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THE IMPACT Of THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE ATTITUDES Of THE CITIZENS Of SERBIA TOWARDS LEISURE TRAVEL

UTICAJ GLOBALNE EKONOMSKE KRIZE NA STAVOVE GRAĐANA SRBIJE PREMA TURISTIČKIM PUTOVANJIMA

Nataša Sekulović*

Singidunum University, Department for Tourism and Hospitality Management, Danijelova 32, Belgrade, Serbia

1. INTRODUCTION

The dynamic development of international and domestic tourism in the period 1950-2008 has been generated by the overall economic development on World scale, considering that economics is a key in-fluence on both the demand for tourism and supply of facilities and services (Henderson, 2007). During this period various economic and non-economic factors have periodically negatively influenced the trends in tourism, however their influence had not long term consequences on the general positive trend (Unković, 2009). One of the most dramatic recent factors that affected world tourism is the global economic cri-sis, caused essentially in the financial sector, by the mortgage credit insolvency in the US (Unković and Zečević, 2009). This crisis has impacted world tour-ism in the second half of 2008 and persevered during 2009, while in 2010 on a global level was registered a recovery of the sector.

Serbia has also experienced the effects of the global economic crisis. In 2009 the national GDP has de-creased by 3.5% (IMF, 2010) after a period of 8 years when an increase of more than 5% of GDP on aver-age per year has been registered. However, tourism sector registered differing results, the number of in-ternational arrivals had not decreased, but a real chal-

lenge was domestic demand (Unković and Sekulović, 2010). The premise is that the global economic crisis has impacted the attitudes of the Serbian population towards leisure travel by decreasing primarily domes-tic arrivals in Serbia in the period 2009-2010. In order to confirm this hypothesis, a specific survey, upon au-thor’s instructions and request, has been conducted in Serbia with the objective to analyse the attitudes of the citizens of Serbia towards leisure travel during the most recent global economic crisis, including its impact on their decision to take leisure travels. The survey has been conducted in the period 20th till 26th of June 2011 on a sample of 1005 individuals repre-senting the adult population of Serbia. The stratified random sampling method has been applied.

TNS Media Gallup from Belgrade, a specialized agency for public opinion, media and market re-search, has conducted the field part of the survey in cooperation with the author. The obtained data were compared with the data that Gallup Organiza-tion (Hungary) has registered in the survey on the at-titudes of the Europeans towards leisure tourism in 2008, 2009 and 2010, conducted at the request of the European Commission, Directorate General Enter-prise and Industry. The Serbian survey has focused on leisure travel, thus business travels have not been object of analysis, which is the main difference in respect to the EU survey.

UDK 338.482:159.9(497.11); 338.124.4(100) ISSN 1820-8819

SINGIDUNUM REVIJA 2011, 8 (2): 111-118 Original paper/Originalan rad

* E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract:In this paper the impact of the global economic crisis and other factors on the atti-tudes of the citizens of Serbia toward leisure travels is analysed. The paper is based on the results of the questionnaire and survey conducted with the assistance of TNS Media Gallup. Comparative results are given with respect to European Union, as well as the differences between Serbian respondents and EU average.

Key words: Global economic crisis, Leisure travel, Attitudes, Serbia, European Union.

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The questionnaire has included a set of questions with the objective to identify:

◆ The number of travel, its decrease or increase, ◆ Reasons causing decrease or increase of travel, ◆ Financial travel aspects, ◆ 2011 Plans;

The primary objective of the research was to de-termine the impact of the global economic crisis on leisure travels of the adult population of Serbia, 18+ years of age, within the reference period. The data about the habits of the population, as far as leisure travel is concerned, are relevant in order to determi-nate the scale of the impact of the crisis on the chang-es in respect of the attitudes towards travel (decrease of leisure travel, changing destination or methods of transport or accommodation type etc.). In addition other factors that might have had an impact on the decrease of domestic demand were taken into consid-eration, such as EU visa liberalisation for the citizens of Serbia, and the AH1N1 pandemic.

2. THE IMPACT Of THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE ATTITUDES

Of EU POPULATION TOWARDSLEISURE TRAVEL

The surveys conducted for the European Commis-sion, Directorate General Enterprise and Industry in-cluded all EU member states and in 2009 and 2010 also five additional countries: Croatia, Turkey, Mac-edonia, Norway and Iceland. This survey was con-ducted on a sample that varies from 500 to 2000 in-dividuals depending on the dimensions of a country, on the population older than 15 years of age. The ob-jective of the surveys was the analysis of the attitudes of Europeans toward tourism (Gallup Organization, 2011), with significant data related to the reasons for the decrease of travel in the analysed periods.

In the countries that were included in the survey, in 2008, 58% of respondents took a holiday trip1, in 2009 this number has decreased to 54%, and in 2010 the situation improved and 56% of respondents took a holiday trip.

In the observed Countries, an average 41% of re-spondents did not take a leisure travel longer than 4 consecutive nights during 2010, in respect of 44% in 2009 and 41% in 20082.1 This data includes leisure travel of more than 4 consecutive

nights.2 This data is a cumulative result of respondents that had not

taken a travel at all and of those respondents that have taken leisure travel shorter than 4 consecutive nights.

In 2010, per countries, the highest number of re-spondents that did not take a holiday longer than 4 days was Turkey, 75%. Among countries in our neighbourhood the situation was as follows: Hungary - 70%, Romania - 59%, Bulgaria - 54%, Croatia - 51% and Macedonia - 48%.

In 2009, per countries, the highest number of re-spondents that did not take a holiday longer than 4 days was in Turkey - 75%, and Lithuania - 73%, In our neighbourhood the situation was as follows: Hun-gary - 67%, Romania - 66%, Bulgaria - 59%, Croatia - 52% and Macedonia - 58% (Gallup Organization, 2010).

In 2008, Turkey, Croatia and Macedonia were not included in the survey, and the highest number of re-spondents that did not take leisure travel was regis-tered in Hungary - 70%, Bulgaria - 62% and Romania - 60% (Gallup Organization, 2009).

We can notice that all the countries in the Balkan area registered a higher number of respondents that did not take a leisure travel in respect to the EU aver-age.

The respondents that during 2010 did not take a leisure trip, including those who did not travel at all, indicated financial reasons as a main reason for not taking a holiday. Actually 4 out of 10 Europeans did not travel because of financial problems. Per EU Members states the highest number of respondents that has indicated financial reasons is as follows: 68% in Hungary, 65% in Bulgaria, 62% in Romania, 58% in Greece, 55% in Portugal and 52% in Macedonia. On the other hand those numbers are, in richer EU member states much lower: Belgium - 16%, Norway and Sweden - 21%, Denmark - 22%, Holland - 23%.

