Accounting for strategic investment decision-making under extreme uncertainty

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• 作者：Moataz Moamen Elmassri^a ; ^{moataz.elmassri@roehampton.ac.uk" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Elaine Pamela Harris^a ; David Bernard Carter^b
• 关键词：Strategic investment decisions ; Strong structuration theory ; Extreme uncertainty ; Net present value ; Egypt ; Strategic management accounting ; Ownership structure ; Political structure
• 刊名：The British Accounting Review
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：June 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：48
• 期：2
• 页码：151-168
• 全文大小：543 K

文摘

This study focuses on processes employed by organisational managers making strategic investment decisions (SIDs) in an environment of extreme uncertainty in post-revolution Egypt. Our study illustrates how significant social, political and economic uncertainty impacts upon the utility of capital investment appraisal techniques employed in management accounting decision-making. To engage in this analysis, we employ strong structuration theory as a lens to examine how local Egyptian managers (agents-in-focus) respond to the impact of emergent structures that emanate from the post-revolutionary context in their strategic investment decision-making (SIDM). Our empirical evidence includes focused interviews with twenty-one local managers to understand the experience of accounting for decision-making under extreme uncertainty. Our analysis demonstrates that non-financial considerations and objectives take precedence over the technical ‘accounting’ measures, for example net present value (NPV) in post-revolution SIDM processes. In particular, recognising and responding to shifting labour power and short-term sacrifices (such as rejecting merger opportunities) become comparatively more important than the pre-supposed rationality of the NPV criteria. However, as multi-national corporations insist on the calculation of NPV by their Egyptian subsidiaries, local managers reproduce the imperfect NPV as a communication tool in relation to capital investment decisions, whilst resisting its persuasiveness in favour of more qualitative criteria.