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 multinational 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.

Purpose-In the field of strategic investment decision-making (SIDM) a body of research has grown up via international case studies and organisation-based fieldwork. However, there has been little systematic theorisation around SIDM processes and practices. This paper aims to show how strong structuration theory (SST) can be employed to guide how future SIDM studies are conducted and theorised. Design/methodology/approach-We draw upon the concepts from SST to reanalyse prior empirically based work. We apply SST-informed analysis to four SIDM case studies selected from the total of 18 published over the period 1970-2016 to explore the utility of SST compared with other approaches. Findings-Our analysis highlights the role of agents' knowledgeability and position-practice relations in strategic investment decision-making, which has largely been neglected by prior studies. We demonstrate the potential of SST to inform meso-level SIDM theorising by applying it to four published case studies. Whilst we argue for the adoption of SST, we also identify key methodological and conceptual issues in using SST in SIDM research. Research limitations/implications-Our examples and recommendations could assist management accounting researchers, particularly those engaged in case studies and organisational fieldwork, to build knowledge via the improved comparison, integration and theorisation of cases undertaken by different researchers in different contexts. Originality/value-We offer a bridge between SST concepts and case study evidence for theorising, carrying out and analysing case study and field research on SIDM.

Purpose Exploiting the mandatory provision of integrated reporting in South Africa, this paper aims to investigate whether this regulatory switch from the conventional annual report is associated with differences in the level of textual risk disclosure (TRD). This paper also examines the economic usefulness of this regulatory change by observing the impact of TRD on the complying firms’ market values. Design/methodology/approach Archival data are collected and examined using time-series difference design and difference-in-differences design. Findings The authors find that the level of TRD within the mandatory integrated reporting is significantly lower than that of annual reports. The authors find that the impact of TRD in integrated reporting on market value compared to that of annual reports is statistically not different from zero. The authors’ further analyses suggest that corporate governance effectiveness is not a moderating factor to the study results. The results are robust to comparisons with the voluntary adoption of integrated reporting in the UK. Originality/value Collectively, the study results suggest that managers’ adherence to the mandatory provision of integrated reporting has significantly decreased the level of (voluntary) TRD they tended to convey within the conventional annual reports, resulting in a trivial impact on market value. These unintended consequences should be of interest to the International Integrated Reporting Council and other bodies interested in integrated reporting.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to draw on a small‐scale study that investigated the relationships between the budget‐setting process and slack, and how budgetary, behavioural and contextual factors can affect this relationship, to reconceptualise the phenomenon of budgetary slack as a budget risk management strategy.Design/methodology/approachA case study method was employed, which enabled the researchers to investigate factors suggested by prior literature that affect slack creation. In total, nine structured interviews were conducted in a state‐owned Egyptian petroleum company, which gave the researchers a different way of thinking about the budget slack phenomenon.FindingsThe authors found that slack is created, but not perceived negatively by managers, wherever they are in the organisational hierarchy. Few factors from the literature appeared to have any effect on the creation of budgetary slack, but the covert view of budget slack as a negative behaviour, adopted by early literature was perceived by participants as unethical and inconsistent with Egyptian culture. Managers did not recognise the notion of budgetary slack, though a “contingency” was created and was seen as entirely rational and acceptable by both superiors and subordinates. These findings are consistent with more recent literature in taking a more positive view, and with risk management thinking.Research limitations/implicationsThe evidence from this small study in a single organisation obviously cannot be generalised to the whole population. More research is needed in different contexts in order to discover whether managers may perceive this link between budget contingencies and risk management. Also, further research may explore the ethical dimension of behaviour and its possible foundation in religious values and beliefs, to see if this influences how building “contingencies” into budgets is perceived.Practical implicationsIf we were to stop portraying the creation of budgetary slack as a negative behaviour and accept that practitioners find it acceptable in managing budgets in an uncertain economic environment, more managers may be open about it.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this paper is that it proposes that what was originally described as a negative behavioural phenomenon be rethought as a positive risk management strategy. Though other authors have viewed budget slack more positively, none has made the explicit link to risk management. The authors reposition budget slack in terms of contingency planning and show how this is consistent with risk management thinking.