In 2009 the absolute majority of the respondents that did not take a leisure trip indicated financial rea-sons as the main cause, i.e. 6 out of 10 respondents. Per countries the top 4 were similar to 2010: 65% - Bulgaria, 62% - Romania, 58% - Hungary and 61% - Macedonia. On the other side the situation was simi-lar to 2010: Norway - 12%, Holland - 18%, Finland 20% and Sweden 21%.

The number of respondents that did not take a leisure travel during 2008 who indicated financial reasons as the main reason for not travelling was ap-proximately on the level registered in 2010, i.e. 41,3%. Per countries the top 5 were: Portugal - 66.4%, Bul-garia - 63.1%, Romania - 60.1%, Hungary - 60%, Po-land - 52.3%. At the other end the situation in the top 3 was: Luxembourg - 12%, Holland - 16.1% and

Sekulović N. The impact of the global economic crisis SINGIDUNUM R 2011 8 (2) 111-118

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Sweden - 19.8%. It has to be noticed that in the survey of 2008 the 5 additional countries were not included.

The comparison between 2010 and 2009 shows that there has been a significant decrease of the num-ber of respondents that identified financial reasons as the main reason for not going on leisure travel, a decrease from 60% to 40%, thus the number in 2010 returned to 2008 level.

The countries in which the situation improved the most from the financial point of view, if we take as a basis the decrease of respondents that indicated fi-nancial reasons as the main obstacle for their leisure travel, are Slovenia (from 50% to 39%), Macedonia (61% to 52%), and Estonia (from 49% to 41%). On the other hand, the situation deteriorated the most in Greece (from 46% to 58%), Norway (from 12% to 21%), and Ireland (from 27.4% in 2008 to 47.9% in 2010).

Among other reasons that the respondents indi-cated as the main reason not to go on holiday are:

◆ Private reasons (21.3% in 2008, 21.8% in 2009, and 22.4% in 2010);

◆ Lack of time (10.2% in 2008, 12.6% in 2009, and 11% in 2010).

On the other hand, a very small number of re-spondents indicated safety/security reasons as a cause not to go to holidays in 2008 - 0.8%, in 2009 - 0.6% and in 2010 - 0.7%.

The above data indicate that the situation has im-proved in 2010 in the majority of the EU countries in respect to the previous year. Thus the period of the major impact of the global economic crisis was 2009. The continuous deterioration in countries like Greece and Ireland can be justified with specific internal problems, which is in line with the overall economic outlook of these countries.

3. THE IMPACT Of THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE ATTITUDES Of THE POPULATION Of SERBIA TOWARDS

LEISURE TRAVEL

As far as the leisure travel of the population of Ser-bia, the situation is somehow different in respect of EU countries. In Serbia the crisis has reflected later on the travel attitudes of the population, therefore a significant decrease has been registered in 2010, while EU experienced a major decrease in 2009. On the oth-er hand in Serbia in 2009 has been registered a sharp decrease of number of arrivals in comparison to the

previous year, -11%, and the decrease of the domestic guests has reached -15% (SORS, 2009, 2010). When compared this two set of data, it indicates that even though the respondents in Serbia have not renounced generally to their leisure travel in 2009, the popula-tion has decreased domestic travels.

To this situation has contributed also the fact that the local Serbian offer has not immediately and ad-equately conformed to the new circumstances on the market, and that many tourist operators have ignored that the crisis is a situation requiring radical manage-ment action in response to events beyond the internal control of the organisation (Beirman, 2003).

Bearing in mind that the living standard of the population of Serbia is lower in comparison to the EU average, it was necessary to establish previously the habits of the population related to leisure travel before the global economic crisis.

In this respect the first question that was asked is “Have you had leisure travel in the period 2000-2010?”. The results revealed that as much as 48.4% of the adult respondents in Serbia never had a leisure travel between 2000 and 2010, that only 15.2% trav-elled every year and that 36% had leisure travel only in certain years during this period.

These data testify that almost one half of the adult population of Serbia does not travel on holidays, which is above all a consequence of the low living standard of the population. At the same time, this fact decreased the sample of the respondents to whom further questions in the survey, related to leisure trav-el, were asked.

Graph 1. Review of leisure travel of the population in the period 2000-2010 (%)


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Out of those respondents that have travelled dur-ing some of the years in the indicated period, 36% of the population, the highest percentage travelled in the period 2007-2009, on average 15.5%.

Graph 2. Percentage of respondents per year that travelled only in some years in the period 2000-2010 (%)

The percentage of the respondents that travelled for leisure in certain years is expressed with respect to the entire sample, not only with respect of those that travelled for leisure, and it reflects a trend in the analysed period.

Table 1. Review of the respondents that travelled for lei-sure in the period 2000/2010 per year (%)

YearRespondents that

travelled only onceTotal respondents

that travelled

2000 6.1 21.3

2001 7.2 22.5

2002 10.3 25.5

2003 9.4 24.6

2004 9.0 24.2

2005 13.1 28.3

2006 14.8 30.1

2007 15.6 30.8

2008 15.5 30.7

2009 15.5 30.7

2010 12.5 27.7

In Serbia the average percentage of the respond-ents that travelled on holidays every year in the period 2000-2010 is 26.94% of the adult population, in other words an average of 73.06% of the population do not travel for holidays every year. However the trend is positive, the number of respondents that have trav-elled for holidays increased from 21.3% in 2001 to 27.7% in 2010, reaching its peak in 2007.

The global economic crisis reduced the number of respondents that travelled on holidays by 3% in 2010 in respect to 2009 reaching a level lower than in 2005. This was the first decrease after 5 years growth since 2003-20043. More than 43% of the respondents answered that they decreased the number of leisure travel in comparison to the period before 2008. Fur-thermore, the 2010 decrease is followed also in the domestic tourist turnover in 2010 that has fallen by 4% in respect to 2009.

Table 2. Have you reduced in 2009 and in 2010 the number of leisure travels?

Answer %

Yes, significantly 30.6

Yes, little 12.4

No 33.9

NA 23.0

As the main reason for the decrease of leisure trav-el, 15.7%, of the respondents that reduced the number of leisure travel, indicated directly the global economic crisis as the main factor, and an additional 26.2% in-dicated a decrease of income due to the crisis, which means that 41.9% of the respondents indicated finan-cial reasons as the main reason for reducing their lei-sure travel. This figure reflects essentially the number of the respondents that have decreased their leisure travel, which is 43%.

Non-economic factors such as viruses and diseases as A1H1 pandemic (that afflicted the World in 2009 and 2010) or safety/security concerns impacted 1.1%, i.e. 0.5% of the respondents, and additional 6.8% in-dicate other reasons.

