IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fan/macoma/vhtml10.3280-maco2022-001005.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The implementation of PMS in Italian universities: A longitudinal analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Adriana Bruno
  • Martina Dal Molin

Abstract

Starting from the 1990s, the New Public Management (NPM) has been the most inspiring principle of public sector reforms in Europe. The Higher Education (HE) sector is among the different fields in which the implementation of NPM reforms have been controversial. Based on the NPM framework, most HE reforms have focused on enhancing universities? accountability and transparency through performance measurement and performance management (Rabovsky, 2014; Rebora and Turri, 2011). The effects of the implementation of this "calculative technologies" is, however, still under investigated (Arnaboldi et al., 2016). Using documentary analysis as research methodology, this paper investigates implementation trajectories of performance management system (PMS) in Italian universities (Marchi, 2015). Specifically, this is a longitudinal documentary analysis and it offers the results from a content analysis of the Performance Plan (PP) and the Performance Report (PR) of 66 Italian Universities in two periods, i.e. 2016 and 2018. Furthermore, the longitudinal documentary analysis adopts the matrix from a previous study (Dal Molin et al., 2017), which matches the "quality of PMS" and the "expected use of PMS". The main objective of this study is to investigate if the "implementation gap" (Ongaro and Valotti, 2008) highlighted in previous studies (e.g. Dal Molin et al., 2017) has been fulfilled and in which elements it is possible to observe such improvement. As main result, the study shows that the implementation gap is still strongly present, from 2012 until now, and a formal compliance with the law still persists (Allini et al., 2020). There are areas of improvement related to external accountability and compliance, however, this is not supported by an internal use based on internal accountability (Tieghi et al., 2018).

Suggested Citation

  • Adriana Bruno & Martina Dal Molin, 2022. "The implementation of PMS in Italian universities: A longitudinal analysis," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2022(1), pages 59-78.
    • Handle: RePEc:fan:macoma:v:html10.3280/maco2022-001005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=70688&Tipo=ArticoloPDF
    Download Restriction: Single articles can be downloaded buying download credits, for info: https://www.francoangeli.it/DownloadCredit
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marco Tieghi & Rebecca L. Orelli & Emanuele Padovani, 2018. "Accounting Reform in Italian Universities. Internal Response to Accounting Change," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(1), pages 117-138.
    2. Walter Kickert, 2007. "Public Management Reforms in Countries with a Napoleonic State Model: France, Italy and Spain," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Christopher Pollitt & Sandra Thiel & Vincent Homburg (ed.), New Public Management in Europe, chapter 3, pages 26-51, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Luciano Marchi, 2015. "Editoriale. Nuove prospettive di ricerca sulle tematiche di Management Control," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3), pages 5-8.
    4. F. King Alexander, 2000. "The Changing Face of Accountability," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 71(4), pages 411-431, July.
    5. Alessandra Allini & Rosanna Span? & Annamaria Zampella & Fiorenza Meucci, 2020. "Integrated Performance Plans in Higher Education as means of accounting change. Insights into the Italian context," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2020(1), pages 87-110.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alessandra Allini & Rosanna Span? & Annamaria Zampella & Fiorenza Meucci, 2020. "Integrated Performance Plans in Higher Education as means of accounting change. Insights into the Italian context," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2020(1), pages 87-110.
    2. Francesca Francioli & Alberto Quagli, 2021. "Management accounting change and the rise of Vespa (1884-1965)," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(suppl. 2), pages 313-338.
    3. Chiara Oppi & Cristina Campanale & Lino Cinquini, 2021. "Il problema dell?ambiguit? nei sistemi di misurazione della performance nel settore pubblico: un?analisi della letteratura internazionale," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(2), pages 11-38.
    4. Oleg V. Leshukov & Daria P. Platonova & Dmitry S. Semyonov, 2015. "Does Competition Matter? The Efficiency of Regional Higher Education Systems and Competition: The Case of Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 29/EDU/2015, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    5. Luciano Marchi, 2021. "Temi e medodologie di ricerca nell?area Management Control: stato dell?arte e prospettive," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(2), pages 165-170.
    6. van der Voet, Joris, 2014. "The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 373-382.
    7. Sara Giovanna Mauro & Lino Cinquini & Elena Simonini & Andrea Tenucci, 2020. "Moving from Social and Sustainability Reporting to Integrated Reporting: Exploring the Potential of Italian Public-Funded Universities’ Reports," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-19, April.
    8. Marco Tieghi & Rebecca L. Orelli & Emanuele Padovani, 2018. "Accounting Reform in Italian Universities. Internal Response to Accounting Change," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(1), pages 117-138.
    9. Maliheh Mansouri & Julie Rowney, 2014. "The Dilemma of Accountability for Professionals: A Challenge for Mainstream Management Theories," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 45-56, August.
    10. Wang, Derek D., 2019. "Performance-based resource allocation for higher education institutions in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 66-75.
    11. Wen-Chi Hung & Cherng G. Ding & Hung-Jui Wang & Meng-Che Lee & Chieh-Peng Lin, 2015. "Evaluating and comparing the university performance in knowledge utilization for patented inventions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(2), pages 1269-1286, February.
    12. Natalia Aversano & Ferdinando Di Carlo & Giuseppe Sannino & Paolo Tartaglia Polcini & Rosa Lombardi, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility, stakeholder engagement, and universities: New evidence from the Italian scenario," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1892-1899, July.
    13. Silvia Macchia, 2021. "Are we ready to change? A case study of Management Accounting Change (MAC) in an Italian Co-operative," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(suppl. 1), pages 141-164.
    14. Russell Craig & Joel Amernic, 2002. "Accountability of accounting educators and the rhythm of the university: resistance strategies for postmodern blues," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 121-171.
    15. Jana Bouwma-Gearhart & Jennifer Collins, 2015. "What We Know About Data-Driven Decision Making In Higher Education: Informing Educational Policy and Practice," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 2805154, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    16. Lee, Michael T. & Raschke, Robyn L., 2018. "Freeing “workplace prisoners” in higher education: Configurations for collective knowledge building and educational value decisions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 443-448.
    17. Giacomo Fabietti & Francesca Trovarelli, 2016. "The role of Eco-control in the implementation of Sustainable Business Models," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(3), pages 141-172.
    18. Luciano Marchi, 2019. "Governo delle aziende e creazione di valore: da una prospettiva finanziaria ad una prospettiva economico-sociale," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(1), pages 5-16.
    19. Llewellyn E. Zyl & Babet Heijenk & Jeff Klibert & Rebecca Shankland & Nicolas B. Verger & Sebastiaan Rothmann & Vincent Cho & Katherine Feng & Eric W. K. See-To & Lara C. Roll & Leander Meij, 2022. "Grit Across Nations: The Cross-National Equivalence of the Grit-O Scale," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 3179-3213, October.
    20. Beverungen, Armin & Hoedemaekers, Casper & Veldman, Jeroen, 2014. "Charity and finance in the university," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 58-66.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fan:macoma:v:html10.3280/maco2022-001005. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Stefania Rosato (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/sommario.aspx?IDRivista=166 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.