Waste and duplication in NASA programs: The need to enhance U.S. space program efficiency

Chapman, Bert

doi:10.1016/j.spacepol.2014.10.003

Cited by 10 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Issues of cost management have also received ample attention in the space literature, albeit from a predominantly economics-and engineering-based perspective. Similar to other mega-projects (Flyvbjerg et al, 2003), space exploration and commercialisation initiatives face significant challenges of estimating and controlling project costs and have often been plagued by substantial cost overruns (Macauley, 2008;Chapman, 2015;Peeters, 2016;Dwyer et al, 2018). These challenges have, in turn, spawned considerable interest in applying advanced tools for cost management, such as life-cycle costing (e.g.…”

Section: Application To the Field Of Cost Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

To boldly go where no one has gone before: a critical realist approach to space accounting

Modell

2023

AAAJ

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how critical realism can be mobilised as a meta-theory, or philosophical under-labourer, for research on space accounting and how this may further inquiries into the known as well as the unknown implications of space exploration and commercialisation.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper that applies critical realism to the field of space accounting using cost management in space contracts as an illustrative example.FindingsAdopting a naturalised version of critical realism that recognises the complex interplay between natural and social realities, the author nuances the distinction between intransitive and transitive objects of knowledge and advances a framework that may be used as a starting point for a transfactual mode of reasoning. The author then applies this mode of reasoning to the topic of cost management in the space sector and illustrates how it may enhance our insights into what causes cost overruns in space contracts.Research limitations/implicationsBy adopting a naturalised version of critical realism, the author establishes a philosophical framework that can support the broadly based, inter-disciplinary research agenda that has been envisaged for research on space accounting and possibly inform policy development.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to apply a critical realist perspective to space accounting and lays a philosophical foundation for future research on the topic.

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Section: Application To the Field Of Cost Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

To boldly go where no one has gone before: a critical realist approach to space accounting

Modell

2023

AAAJ

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“…The more ambitious and complex nature of modern space exploration, along with greater financial and fiscal accountability (Chapman, 2015), has combined to present a far different landscape of the space sector from that seen by observers in the heady days of the 1950 and 1960s when the USA and the USSR tested their relative technological, military and, by extension, political-economic superiority. As a result, the prevalence and extent of what has become known as the “Space Economy” has been escalating on a global scale (Alewine, 2020), with significant shifts in how resources are expended and outcomes evaluated in accountability objectives on space goals for both public and private stakeholders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Space for accounting and accountability: realising potential management accounting research contributions to the space sector

Tucker

Alewine

2021

AAAJ

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PurposeThe contribution of accounting research to the space sector has arguably been less discernible, less visible and less appreciated than that made by STEM disciplines. This paper aims to ascertain the nature and extent to which management accounting can contribute to interdisciplinary advancements of the space sector. This is accomplished by investigating possible contributions realised by management accounting research to the space sector and identifying the opportunities and challenges facing interdisciplinary accounting researchers in making a contribution.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative empirical study draws on interviews with 25 academic researchers and practitioners from Australia, the USA, the UK, Canada, Europe, India and China, with research or practitioner experience on accounting issues germane to the space sector. The purpose is to seek their perceptions of how interdisciplinary management accounting research can solve contemporaneous problems in the space sector.FindingsThe potential contribution that management accounting research can make in the space sector is grounded in the inherent interdisciplinary of the discipline. The propensity to draw on other disciplines, theories, methodologies and methods is a strength of management accounting, as it is arguably by such interdisciplinarity that “wicked problems’ such as those presented by space exploration, policy and research can be solved.Originality/valueThis is one of the first papers to explore the role and contribution management accounting research can offer to what has traditionally been a STEM-dominated field. In so doing, it underscores the central importance and value-added by an interdisciplinary approach to management accounting research.

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“…First, the increasing number of data providers/suppliers make it more complicated to have a precise view over the global market-chain [53]: there exist over seventy satellite-based observing programs operated by more than thirty different countries [8], with markets structured through complex interoperability between upstream and downstream layers [62]. Secondly, the redistribution of value between raw data and added-value services and products: data users are less inclined to pay for raw or pre-processed data, even at preferential rates, due to existing upstream pooling mechanisms put in place (e.g., the Copernicus European program) and the scarcity of public budgets [5,16]. This phenomenon affects the value chain and consequently, the demand side.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining satellite images market stability using the Records theory: Evidence from French spatial data infrastructures

Jabbour

Hoayek

Maurel

et al. 2021

JOSIS

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The spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) which constitute a direct link between spatial data users and the large Earth observation industry, have a leading role in establishing market opportunities in the space sector. The spatial information supplied through various forms of SDI platforms exhibits large increases in demand volatility. The users' demand is unpredictable and the market is vulnerable to high evolution shifts. We study the effect of extreme demands for a particular type of spatial information, the satellite images. Drawing on two French SDIs, GEOSUD and PEPS, we examine the shifts occurring on their platforms and assess the probability of witnessing a spike/drop in the short term of different satellite imagery schemes: the high resolution images through GEOSUD; the Landsat (U.S.), Sentinel (Europe) and SPOT (France) images through PEPS. We analyze the market stability through the two SDIs and evaluate the probability of future records by using the Records theory. The results show that the high resolution images demand through GEOSUD, for which the classical i.i.d. model fits the most, is stable. Moreover, the Yang-Nevzorov model fits to the Landsat data, due to more records concentrated beyond the first observations. The Landsat demand is the less stable out of the other three satellite images series, and the probability of having a record in the coming years is the highest. While the use of Records theory drops mathematical constraints, it offers an alternative solution to the non-applicability of the machine learning techniques and long-term memory models.

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Waste and duplication in NASA programs: The need to enhance U.S. space program efficiency

Cited by 10 publications

References 4 publications

To boldly go where no one has gone before: a critical realist approach to space accounting

To boldly go where no one has gone before: a critical realist approach to space accounting

Space for accounting and accountability: realising potential management accounting research contributions to the space sector

Examining satellite images market stability using the Records theory: Evidence from French spatial data infrastructures

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