In addition, this reflected more on the decrease of number of leisure travel of the respondents than on the decrease of the population that travelled for lei-sure in this period. Since the preferred destinations

3 In 2003 has been registered a decrease of tourism on global level mainly due to non-economic factors (Unković and Zecević, 2009).


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for leisure travel are the seaside destinations, as it can be seen in graph No. 4, this decrease significantly in-fluenced the number of leisure travels in Serbia. It is also evident that the effects of the global economic crisis are, to some extent, postponed in Serbia when compared to the countries analysed in the EU survey.

In addition, the economic crisis affected also the accommodation preferences, and on a lesser extent, also transport methods preferences.

Table 3. Has the crisis influenced your choice of accommodation?

Answer %

Yes 47.8

No 38.2

Do not know/no answer 14.1

Table 4. Has the crisis influenced your choice of the transport method?

Answer %

Yes 38.3

No 48.4


Obviously, we have to consider that the most rep-resented method of transport of the respondents is bus or personal vehicle, and that this also contributed to smaller changes in the method of transport prefer-ences.

As far as other non-economic factors are con-cerned, it is interesting to note that the effects of the EU visa liberalisation in 2009 had a limited impact on the decision of the respondents where to travel for leisure, as it is shown in table 5.


Graph 4. Leisure travel destination preferences of the population of Serbia (%)

Graph 3. International and domestic leisure travel of the population of Serbia (%)

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Table 5. Has the EU visa liberalisation had an effect on your decision where to travel?

Answer %

Yes 17.9

No 69.7

Do not know, no answer 12.3

Out of these answers we can conclude that the EU visa liberalisation for the citizens of Serbia had effects mainly on the minority of respondents, those who usually travel every year.

The majority of the respondents travel for leisure abroad (47.4%), significantly less in Serbia (37.6%). This result doesn’t come as a surprise, if we consider that, as a destination, the coast is overwhelmingly predominant in comparison to other destinations (mountains, spas, cities, etc.).

It is also relevant to note that until 2005 the travel to Montenegro were considered domestic, and then, since the independence of this republic in 2006, as international.

4. ExPECTED RESULTS fOR THE CURRENT yEAR (2011)

In 2010 a recovery of world tourism was regis-tered. According to the UNWTO data, an increase of 6.7% of international arrivals has been registered (UNWTO, 2011) which was above expectations. Per region the increase was as follows: Asia +13%, Africa +6%, Americas +8%, Europe +3.5% and Middle East +14%. During 2011 the trend in international arriv-als shows continuous growth, even though at a lower rate than in 2010, with an average increase in the first 4 months of 4.5%. In Europe the recovery of the crisis was slower in 2010 with respect to other regions, but in 2011 an increase of 6% has been registered with respect to the same period in the previous year which is higher than the World average. This growth has been higher in the Scandinavian countries, probably because the volcanic eruptions in Iceland, April 2010, have caused a significant blockade of air traffic (UN-WTO, 2011).

In Serbia, according to the data available for the first half of 2011, there has been an increase of 8% in tourist arrivals in respect to the same period last year (Tourist arrivals in Serbia, 2009-2011). The growth of international arrivals has been 16% and of domestic

4%. This is a significant recovery in respect to 2010 when a decrease of 1% has been registered in compar-ison to the same period in 2009 (SORS, 2011). While international arrivals in Serbia have surpassed the re-sults of 646 494 arrivals in 2008 already in 2010, do-mestic arrivals could reach the results of 2008, which was 1 619 672 arrivals.

According to the respondent’s answers, it can be expected that the number of respondents that shall definitively travel for leisure this year should reach 28% of the population, which would be approximately the same result as in 2010. However, bearing in mind that 38.4% of the respondents have not yet decided or do not know, it can be expected that the number of citizens that shall travel for leisure this year shall be slightly higher with respect to the previous year. Furthermore it is to be expected that there shall be more of those that shall choose domestic destinations among those respondents that shall travel for holi-days.

Table 6. Have you travelled for leisure or do you plan to during this (2011) year?

%

Yes, I have travelled 6.7

Yes, I shall travel 21.3

No I will not 33.6

Haven’t yet decided 14.5

Do not know, no answer 23.9

On the basis of the above indicated data, it could be expected that the negative trend from the previous years have been stopped. However, it is still unclear if the percentage of those who shall travel for leisure will be higher, and in particular how much higher.

The following statements indicate that the eco-nomic situation in Serbia is still precarious: approxi-mately 17% of the respondents have had difficulties or had to loan financial resources in order to travel for leisure this year. In addition to that more than 54% of the respondents have declared that their financial situation has deteriorated in comparison to the previ-ous year, and this figure is higher than the percentage of respondents that have not travelled for leisure at all during 10 years, 48.4%.


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Table 7. How do you evaluate the financial situation of your household in comparison to the previous year?

%

Significantly deteriorated 14.3

Mostly deteriorated 40.1

Mostly the same 35.8

Mostly improved 8.0

Significantly improved 0.9


On the other hand, this data showing that the de-crease in income is still not that high to increase the number of the respondents that are willing to sacri-fice their holidays and leisure travel in respect to the previous year.

4. CONCLUSION

The global economic crisis has reflected on the at-titudes of population of Serbia towards leisure travel, and in particular it has influenced negatively on do-mestic tourism.

The situation in the EU, as far as the attitudes of Europeans towards leisure travel are concerned, has improved significantly in 2010 in comparison to 2009, reaching pre-crisis levels of 2008.

On the basis of the conducted survey we have es-tablished that:

Financial reasons, primarily caused by the global economic crisis, have impacted heavily on the lei-sure travels of the respondents in Serbia, with a post-poned effect in comparison to the EU countries. The respondents have indicated the global economic cri-sis and a subsequent decrease of income as the main reasons for decreasing of their leisure travels in 2010. This crisis has severed the modest growing trend of the number of respondents that were going on holi-days, registered in the period 2004-2009.

According to the available data we can conclude that in 2009 there was no significant decrease of lei-sure travels, and that this was the case also in 2010. This data is somewhat different than in EU countries, where the decrease of leisure travel was registered in 2009, except for Hungary.

During 2009 the citizens of Serbia have not re-nounced to leisure travel, however they have de-creased the incidence of travel. Primarily domestic leisure travels have been decreased, which doesn’t come as a surprise considering that the seashore is the first and usually the only choice for leisure travel. The fall of domestic arrivals has continued also in 2010. However, in the first half of 2011 encouraging results have been registered, total increase of arriv-als of +8%, an increase of international arrivals of 16% and of domestic arrivals 4%. These results have been achieved mainly through the improvement of the touristic offer, adjustment of the price policy as well as through targeted measures of governmental authorities, including promotional activities of the tourism organisations in Serbia.

Not only that the global economic crisis has re-duced the number of respondents that had a leisure travel in 2010, but it also had an impact on the choice of accommodation and at a smaller scale on the choice of method of transport.

