Performance Measurement Information Systems: Do they Convey (Sustainable) Competitive Advantage?

Performance management information systems (PMIS) have been a ‘hot topic’ for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) for close to a decade. PMIS range from low-functionality spreadsheet-based solutions through to high-functionality business intelligence solutions. As yet, this area has not yet received sufficient academic enquiry. Our research questions concern: what are PMIS functionalities, and whether and how do they contribute to competitive advantage? We conceptualize functionality as reflected by system usability and data multi-dimensionality. We examine functionalities of the two types of PMIS: performance planning systems (for budgeting and forecasting) and performance reporting systems (for reporting results information to management). We apply resource-based theory. We hypothesize mediation chains, in which the two PMIS functionality constructs link to competitive advantage, mediated by performance management capabilities and mediated by a resource-base of organizational culture. We use partial least squares path modelling using survey data collected from senior managers of 264 Australian firms. We find support for the hypotheses. We also unexpectedly find that the two types of PMIS functionality operate in sequential, rather than parallel, mediation. The findings have implications for CIOs, CFOs and other managers responsible for development of PMIS

Higher-Order Topology, Monopole Nodal Lines, and the Origin of Large Fermi Arcs in Transition Metal Dichalcogenides XTe2_2 (X=Mo,W)

In recent years, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have garnered great interest as topological materials -- monolayers of centrosymmetric $\beta$-phase TMDs have been identified as 2D topological insulators (TIs), and bulk crystals of noncentrosymmetric $\gamma$-phase MoTe$_2$ and WTe$_2$ have been identified as type-II Weyl semimetals. However, ARPES and STM probes of these TMDs have revealed huge, "arc-like" surface states that overwhelm, and are sometimes mistaken for, the much smaller topological surface Fermi arcs of bulk type-II Weyl points. In this letter, we use first-principles calculations and (nested) Wilson loops to analyze the bulk and surface electronic structure of both $\beta$- and $\gamma$-MoTe$_2$, finding that $\beta$-MoTe$_2$ ($\gamma$-MoTe$_2$ gapped with symmetry-preserving distortion) is an inversion-symmetry-indicated $\mathbb{Z}_{4}$-nontrivial ($noncentrosymmetric, non$-$symmetry$-$indicated$) higher-order TI (HOTI) driven by double band inversion. Both structural phases of MoTe$_2$ exhibit the same surface features as WTe$_2$, revealing that the large Fermi arcs are in fact not topologically trivial, but are rather the characteristic split and gapped fourfold surface states of a HOTI. We also show that, when the effects of SOC are neglected, $\beta$-MoTe$_2$ is a nodal-line semimetal with $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$-nontrivial monopole nodal lines (MNLSM). This finding confirms that MNLSMs driven by double band inversion are the weak-SOC limit of HOTIs, implying that MNLSMs are higher-order topological $semimetals$ with flat-band-like hinge states, which we find to originate from the corner modes of 2D "fragile" TIs.Comment: Final version, 5 pg main text + 18 pg supplement, 4 + 6 figures, abstract abridged for arXiv posting - see paper for full abstrac

Management Accounting Functionality in SAP Solutions – Implications for Research and Practise

Since the start of the new millennium, management accounting researchers have investigated how Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPS) or the implementation of such systems influences management accounting (practises) and/or firm performance. More recently, the empirical focus of such studies has shifted towards the SAP ERPS, the world-market leading enterprise system (Columbus, 2014). Despite this focus, none of these studies has ever described the management accounting functionalities of SAP ERP, let alone acknowledging that, over the past decade, SAP has substantially expanded its solution range for management accounting, in particular with the acquisition of BusinessObjects in 2007. Today, management accounting functionalities are dispersed across a wide range of SAP ‘solutions’ beyond the core SAP ERP, including cloud solutions, and even for SAP customers it is difficult to reconcile which software component contributes the various ‘solution for management accounting’. We argue that research on the impacts of such systems on management accounting practises and performance requires a detailed understanding of the management accounting functionality provided by such systems – across all modules and add-on components. Our archival and expert-interview based study aims to provide such insights by systematically analysing the current SAP software solutions range to locate management accounting tools and to map those tools with the broader body of knowledge of management accounting practises. Key findings of our study are that the SAP software range provides support for almost all common management accounting practises and that for some of these practises SAP users are provided with a range of tools providing similar functionality (e.g. SAP SEM, SAP Strategy Management, and SAP BusinessObjects Strategy Management). Further to that, the SAP software range provides management accounting functionalities such as “Grenzplankostenrechnung” (GPK), which is a core element of the German tradition of “Controlling” (Becker and Messner 2005), and has so far only attracted limited attention in the international management accounting community. The SAP tools for management accounting are partly embedded in the standard SAP ERP package, but many of them come as complementary or supplementary extensions or as part of data warehouse based Business Intelligence components (incl. BusinessObjects components). Considering the large range of management accounting components and the many adoption options provided, we expect heterogeneity amongst SAP user organisations in terms of system support for management accounting. In stage two of the broader research project, we will conduct a field study to verify this prediction and investigate the implications for managerial decision making and performance management. We contribute to academic research by providing a systematic mapping of management accounting practises and the extensive SAP solutions range, thereby enabling researchers to conduct better informed empirical research in SAP environments. We also contribute to management accounting practise by deciphering marketing-driven SAP publications and mapping management accounting functionality with actual software components

