which adopt DPC/PDPS, diagnosis procedure combination/per-diem payment system. According to the result, hospitals which introduce the BSC into the organizations are increasing ; however, considerable room for improvement of operation was observed. Most hospitals positively evaluate the effect of BSC, and such positive evaluations are particularly observed in items which were highly expected. Additional research is needed to discuss the effect of utilization of BSC.

View full abstract

　 In the designated manager’s system, the local government that established a facility and the private sector that managing a facility are a public-private collaboration business to continue to operate the designated management facility by the cooperation. It is moved away from the deterioration of local government finances and the stagnation of the local economy in recent years, and is considered as a detonator to promote the regional revitalization. However, in this situation, the designated manager’s system doesn’t have contributed to regional revitalization because of some problems. One cause of some problems is that performance evaluation system for evaluating appropriately has not been developed because the private sector and local government have different roles and senses of purpose.
　 From further investigations, we clarified that the local government makes much of public nature not only profitability and is based on a long-term perspective, but the private sector emphasizes profitability and short-term perspective because there is the restriction that business report is required per year and agreement period is three to five years. In this paper, we clarify the role and purpose of local government as a establisher and the role and purpose of private sector as a manager of facility, and turn up how to complement each roles and senses of purpose and build appropriate performance indicator to reflect both purposes through continuous survey of public facility in Usa City. And then, we examine on introducing a strategy map to the designated manager’s system.
　 At last, in the designated manager’s system that the public sector and the local government build the networked organization and are doing business in collaboration, the networked organization is based on “agreement” or “regional concept”. If it is not a necessary condition to translate each other, it needs a new management accounting theory which is a different concept from inter-organizational management accounting. We therefore show to be willing to examine the feasibility of the concept of meso management accounting to a new management accounting theory for networked organization.

View full abstract

　 This paper reviews extant literature which discusses the process to cope with environmental change during period for attainment of short-range target profit. In general in the beginning of period they formulate department budget corresponding to department plan to achieve the short-range profit plan. On the other hand, when environmental change becomes more intense around the organization, action in line with the original plan does not ensure attainment of the target profit. With this in mind, recently researchers have been discussed how to cope with such cases. This paper reviews their extant literature and suggests a research agenda in the future.

View full abstract

　Recently much attention has been paid to enabling formalization (Adler and Borys, 1996) in management accounting studies. Through a comprehensive literature survey on the empirical studies using the concept, this paper summarizes the evidence, identifying two different features in it, and provides ideas for future research on further developing the concept in the management accounting study.

View full abstract