In December 2009 the EU has abolished the visa for Serbian citizens, and the AH1N1 pandemic was at its high in 2009 and 2010. Through this survey we have established that these non-economic factors, al-though very important, had no major impact on the attitudes of the population of Serbia towards leisure travel.

Even though the percentage of the respondents that go for leisure travel has not yet increased, we can conclude that the frequency of leisure travel has in-creased among the respondents that go on holidays. The preliminary results and expectations for 2011 are showing signs of recovery of leisure travel in Serbia. However, the level of the population of Serbia that goes every year for a leisure travel is still far behind the EU average.

REfERENCES

Beirman, D. (2003) Restoring Tourism Destinations in Crisis. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin.

Henderson, J.C. (2007) Tourism Crisis, Causes, Consequences and Management. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.

IMF, World Economic Outlook Database [online]. Available from: www.imf.org [accessed July 25th 2011].

The Gallup Organisation (2009) Flash Eurobarometer, Survey on the Attitudes of Europeans towards Tourism. Analytical Re-port, March 2009. Gallup, EC.


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The Gallup Organisation (2010) Flash Eurobarometer, Survey on the Attitudes of Europeans towards Tourism. Analytical Re-port, Wave 2, March 2010. Gallup, EC.

The Gallup Organisation (2011) Flash Eurobarometer, Survey on the Attitudes of Europeans towards Tourism. Analytical Re-port, Wave 3, May 2011. Gallup, EC.

Tourist arrivals in Serbia. Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. Tourism volumes 2009, 2010, 2011 [online]. Available from: http://webrzs.stat.gov.rs/axd/en/istorija.htm [accessed July 17th 2011].

Unković, S. (2009) Međunarodni turizam u uslovima eko-nomske krize sa posebnim osvrtom na Jugoistočnu Evropu. Singidunum revija. 6 (1), 112-120.

Unković, S., Sekulović, N. (2010) Mere za ublažavanje neg-ativnog dejstva svetske ekonomske krize na turizam. Singi-dunum revija. 7 (2), 181-192.

Unković, S., Zečević, B. (2009) Ekonomika turizma. Beograd: Ekonomski fakultet, Univerzitet u Beogradu.

UNWTO, release as of 17th of January 2011, International Tourism 2010: Multi-speed recovery [online]. Available from: www.unwto.org [accessed July 19th 2011].

UNWTO (2011) World Tourism Barometer. Vol. 9.


Received: September 19, 2011Correction: September 30, 2011

Accepted: October 20, 2011

Rezime: U ovom radu je analiziran uticaj globalne ekonomske krize i drugih faktora na odnos stanovništva Srbije prema turističkim putovanjima. Rad je baziran na rezultatima sopstvenog istraživanja koje je sprovedeno uz pomoć TNS Media Gallup-a. Dati su i uporedni rezultati iz istraživanja Evropske unije, kao i razlike u odgovorima ispitanika Srbije u odnosu na evropski prosek.

Ključne reči: globalna ekonomska kriza, turistička putovanja,Srbija, EU.

40

CONTROLLING AS A SCIENCE IN GERMANy - RETROSPECTIVE, STATUS QUO AND OUTLOOK

KONTROLING KAO NAUKA U NEMAČKOJ - PROŠLOST, SADAŠNJOST I BUDUĆNOST

Wolfgang Beckera*, Bjoern Baltzera, Patrick Ulricha

aUniversity of Bamberg, Kapuzinerstraße 16, Bamberg, Germany

INTRODUCTION

In 2011, controlling will celebrate its 40th anniver-sary in German higher education - plenty of reason to look back, inventory … and look forward! Since its humble beginnings in 1971, controlling has evolved over the course of the past four decades into a subject that is taught at almost every German university that offers business studies. Likewise, the body of academ-ic publications relating to the topics of controlling can no longer be overlooked.

In this article, we aim to give our readers an over-view of main aspects of controlling research and teaching practice in German-speaking countries. In addition to Germany, this linguistically defined and culturally homogenous region also encompasses Austria and the larger part of Switzerland (Hofst-ede, 2001). Solely for reasons of simplicity, the terms “Germany” and “German” will be employed as proxies for the whole region in the remainder of this article. Outside the scope of this article is an analysis of the development of controlling in German business prac-

tice - the interested reader can consult several recent and comprehensive works on this topic (Binder, 2006; Braunstein, 2008).

In the following sections of this article, we will first provide some background information on the Ger-man system of higher education and then talk about the institutionalisation of controlling at universities. Subsequently, we will discuss the understanding of controlling in Germany - or rather “understandings”, as we shall see. After that, we will present main aspects of controlling research as well as teaching practice, in-cluding both past developments and current trends. In these sections, we will draw on empirical research done by ourselves and other researchers. Finally, we will give our personal opinion about probable future developments in controlling research and teaching.

1. CONTROLLING WITHIN THE GERMAN SySTEM Of HIGHER EDUCATION

In Germany, admission to higher education, i. e. the tertiary sector of education, is restricted. The right

UDK 657.05:378(430) ISSN 1820-8819

SINGIDUNUM REVIJA 2011, 8 (2): 40-54 Original paper/Originalan rad

* E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract:The academic discipline of controlling has been a part of German science for 40 years. During this period, its importance has steadily increased, at last gaining a permanent role in German Business Administration practice and education. Universities as well as Universities of Applied Sciences now offer a wide range of controlling courses. In the following article, we analyse the development of controlling as an academic discipline in Germany, using written documents and an empirical study we conducted in 2010 among German controlling lecturers as sources. We find strong evidence that Controlling has developed from a neighbour-ing branch of accounting science towards an integrated function of Management. However, we also detected significant space for development of current German controlling science, such as more international citations, more English publications in international journals and a stronger emphasis on new developments such as the integrated finance function.

Key words: Germany,Controlling research, Teaching controlling, Controlling conceptions, University.

41

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of admission can be obtained mainly by successfully passing the final examinations in different types of sec-ondary schools. The majority of German universities - used as an umbrella term here - are public and free of charge. Roughly every fourth university is privately owned and every tenth university is run by the church. At public universities (such as the University of Bam-berg), students have to pay a certain amount of admin-istrative fees per semester, but currently there are no tuition fees in the majority of the German states. The states (Bavaria in our case) are individually responsi-ble for the educational system in total and therefore not only decide on tuition fees, but also on the loca-tion and type of universities. The two main types of universities that exist in every state and that we will emphasize on in this article are universities (used in a narrow sense here, Universitaeten) and universities of applied sciences (FH=Fachhochschulen/Hochschulen fűr angewandte Wissenschaften). While universities of-fer a more theoretical education and have the right to grant doctorate degrees, the education at universities of applied sciences is more practical. There are roughly twice as many (usually smaller) universities of applied sciences than (usually larger) universities in Germany. Controlling research and teaching is commonplace at both types of universities.

