Proceedings

are primarily used for performance measurement is understandable that the
interventions of the regulatory authority distort the management accounting system
and performance measurement process.
Given that the regulatory authority exercises strict control over prices on the
telecommunications market, we believe that managing the costs is an imperative; in
this respect Japanese approach of target costing may be useful, supported by an
efficient activity-based management.
However, regulation should not be viewed as a negative aspect. It can also provide
benefits that can be capitalized. For example, for pricing the interconnection services,
LRIC costing model uses data from separate financial statements and relies on
information regarding operators’ recent performance, thereby enabling the elimination
of costs related to structural and operational inefficiencies, and estimating long-term
evolution of these costs.
(b) which management control tools “escape” from regulation and can be
exploited in order to create value and improve company performance?
Addressing the concept of performance, Alazard and Separi (2003) stated that
"performance requires a holistic view of interdependencies between internal and
external, quantitative and qualitative, techniques and human, physical and financial
management parameters." Trying to measure the value created by the organization
solely on the basis of purely financial indicators can lead to a manipulation of
numbers. These negative effects can be counteracted by supplementing the analysis of
financial indicators with non-financial elements. Service quality is one of these
elements, aiming at appropriate quality management.
Quality is increasingly recognized as a key competitive advantage and it is more and
more placed by enterprises in their global strategic choices. In order to improve
quality, the company must invest in prevention, with beneficial effects in saving other
cost categories. Quality in telecommunications can be appreciated by the customer
through the following features: fastness of service installation, promptitude in
replying to failures requests, signal quality, the time required for purchasing new
services, customer information, payment method, changing contractual terms, price,
service customization, compatibility with other services.
A common view in literature is that a satisfied customer is the best indicator of the
quality of any business. While much of the literature suggests that total quality
management facilitate customer satisfaction, Sharma et al. (2010) believe that this is
not necessarily true in the case of privatized monopolies. However, a solution could
be the implementation of a set of concepts and management tools aimed at involving
all staff in order to achieve continuous performance improvement (Hoque, 2003).
But organizational change often encounters resistance from actors who refuse to adapt
to these change. For example, sudden changes of regulations, of technologies or
customer requirements may cause institutional contradictions / inconsistencies
(Sharma et al., 2010). Such a situation was encountered in Romtelecom, when the
reengineering process started, in conjunction with the redesign of organization
structure and activity-based management implementation.
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