Strong and fragile topological Dirac semimetals with higher-order Fermi arcs

Dirac and Weyl semimetals both exhibit arc-like surface states. However, whereas the surface Fermi arcs in Weyl semimetals are topological consequences of the Weyl points themselves, the surface Fermi arcs in Dirac semimetals are not directly related to the bulk Dirac points, raising the question of whether there exists a topological bulk-boundary correspondence for Dirac semimetals. In this work, we discover that strong and fragile topological Dirac semimetals exhibit one-dimensional (1D) higher-order hinge Fermi arcs (HOFAs) as universal, direct consequences of their bulk 3D Dirac points. To predict HOFAs coexisting with topological surface states in solid-state Dirac semimetals, we introduce and layer a spinful model of an s–d-hybridized quadrupole insulator (QI). We develop a rigorous nested Jackiw–Rebbi formulation of QIs and HOFA states. Employing ab initio calculations, we demonstrate HOFAs in both the room- (α) and intermediate-temperature (α″) phases of Cd3As2, KMgBi, and rutile-structure (β′-) PtO2

The impact of ERP systems on firm and business process performance

Purpose - The purpose of this article is to provide further insights into the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the impacts on organisational performance. It aims at challenging existing claims of ERP vendors with regard to the benefits of their products and at providing evidence of the benefits of bundling ERPS with supply chain management systems. Design/methodology/approach - A survey was conducted to collect data on several aspects of organisational performance in companies that adopted ERPS and/or SCMS and the respective control groups. Financial key performance indicators were used to measure overall firm performance and the supply-chain operations reference model to operationalise performance at the business process (supply chain) level. Findings - The key results contradict the claims of ERPS vendors insofar as no significant performance differences were found between ERPS adopters and non-adopters, either at the business process level, or at the overall firm level. While it could be confirmed that the longer the experience of firms with ERPS, the higher their overall performance, no evidence was found of a similar effect on business process (supply chain) performance. Only those ERPS adopters that also adopted SCMS achieved significantly higher performance at the business process level. Originality/value - Despite the small size of the SCMS user sample, the results do provide some important insights into the relationships between ERPS, SCMS and performance which might encourage both researchers and practitioners in that field to critically reflect on the "optimal" mix of modules and software packages within increasingly diverse forms of enterprise systems. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Wallpaper Fermions and the Nonsymmorphic Dirac Insulator

Recent developments in the relationship between bulk topology and surface crystal symmetry have led to the discovery of materials whose gapless surface states are protected by crystal symmetries. In fact, there exists only a very limited set of possible surface crystal symmetries, captured by the 17 "wallpaper groups." We show that a consideration of symmetry-allowed band degeneracies in the wallpaper groups can be used to understand previous topological crystalline insulators, as well as to predict new examples. In particular, the two wallpaper groups with multiple glide lines, $pgg$ and $p4g$, allow for a new topological insulating phase, whose surface spectrum consists of only a single, fourfold-degenerate, true Dirac fermion. Like the surface state of a conventional topological insulator, the surface Dirac fermion in this "nonsymmorphic Dirac insulator" provides a theoretical exception to a fermion doubling theorem. Unlike the surface state of a conventional topological insulator, it can be gapped into topologically distinct surface regions while keeping time-reversal symmetry, allowing for networks of topological surface quantum spin Hall domain walls. We report the theoretical discovery of new topological crystalline phases in the A$_2$B$_3$ family of materials in SG 127, finding that Sr$_2$Pb$_3$ hosts this new topological surface Dirac fermion. Furthermore, (100)-strained Au$_2$Y$_3$ and Hg$_2$Sr$_3$ host related topological surface hourglass fermions. We also report the presence of this new topological hourglass phase in Ba$_5$In$_2$Sb$_6$ in SG 55. For orthorhombic space groups with two glides, we catalog all possible bulk topological phases by a consideration of the allowed non-abelian Wilson loop connectivities, and we develop topological invariants for these systems. Finally, we show how in a particular limit, these crystalline phases reduce to copies of the SSH model.Comment: Final version, 6 pg main text + 29 pg supplement, 6 + 13 figure