Although there are some specialized universities, most universities offer a broad range of studies and are therefore subdivided into schools. Controlling is usually found at schools of business or with similar names (School of Business, Economics and Social Sci-ences in our case). Controlling courses mainly tar-get students of Business Administration and related studies such as Industrial Engineering or Information Management, but are usually also open to students from other studies. At most universities, control-ling courses are offered by one chair which is nor-mally headed by one full professor and employs sev-eral teaching and research assistants (Messner et al., 2008). Depending on the size of the university, this chair can also be in charge of teaching other subjects, like General and Strategic Management in our case. At universities of applied sciences, however, there are generally no teaching and research assistants, and controlling courses are offered by various professors simultaneously. These professors are responsible for teaching different subjects, too.

Until the middle of the last decade, the title ob-tained for studying at universities and universities of applied sciences in Germany was the diploma for most studies such as Business Administration. Although di-

ploma studies also used to be organised in two stag-es - general Grundstudium followed by specialised Hauptstudium, no title was awarded after the first stage. According to the Bologna agreement signed at European level, most studies in Germany switched to the internationally accepted two-stage bachelor/master system over the last years. While controlling courses were mainly taught in the second stage of the old diploma system, they are now offered at bachelor as well as at master studies.

2. INSTITUTIONALISATION Of CONTROLLING AT UNIVERSITIES

The origins of controlling in its modern sense lie in the United States, where the first controller posi-tions were established in companies at the end of the 19th century. Although positions engaged with similar tasks as controllers today existed in Germany already in the first half of the 20th century (Vahs, 1990), the terms controller and controlling were not in use. They were introduced to Germany only in the second half of the last century by local subsidiaries of American companies.

For an academic discipline, its institutionalisa-tion by university chairs or research centres is of high importance for creating an identity and for gaining acceptance (Messner et al., 2008). As controlling became more and more popular in business prac-tice over time, universities started to be interested in controlling with some delay. As can be expected from the development that originated in practice, the first university to formally deal with controlling was a university of applied sciences: In 1971, Professor Elmar Mayer initiated the Working Group Business Science and Business Practice (AWW=Arbeitskreis Wirtschaftswissenschaften und Wirtschaftspraxis) at the newly founded FH Cologne. In 1973, the first chair that bore the name controlling was founded at the TU Darmstadt, interestingly a polytechnic university. Its chair holder, Professor Péter Horváth, later trans-ferred to the University of Stuttgart and became one of the most prominent figures in German controlling science. His textbook Controlling was the first in the market, published in 1979 and has reached its 11th edition by now (Horváth, 2009). From 1989 on, he acted as co-editor of the renowned journal Zeitschrift fűr Controlling and founded, together with his former assistants from the University of Stuttgart, the con-sulting company Horváth & Partners Management Consultants.

Becker W., et al. Controling as a science in Germany SINGIDUNUM R 2011 8 (2) 40-54

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Over the first two decades starting from 1973, con-trolling gained ground in German universities very slowly. While at some universities controlling courses were offered by professors next to their original sub-jects, only roughly two dozens of chairs bearing the name controlling existed on the eve of the German reunification in 1990 (see figure 1):

After the German Reunification in 1990, howev-er, the institutionalisation of controlling saw a steep

growth: from 1991 to 2004, the number of chairs bearing the name controlling more than tripled. In 2004, in 72 out of 92 schools of business there existed a chair bearing the name controlling. Two factors can mainly explain this impressive development. First, in the former German Democratic Republic just like in other eastern and south-eastern European countries, the economy was centrally planned. Thus control-ling was not known there neither in practice nor in

Figure 1. Number of chairs bearing the name Controlling in Germany over time

Source: Binder, C. and Schaeffer, U. (2005a) Deutschsprachige Controllinglehrstuehle an der Schwelle zum Generationswechsel. Zeitschrift fuer Controlling & Management. 49, p. 102

academia. After the introduction of the free market economy to Eastern Germany, however, there was an instant need of controlling knowledge, so that many new chairs of controlling were founded at existing universities in Eastern Germany. As it took time to educate new professors of controlling, many profes-sors transferred from universities in Western Ger-many to Eastern Germany at that time. Second, as controlling still continued to grow in importance in business practice, there was in general an increasing demand for graduates with controlling skills. So in Western Germany, too, many new controlling chairs were founded or existing chairs were renamed.

Given the facts that professors at universities usu-ally become tenured being in their thirties and regu-larly retire at the age of 65 to 67, one can conclude that from the beginning of the new millennium on, the first generation of German professors of control-ling or the “pioneers of controlling” (Braunstein, 2008)

left universities (Horváth, to name just one example, retired in 2005).

As we have already shown, many chairs do not offer controlling courses exclusively, but also courses from other subjects. The range of these courses can be de-rived from the names these chairs bear (see figure 2):

1Only one in seven chairs is devoted solely to con-trolling, whereas every third chair covers the subjects of controlling as well as financial and management accounting. This can be explained by the fact that at universities, controlling seems to have evolved out of cost accounting (Weissenberger, 2002; Becker and Messner, 2005).2 Even the chairs that teach controlling and auditing or controlling and production manage-ment can be explained with this fact: While auditing

1 For a more recent study with similar results check Oechsler et al. (2009).

2 This opinion is supported by empirical evidence (Binder and Schaeffer, 2005b).


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Figure 2. Combination of subjects taught at Controlling chairs (%)

Source: Binder, C. and Schaeffer, U. (2005a) Deutschsprachige Controllinglehrstuehle an der Schwelle zum Generationswechsel. Zeitschrift fuer Controlling & Management. 49, p. 1011

can be seen as a logical counterpart to financial ac-counting, production management has close ties with cost accounting. The cost accounting systems that were developed in Germany from the beginning of the 1950s on built on cost theory, which was itself derived from production theory (Kilger, 1958; Kilger et al., 2007).

3. CONTROLLING CONCEPTIONS

Beside formal-analytical research and empirical re-search, conceptual research is one of the basic research approaches in business administration and tradition-ally very strong in Germany (Wagenhofer, 2006). For the first two decades, controlling research was to a large extent conceptual (Weissenberger, 2002; Schaeffer and Brettel, 2005).3 The reason for this fact lies in the strug-gle of controlling to become a generally accepted dis-cipline within business administration (Becker and Messner, 2005). Stemming from practice, controlling at first had at a hard time to gain acknowledgement in academia, as many professors of business administra-tion did not see what should be new about controlling that was not already covered in existing disciplines. To cite just one prominent critic of that time, “Con-trolling is a fairy tale about a ghost from practice that worships himself as a superman” (Schneider, 1991). This reluctance towards controlling is one reason for the slow increase in chairs of controlling over the first two decades.

