Filippo Zanin

Controllo e complessità. Il ruolo delle forme di rappresentazione per il governo di problemi complessi

This study explores the use of strategy maps for decision-making in complex settings. Specifically, this study draws on complexity as a conceptual lens to qualify the contexts in which companies operate, suggesting that management control systems should act as support systems in these contexts. Using data collected from a in depth case study, this paper finds that strategy map, as a peculiar form of visual representation, helps top management to rationalize, share and generate new insights about the roles of management control systems in complex settings.

Management control systems in complex settings: Emerging research and opportunities

Management Control Systems in Complex Settings: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a noteworthy reference work for the latest academic research on business management and the complexity involved in decision-making, direction, measurement, and the evaluation of a company. Containing broad commentary on an assortment of relevant views and issues, such as customer loyalty and reputation, effective manufacturing processes, and strategic issues in complex rms, this book is optimally intended for business professionals, managers, and aspiring entrepreneurs as well as students and academics looking for groundbreaking analysis on the Three Vs model of inventory management and value creation.

The Effect of Perceived Environmental Uncertainty on the Use and Perceived Usefulness of Strategic Management Accounting: Some Empirical Evidence

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) affects the use and the perceived usefulness of strategic management accounting (SMA). The study takes the perspective that SMA can be regarded as a set of strategically oriented management accounting techniques and makes the research hypothesis that as PEU increases the use and perceived usefulness of SMA techniques also increase. To test the hypothesis, the responses of 55 CFOS to a questionnaire survey were analysed. The survey considered a cross-section of large manufacturing companies in Italy. The regression-based analysis mainly shows: (1) a positive relationship between PEU and the use of strategic pricing as SMA technique supporting product pricing decisions; (2) a positive relationship between PEU and the use of balanced scorecard; (3) a positive association between PEU and the perceived usefulness of all the SMA techniques included in the study

Lo strategizing in contesti complessi

Strategy-making takes place in webs of socio-material practices, where agency is mediated by artifacts and actors continuously reframe the way on which they give sense to their actions and objectives. Despite agency still depends on human actors, material artifacts can play a critical role in these ensembles of practices making strategizing always open to transformation. The practices associated with the strategy formation encompass conflicting people mental models, distributed knowledge and materiality for the development of a systematic, coherent and coordinated strategic process. The activities that qualify strategy-making are multifaceted and include a more or less deliberative and routinized individual decision-making and the conscious or unconscious exploration of emerging patterns. According to a cognitive approach to strategy-making, what strategists decide is largely influenced by their different perceptual filters, which are unique, as they were formed through the specific ways of engaging with the world, and by the construction of shared meanings. This consideration puts scholars to elaborate about the use of visual artifacts to frame strategic thinking and conceptualize a shared strategic orientation. The unfolding character of strategizing process stimulates to better understand the knowledge production process that explains the epistemic nature of the process itself. In particular, it has been demonstrated that the use of visual representations supports the knowledge production during the innovation processes as it facilitate the abstraction and the concretization of innovation practices. The potential benefits of using visual representations for fostering strategizing process have not yet been analysed extensively. Few case studies reflecting on the crucial role of visual representation in the strategy process and decisions in complex setting. This study aims to fill these gaps and explores how strategy maps shape the strategic practices within Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The Italian University setting is a complex research field as it is a multivoiced domain and a rapidly changing one. A recent reform is stimulating a radical change in the management policies making the strategy processes a pluralistic and uncertain work. Lo strategizing in contesti complessi Filippo Zanin, Carlo Bagnoli Ringraziamenti | Acknowledgments Gli autori intendono ringraziare il prof. Ignacio Canales, il prof. Robert Macintosh e il prof. Donald Maclean e due anonimi reviewer per i loro preziosi commenti su un estratto del presente lavoro, presentato alla conferenza di Glasgow 2013 organizzata dalla Strategy Management Society. In quell’occasione il paper è stato premiato come «best paper award, third place». Thank you to prof. Ignacio Canales, prof. Robert Macintosh and prof. Donald Maclean, Conference Program Co-Chairs of the SMS Glasgow Special Conference 2013 Strategy in Complex Settings and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on earlier draft of this manuscript. The paper was selected as finalist for the Special Conference Glasgow Best Proposal Prize (third place). Lo strategizing in contesti complessi Filippo Zanin, Carlo Bagnoli