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The research titled Examining Strategic Factors influencing the Use of Risk Analysis Techniques in Strategic Investment Decision-Making won The Best Paper Award in the 38th Management Accounting Research Group (MARG) conference in Birmingham, 14–15 November 2024. The research was conducted by Professor Jari Huikku and Senior Fellow Tomi Seppälä from the School of Business together with Senior University Lecturer Jouko Karjalainen from the School of Science.

Risk analysis techniques (RATs) greatly support managers in obtaining a more comprehensive view of the threats and opportunities of strategic investment proposals. 

‘Our study investigates which strategic factors influence the use of RATs. Specifically, we address the frequency of use of the most common RATs, such as sensitivity, scenario, simulation and CAPM analyses. We investigate firms’ strategic factors, such as corporate strategy, business strategy, and financial strategy. We test our hypotheses using multiple linear regression and data based on 105 structured interviews from among the 150 largest Finnish manufacturing companies,’ Jari Huikku says.

‘We contribute to prior literature by showing that corporate strategy moderates the effect between business strategy and the use of RATs so that prospectors adopting the strategic planning style use RATs more frequently than other prospectors. We also provide clear evidence that difficulties in the availability of funding encourage companies to use RATs more frequently,’ Tomi Seppälä continues.

The 38th Management Accounting Research Group (MARG) conference was held in November 2024 at Aston University, Birmingham. The prestigious event, hosted in collaboration with the Management Control Association (MCA), focused on how management accounting research, theory, and practice influence the curriculum.

The first MARG conference was held 45 years ago at London School of Economics. The driving forces of this conference have been LSE and Aston University. Previous MARG conference distinguished speakers have included e.g. Professors of Accounting Teemu Malmi and Juhani Vaivio among others.

Congratulations to the winning research group!