3 Also see chapter 6.

As can be seen from the steep increase in chairs of controlling after 1990, this attitude changed over time and nowadays, controlling is widely accepted as a discipline of business administration. In a 1998 sur-vey among professors of business administration, an overwhelming 96% of the respondents declared con-trolling to be a notable discipline of business admin-istration. The professors were also asked to estimate the importance of controlling at that time (i.e. 1998) compared to one decade earlier (i.e. 1988) and com-pared to one decade later (i.e. 2008). Both for teaching and research, they correctly predicted a further gain of importance for the future (see figure 3). For all three points in time, the importance of controlling was es-timated highest for business practice, again a logical consequence from the origins of controlling.

Conceptual research mainly dealt with the elabo-ration, discussion and mutual criticism of controlling conceptions. Over time, an impressive amount and variety of controlling conceptions have been devel-oped mainly by academics, but by some practitioners as well. A recent anthology dedicated to controlling conceptions in Germany contains almost 1000 pages (Scherm and Pietsch, 2004), of which we can just give a short overview in this article.

A controlling conception can be defined as a fun-damental and comprehensive understanding of con-trolling. Controlling conceptions usually make state-ments concerning all relevant aspects of controlling, which are its philosophy and goals, its functions, ob-jects and tasks, the tasks bearers and the techniques and IT-tools they use, and finally its processes (Becker,


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Figure 3. Estimated importance of different aspects of Controlling (5 being the highest, 1 the lowest category)

Source: Ahn, H. (1999) Ansehen und Verstaendnis des Controlling in der Betriebswirtschaftslehre. Controlling. 11, p. 111

2011). Requirements that should be fulfilled by con-trolling conceptions are a clearly defined problem that needs solving, a sound theoretical foundation, and fi-nally proofs of successful implementation in practice (Kuepper, 2008).

While some conceptions only differ in detail and even build on each other, others are based on com-pletely different theories, for example. There is even no agreement how to classify this multitude of concep-tions. We find a categorisation useful that shows the development of conceptions in a chronological order (see figure 4):

One important distinction can be made among the controlling conceptions (Eschenbach and Nieder-mayr, 1996): According to some conceptions, con-trolling is understood in the Anglo-American sense as management control, whereas according to the majority of conceptions, controlling is equated with the tasks of the controller, i.e. controllership. Our own understanding of controlling lies somewhat in the middle (Becker, 1990; Becker and Baltzer, 2010). We interpret controlling as an instrument used by the management for initialising impulses and constantly focusing all of the organisation’s activities towards the creation of value. However, we do not limit value add-ed to a narrow financial perspective, but understand it more broadly as a coequal combination of the fulfil-ment of demands, the satisfaction of needs, and the generation of remuneration for important company stakeholders. We call this main or original function of controlling locomotion, being an integral part of man-

agers’ work. However, locomotion can only be carried out satisfactorily if two further, derivative functions are fulfilled, which form part of controllership. These derivative functions concern the mutual coordina-tion of direction and fulfilment and the assurance of information congruency within the organisation, i.e. harmonising need, offer and demand of information. Altogether, our own conception is very much in line with what is considered to be the common core of the plethora of controlling conceptions in Germany: Ab-stracting from details, all conceptions discuss coordi-nating effects of controlling, stress the importance of informational support for management, and finally re-late controlling to management control (Pietsch and Scherm, 2002).

4. CONTROLLING PUBLICATIONS

For academics, publishing is one of the most im-portant ways to transmit research results to colleagues and practitioners, especially in the form of books, jour-nal articles and research papers. Moreover, in the form of textbooks, publishing is of equally high relevance in order to provide teaching material to students. Within the business administration science in Germany, writ-ing or editing books and textbooks is generally consid-ered to be very prestigious (Wagenhofer, 2006). There-fore, many controlling scholars belonging to the first generation started with writing books instead of jour-nal articles (Messner et al., 2008). As a consequence, among the 21 most often cited references in German controlling articles between 1990 and 2003, there are


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14 textbooks, 4 journal articles, 2 books, and 1 book section (Binder and Schaeffer, 2005b).

Regarding journals, there is no highly ranked jour-nal in Germany that is exclusively dedicated to con-trolling (Zuehlke, 2007). According to the official jour-nal ranking by the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB) which uses a scale from A+ (highest) to E (lowest) (Schrader and Hennig-Thurau, 2009), two specialized controlling journals (Controller Magazin, Zeitschrift fuer Controlling) are ranked E and another two (Zeitschrift fuer Controlling und Manage-ment, Zeitschrift fuer Planung und Unternehmenssteu-erung4) are ranked D (see figure 5):

Despite their scientifically rather low reputation, those journals are highly popular among practitioners and an important tool for controlling scholars to com-municate with them. This can be seen from the fact that a considerable amount of articles in these journals are written by practitioners or jointly by practition-ers and academics (Wagenhofer, 2006; Messner et al., 2008).4

As there are no journals with high academic repu-tation in Germany specialized in controlling, control-ling scholars have to use general business administra-tion journals for their scientific publications. Contrary to the specialized controlling journals, the leading business administration journals are much more strict in their review process (e.g. double blind review) and thus considerably higher ranked in the VHB-ranking (see figure 5). Figure 6 shows the percentage of con-4 From 2011 on, Zeitschrift fuer Planung und Unternehmen-

ssteuerung is called Journal of Management Control.

trolling articles from 1970 to 2003 in exactly those general business administration journals.

The parallel that can be drawn between the share of controlling publications in general business admin-istration journals and the institutionalisation of con-trolling chairs over time is more than obvious: from 1970 to 1990, the percentage fluctuates around 6% on average, while it doubles to roughly 12% from 1990 to 2003. It is interesting to note here that despite the de-clared goal of those general business administration journals, they are neither well known nor often read by practitioners, nor do they benefit from the articles in case of reading them (Oesterle, 2006).

One further characteristic of German controlling publications that has to be mentioned is that for a long time, they were excluded from international research (Ahn, 1999). This can be seen on the one hand by the low number of publications by German controlling academics in international and thus Eng-lish-speaking journals: before 1994, there was only one article by a German scholar published in a high-ly ranked journal from an international perspective (Messner et al., 2008), and from 1998 to 2004, there were no more than 19 articles by German academ-ics published in internationally leading controlling journals (Wagenhofer, 2006). On the other hand, relatively few English-speaking references were cited in German controlling publications: From 1970 to 2003, only roughly every fourth reference is in Eng-lish language, although a slight increase over time can be noted (Schaeffer et al., 2006). Apart from ordinary

Figure 4. The development of Controlling conceptions over time


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Figure 5. Ranking of selected business administration journals in Germany

language problems, a couple of reasons might explain this fact (Wagenhofer, 2006; Messner et al., 2008): First, as we have seen, controlling is understood by some German academics not as management control, but rather as controllership, so that this special Ger-man diction does not fit too well with the internation-ally terminological conventions. Second, as we have also seen already, for a long time controlling research was very theoretical, but this type of research was not of high interest outside of Germany. Third, publish-ing internationally was for the first generation of con-trolling scholars simply not needed for progressing in their academic career, so they saw no benefit in doing so.

