Entrepreneurial Control and the Construction of a Relevant Accounting

Methodology

The case is a longitudinal field study of an entrepreneur’s control of his Australian-based multinational packaging machinery supplier with annual sales in excess of $A60 million. The field study began over 10 years ago. It was first written up in 1992 and updated in 1995. At that time it was reviewed by the entrepreneur, who provided clarification and additional information. The case was updated in 1999 and again in 2001. Again, the entrepreneur reviewed the paper, corrected some minor errors of fact and amplified certain points.

The field study data was collected through meetings over the 10-year period. These took place largely outside the Monday–Friday 9–5 working day and were in locations such as the entrepreneur’s or researcher’s home, or in a restaurant or pub. During these meetings, which took place throughout the field study period, the researcher was able to collect data from the entrepreneur and from a variety of organizational participants, including employees across all the functional areas of marketing, research and development (R&D), production and finance, as well as customers and suppliers. These employ-ees were based in various sites around the world but all the meetings took place in either the UK or Australia. During these meetings, the researcher was also able to observe the relationship between the entrepreneur and his employees, customers and suppliers. More formal interviews were conducted with the entrepreneur after his review of each draft of this paper. In total, there are several hundred hours of data collection over the period.

These meetings had a particular style as a result of their social setting and the very nature of the entrepreneur’s management style, discussed later in this paper. The method of data collection was primarily informal using unstructured questions which allowed the views of the respondents to emerge, often without much prompting. While the entrepreneur was aware of the researcher’s data collection, other respondents were not and so provided a more honest and open commentary than had the researcher been seen as an instrument of the entrepreneur.

Detailed notes were written up after each meeting. While many of the conversations were of consid-erable length (3–4 hours), many others were brief, spontaneous anecdotes provided by the entrepreneur

or his employees. Detailed handwritten notes were taken during the more formal interviews with the entrepreneur.

Triangulation of data collection took place in three ways. First, the time span allowed the researcher to observe changes that were taking place in the organization and the changing views of the entrepreneur and his employees over a 10-year period. Triangulation also took place by virtue of different people being interviewed in different locations. Thirdly and importantly, triangulation took place between the interviews and the artefact of the spreadsheets described later in this paper which were the formal control mechanisms developed and used by the entrepreneur. The researcher had access to these evolving spreadsheet models throughout the 10-year research period.

The field study is in the main an exploratory one (Yin, 1994). It illustrates an example of the different modes of control in the field study organization and how, in this particular case study, these were dominated by the social mode. To a lesser extent, as an explanatory study, it attempts to answer �how’ and �why’ questions about the form of control in use in the organization studied. These questions are explained through the background to the case study organization and its use of accounting and social controls.

Field study

1. Background

TNA is an Australian-based packaging equipment supplier that was formed in Sydney in 1982 as a consultancy to the snack foods industry. Its owner is Alf Taylor. Taylor had previously worked for Arnotts, a major Australian snack food manufacturer. A small number of suppliers have historically dominated the market for packaging machines, which need to be easily adaptable to new bag sizes and content, reflecting marketing strategy in packaged snack foods. The cost/benefit ratio of packaging machines is determined by throughput speed, flexibility and the reject rate. The trend to convenience foods and smaller pack sizes has increased the demand for packaging machines worldwide.

It was in this environment that Taylor invented the �Robag’ or robotic bagmaker, a computer numerically controlled (CNC) packaging machine that forms a pack from a roll of printed film, fills it and seals it in one continuous operation. Robag’s key selling point is “more good bags per minute”. Despite the price of the Robag being