Copenhagen Business School

About: Copenhagen Business School is a education organization based out in Copenhagen, Hovedstaden, Denmark. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Corporate governance & Context (language use). The organization has 2194 authors who have published 9649 publications receiving 341898 citations.

Public sector auditor identities in making efficiency auditable: The National Audit Office of Denmark as independent auditor and modernizer

Abstract: This paper examines how the National Audit Office of Denmark (NAOD) manoeuvred in making the Danish military receptive to a performance-accountability project in the period 1990–2007. Evidence is provided from a detailed case study, where the actions of the auditors have been followed in their efforts to make the military activities auditable by focusing on the multiple and dynamic interactions between them, the auditee and others. This study contributes to our understanding of how auditors manoeuvre with their performance audit devices in different ways to make efficiency auditable. It appears that as the auditee initiated the implementation of a new accounting system called DeMars a stream of overflows threatened to destabilise it. Groups within the auditee were eager to put heat into the overflowing. This study illuminates how the auditors, equipped with their devices of purification in the later stages of the project, helped at least provisionally to contain the overflows and stabilize the construction. Due to such different manoeuvres by the auditors, this paper demonstrates the problems that emerge when state auditors manoeuvre in performance auditing with identities both as ‘modernizers’, i.e., participating in providing the reasons for change and defining its designs and as ‘independent auditors’, i.e., to legitimize the construction in which they participated themselves. Many allies to the auditors worked hard in protecting the NAOD as the two identities conflicted with each other during the execution of the project.

Capital Structure, Environmental Dynamism, Innovation Strategy, and Strategic Risk Management

Abstract: Previous research found that capital structure affects performance when it is adapted to the level of environmental dynamism and pursuit of an innovation strategy. The current study reproduces some of these relationships in a more recent dataset but also identifies significant nuances across industrial environments. Analyses of a large cross sectional sample and various industry sub-samples suggest that other factors have influenced capital structure effects in recent years including flexibilities in multinational organization and effective strategic risk management capabilities.

Transcending Transmission: Towards a Constitutive Perspective on CSR Communication

Abstract: Purpose: Extant research on CSR communication primarily relies on a transmission model of communication that treats organizations and communication as distinct phenomena. This approach has been criticized for neglecting the formative role of communication in the emergence of organizations. In this paper, we propose to reconceptualize CSR communication by drawing on the “communication constitutes organizations” (CCO) perspective. Approach: This is a conceptual paper. We explore the implications of switching from an instrumental to a constitutive notion of communication. Findings: Our study brings forth four main findings: (1) From the CCO view, organizations are constituted by several, partly dissonant, and potentially contradictory communicative practices. From that viewpoint, the potential impact of CSR communication becomes a matter of connectivity of CSR to other practices of organizational communication. (2) Communication practices that concern CSR should not be generally dismissed as mere “greenwashing” — given that some forms of talk can be action. Consequently, we need to investigate which specific speech acts create accountability and commitment in the context of CSR. (3) The CCO view shows that CSR communication potentially extends the boundary of the organization through the involvement of third parties. Thus, it is fruitful to study CSR communication as a set of practices that aims at boundary maintenance and extension. (4) Organizations are stabilized by various non-human entities that “act” on their behalf. Accordingly, CSR communication should also take into account non-human agency and responsibility. Originality/value: Our paper links the literature on CSR communication to broader debates in organizational communication studies and, in particular, to the CCO perspective. By applying the CCO view, we reconceptualize CSR communication as a complex process of meaning negotiation.

Post‐Acquisition Restructuring as Evolutionary Process*

Abstract: The transformation and integration of acquired businesses is subject to tensions between implementing radical change to match the strategy and corporate culture of the acquirer, and promoting what is valuable in resources and cultural attributes in the acquired organization. Analysts’ disagreement arises from different conceptualizations of the nature of resources. We present an evolutionary perspective that demonstrates not only the merits of competitive selection, but of local adaptation of transferred resources and of stimulating the development of local ones. Evidence from 18 original case studies in Hungary and East Germany shows that a defensive focus on short-term efficiency, i.e. downsizing, may fail to realize the long-term potential of the organization. Acquirers supporting an evolutionary development of their new subsidiary by providing autonomy and complementary resources might well have to tolerate some slack in the short run, but may realize more of the potential contributions of the acquired assets in the long run.