Again, apart from the probably better mastery of the English language by younger controlling schol-ars, especially reasons two and three are responsible for a substantial increase in international publica-tions by German controlling academics in recent years. As we will see in the next chapter, theoretical research has decreased in importance in recent years. Moreover, publishing internationally is of high im-portance today if you want to become a controlling academic (Messner et al., 2008). This development is eased by the fact that doctoral theses as well as pro-fessorial theses, which both used to be published in

the form of books, can now be replaced by collections of articles.

5. CONTROLLING RESEARCH

We have already explained above why theoretical research dominated controlling during its first two decades. From the middle of the 1990s on, however, controlling has finally gained overall acceptance, and the share of theoretical research decreased, though it is still of high importance (see figure 7). In a re-cent survey among controlling professors at German universities, they indeed declared their intention to do less theoretical research in the future (Hess et al., 2005).

While the percentage of formal-analytical research (using mainly principle-agent theory and decision theory) stayed roughly constant, the share of empiri-cal research steadily increased. This development is in line with the general trend in German business admin-istration towards more empirical research (Homburg, 2007). However, empirical research in controlling is, compared to other disciplines in business adminis-tration, still somewhat underdeveloped in Germany (Homburg and Klarmann, 2003).


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Two studies looked at empirical research with more detail and distinguished several research meth-ods. Both studies used roughly the same data basis (scientific journals) and ended in 2003. However, the starting dates of these analyses differ, which allows us to draw conclusions about the development of re-search method use over time (see figure 8).

A first remarkable result is that during that time, almost no experiments were conducted in German controlling research. However, the interviewed con-trolling professors declared that they wanted to inten-sify experimental research in the future (Hess et al., 2005). While the share of action research remained constant, qualitative case studies and archival data

Figure 6. Controlling articles in business administration journals from 1970 to 2003 (%)

Source: Binder, C. and Schaeffer, U. (2005b) Die Entwicklung des Controllings von 1970 bis 2003 im Spiegel von Publikati-onen in deutschsprachigen Zeitschriften. Die Betriebswirtschaft. 65, p. 608


Figure 7. Average value for publications in research-oriented and practitioner-oriented journals (%)

Source: Messner, M., Becker, A., Schaeffer, U. and Binder, C. (2008) Legitimacy and Identity in Germanic Management Accounting Research. European Accounting Review. 17, p. 141

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Figure 8. Development of research method use over time (%)

Sources: Binder, C. and Schaeffer, U. (2005b) Die Entwicklung des Controllings von 1970 bis 2003 im Spiegel von Publika-tionen in deutschsprachigen Zeitschriften. Die Betriebswirtschaft. 65, p. 616; Schaeffer, U. and Brettel, T. (2005) Ein Plaedoyer fuer Fallstudien. Zeitschrift fuer Controlling & Management. 49, p. 44

Figure 9. Theories used in Controlling articles from 1998 to 2004 (%)

Source: Wagenhofer, A. (2006) Management Accounting Research in German-Speaking Countries. Journal of Manage-ment Accounting Research. 18, p. 9

analysis (as well as other methods) saw a slight in-crease. Apart from that, two big trends can be noted: The importance of merely illustrative case studies de-creased sharply, while the share of quantitative surveys grew significantly larger.

From about 1990 onwards, researchers aimed at building a stronger theoretical basis for controlling (Weissenberger, 2002). The theories that were most often drawn upon in scientific articles between 1998 and 2004 can be seen from figure 9.

We have already mentioned that cost theory is linked to production theory, which explains the lead-ing position of production management. The second, almost equally important source of theories is eco-nomics, mainly in the form of principle-agent theory

and decision theory used in formal-analytical research. While theories from strategic management are mostly used in strategic management accounting (e.g. for life-cycle costing), value-based management, risk manage-ment and related topics draw upon finance theories. Unlike in Anglo-American controlling research, “soft” disciplines such as sociology, psychology or organi-zational behaviour are almost no source of theories. Although the use of the latter theories is gradually in-creasing (Becker, 2004; Hirsch, 2008), no real change can be expected in the near future: According to the interviewed controlling professors, they will mainly stick to principle-agent theory, decision theory and cost theory for future research projects (Hess et al., 2005). This must be interpreted as a deficit, because


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it is exactly theories from sciences like sociology and psychology that open the - often called for - behav-ioural perspective upon controlling (Reimer and Orth, 2008).

The analysis of the contents of research is not an easy task, as they can be categorized in many different ways. Building on a system by Shields, Wagenhofer’s analysis of controlling articles in scientific journals from 1998 to 2004 leads to the following results (see figure 10).5

Figure 10. Content-related classification of controlling ar-ticles in scientific journals from 1998 to 2004 (%)

Source: Wagenhofer, A. (2006) Management Accounting Research in German-Speaking Countries. Journal of Management Accounting Research. 18, p. 6

6. TEACHING CONTROLLING

At the beginning, controlling topics were merely integrated into existing courses of business admin-istration. It is reported that in 1973, there were no separate controlling courses at all (Hartmann, 1973). Due to their closer connection with business prac-tice, it was universities of applied sciences that start-ed to offer separate controlling courses. Although he already took over his chair in 1973, Péter Hor-váth remembers having offered his first controlling course only in the summer term of 1975 (Messner et al., 2008). Parallel to the slow institutional develop-ment, there is an account that as late as 1990, univer-sities were still reluctant to offer separate controlling courses (Bramsemann, 1990). Nowadays, it is com-monplace to offer at least one course called control-ling at both universities and universities of applied sciences, while the number of courses will depend on the individual university’s size. However, in a recent study, we found that controlling courses are manda-tory at most universities at bachelor level, but only at two thirds of the answering universities at master level (Becker, Baltzer and Haeusser, 2011). This can be explained by the fact that master studies usually have a clear focus, while bachelor studies are more general in nature.

In the face of the great variety of controlling the-ories, we asked in the same survey how many and which theories are discussed in class (see figure 11).