Insulator-to-metal transition in sulfur-doped silicon

We observe an insulator-to-metal (I-M) transition in crystalline silicon doped with sulfur to non- equilibrium concentrations using ion implantation followed by pulsed laser melting and rapid resolidification. This I-M transition is due to a dopant known to produce only deep levels at equilibrium concentrations. Temperature-dependent conductivity and Hall effect measurements for temperatures T > 1.7 K both indicate that a transition from insulating to metallic conduction occurs at a sulfur concentration between 1.8 and 4.3 x 10^20 cm-3. Conduction in insulating samples is consistent with variable range hopping with a Coulomb gap. The capacity for deep states to effect metallic conduction by delocalization is the only known route to bulk intermediate band photovoltaics in silicon.Comment: Submission formatting; 4 journal pages equivalen

IT governance as a higher order capability

This paper utilises the resource-based view as a framework to examine the interactions between information technology (IT) governance, IT management and organisational information systems. Analysis of data collected from medium and large Australian organisations indicates that IT governance capabilities act to improve IT management capabilities which in turn improve the performance of organisational information systems, specifically future-oriented accounting information systems. We propose that these interactions represent the operation of an overarching organisational IT capability. Further analysis finds significant differences in the most effective combinations of IT governance and IT management mechanisms for organisations facing differing levels of environmental turbulence. This finding highlights the importance of utilising IT governance as a higher order organisational capability to reconfigure and align capabilities and resources in response to changing strategic requirements and environmental pressures

Multiple models and experiments underscore large uncertainty in soil carbon dynamics

Soils contain more carbon than plants or the atmosphere, and sensitivities of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks to changing climate and plant productivity are a major uncertainty in global carbon cycle projections. Despite a consensus that microbial degradation and mineral stabilization processes control SOC cycling, no systematic synthesis of long-term warming and litter addition experiments has been used to test process-based microbe-mineral SOC models. We explored SOC responses to warming and increased carbon inputs using a synthesis of 147 field manipulation experiments and five SOC models with different representations of microbial and mineral processes. Model projections diverged but encompassed a similar range of variability as the experimental results. Experimental measurements were insufficient to eliminate or validate individual model outcomes. While all models projected that CO efflux would increase and SOC stocks would decline under warming, nearly one-third of experiments observed decreases in CO flux and nearly half of experiments observed increases in SOC stocks under warming. Long-term measurements of C inputs to soil and their changes under warming are needed to reconcile modeled and observed patterns. Measurements separating the responses of mineral-protected and unprotected SOC fractions in manipulation experiments are needed to address key uncertainties in microbial degradation and mineral stabilization mechanisms. Integrating models with experimental design will allow targeting of these uncertainties and help to reconcile divergence among models to produce more confident projections of SOC responses to global changes. 2

Organizational improvisation and the reduced usefulness of performance measurement BI functionalities

© 2018 Elsevier Inc. Firms are increasingly turning to business intelligence (BI) systems to support their management control activities, while management accounting researchers are increasingly focused on studying beneficial roles of such systems. The extant research focusses on how performance-enhancing effects of BI systems occur via enhanced managerial learning and knowledge creation. The research has however failed to consider how managerial learning and knowledge creation processes can be shaped by fundamental organizational contingencies. This paper ventures into this unexplored space to consider how organizational improvisation may moderate beneficial roles played by BI. We derive the concept of “semi-structuring heuristics” and apply it to theorize that the impact of BI functionalities on performance measurement capabilities is negatively moderated by organizational improvisation. Our hypotheses include two BI constructs (BI-planning functionality and BI-reporting functionality) and two organizational improvisation competences (strategic momentum and organizational flexibility). We test our hypotheses with partial least squares procedures using survey data from 324 top-level managers. We find that BI-planning functionality has a positive effect on performance measurement capabilities that is negatively moderated by both organizational improvisation competences. The only significant effect of BI-reporting functionality is as a positive moderator of the effect of BI-planning functionality. Organizational improvisation competences are quite common and entail managers using only “minimal forms” of performance measurement information. By implication, if the term BI “functionality” connotes usefulness and fitness-for-purpose, then this term appears a misnomer in contexts reliant on organizational improvisation