5 For different categorizations and results, see Hess et al. (2004); Binder and Schaeffer (2005b).

Figure 11. Controlling conceptions discussed in class

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We found that the discussion of controlling theo-ries is in important part of controlling courses at both bachelor and master level.6 On average, 3.3 theories are presented in class. As the columns show, the his-torically older theories (see figure 3) have a higher circulation than the younger theories. An interesting fact is that a relatively high number of professors (7 out of 24, see line in figure 11) have an understand-ing of controlling that is different from the com-monly discussed theories. This supports the view that controlling is still far from being a uniform concept.

However, controlling is a concept that is suit-able not only for companies as a whole, but also for their different functional departments. Still, it is com-mon knowledge that controlling should be adapted to those departments: controllers adhering to the marketing department will use different controlling techniques than controllers in the purchasing de-partment, for example. Therefore, we asked the pro-fessors which functional adaptations of controlling they discuss in class. We used Porter’s value chain model (Porter, 1985) for providing answering possi-bilities and differentiated between bachelor and master studies. Full circles indicate discussion by (almost) all professors, empty circles by (almost) no profes-sor, while blue circles stand for bachelor and orange circles for master studies (see figure 12).

It can be seen that functional adaptations of con-trolling are overall more important for bachelor than for master courses. The most important topics are controlling for the finance, operations and market-ing & sales departments. While the two latter stand for the core activities of companies - producing and selling products or services - the former can be explained by the fact that beside profit, liquid-ity is the second most im-portant parameter for the operational steering of a company.

We also found that the two topics of least impor-tance for both bachelor and master courses are international aspects of controlling and IT-support for controlling. If the understanding of controlling in foreign countries is

discussed in class, mostly the US-American and Brit-ish views are presented. However, in most classes, the course material is mainly in German language, as can be seen from the share of English-language course material (see figure 13).5

As master courses are usually more theoretical than bachelor courses, the share of English literature increases, but is in total still very low. Concerning the type of literature, individual hand-outs are used most often, but textbooks and journal articles are frequent-ly used, too.

It is common knowledge that controlling can hardly be done in practice without relying heavily on information technologies. Though, it should be expected that dealing with IT aspects is a crucial part controlling courses at universities as well. However, our survey showed that one in five professors at bach-elor level and two in three professors at master level do not cover IT-topics in their controlling courses at all.6 For the remaining professors, we offered three types of answers: general IT-knowledge, controlling-specific IT-knowledge and knowledge about specific IT systems that are used in controlling (see figure 14).

While there is little difference at master level, dis-cussing specific IT systems dominates at bachelor level. This can again be explained by the more practi-cal and less theoretical approach in bachelor courses. In an additional open question, the most frequently

5 See Hirsch (2003) for a similar finding.6 See Hess and Koch (2004) for similar results.

Figure 12. Coverage of functional Controlling specializations in class

Source: Adapted from: Porter, M. E. (1985): Competitive Advantage, 1 Ed. The Free Press: New York, p. 62


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mentioned IT system was SAP ERP, moreover there were a few mentions of Microsoft Excel and Profes-sional Planner.

Our own as well as one other study showed that controlling techniques are the most important topic taught in controlling classes.7 In both surveys, the professors were asked to name the most important controlling techniques they discuss in class (see fig-ure 15).

Several techniques (printed in italics) were men-tioned in both studies, which confirms the opinion that apart from all conceptual disputes, most pro-

7 For the following see Becker, Baltzer and Haeusser (2011), Hirsch (2003).

fessors still teach the same controlling techniques in class.

Finally, we wanted to know to which extent cur-rent developments in business practice are discussed at controlling classes (see figure 16).

As expected of a discipline with strong ties to practice, most professors try integrating current de-velopments in business practice both in bachelor and master courses at least to a modest degree. The most important ways of connecting teaching with prac-tice are inviting practitioners to do presentations, discussing practical examples or case studies in class and assigning practical theses to students.


Figure 13. Course materials in English language (%)

Figure 14. IT-related topics covered in Controlling classes (%)

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Figure 16. Extent to which current developments in business practice are discussed in controlling courses (%)

Figure 15. Controlling techniques discussed in class

Rank Hirsch (2003)

Becker/Baltzer/Haeusser

(2011)

1(Traditional) Cost Accounting

Balanced Scorecard

2 (Strategic) Planning(Traditional) Cost Accounting

3 Budgeting (Strategic) Planning

4 Transfer Pricing Budgeting

5 Balanced Scorecard Portfolio Analysis

6Key Performance Indicators

Key Performance Indicators

7 Investment Appraisal Target Costing

8 Activity-based Costing Profit Analysis

9 Profit Analysis SWOT-Analysis

10Various, e.g. Target Costing

Various, e.g. Benchmarking

CONCLUSION

As we have shown in this article, the academic dis-cipline of controlling has reached a considerable de-gree of legitimacy in Germany. Controlling has been institutionalized in German companies for about fifty years. In addition, controlling is nowadays a com-monplace subject taught at almost every university

or university of applied sciences that offers business studies. There are a significant number of controlling chairs, and conceptual and theoretical issues regard-ing controlling are widely discussed among its schol-ars. Thus, there may be some legitimacy in regard-ing controlling as an independent branch of business administration research. However, critics constantly - and with good arguments - point to the fact that until now, no controlling theory has been able to completely and convincingly differentiate control-ling from related branches such as cost accounting, management studies and (general) business admin-istration (Messner et al., 2008).

We will not comment here on the question wheth-er controlling should be regarded as an independent branch of business research or not. However, we may be allowed to present some basic advice on how con-trolling could or should develop in the present future in order to become or stay an independent branch, respectively. First, German controlling research so far clearly focuses big enterprises. As with many other areas of German business research, the fact that small and medium-sized enterprises represent a large part of Germany’s economic value added must also be taken into account (Becker and Ulrich, 2011). Thus, more research should be conducted regarding this special sector of the German economy. Consequent-ly, more and more academic research is conducted by specialized institutions such as the Deloitte Insti-tution for Midmarket Research at the University of Bamberg. Second, in order to gain greater interna-tional importance, German controlling research must become more empirical, signifying more qualitative research (e.g. case studies), more theory-testing, quantitative research as well as more experimental


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designs. Third and also adhering to the international sphere, controlling publications by German scholars must become more international themselves, i.e. be written in English language as well as relying to a large extent on international literature. Fourth and last, the international discussion regarding both the overall finance function and the Chief Financial Of-ficer must be taken into account, with special regards to an integrated financial and management account-ing (Kunz, 2010).

The development of controlling in Germany shows that a body of knowledge arising out of practical ne-cessity can successfully institutionalize itself in the scientific community. Future will show if the concept of controlling - until know seen as a specific German discussion - can add to the international discussion regarding management accounting and business ad-ministration research.

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Rezime: Kontroling kao akademska disciplina je već 40 godina deo nauke u Nemačkoj. Tokom ovog perioda, njegova važnost je stalno rasla, dok nije dobila stalno mesto u praksi i obrazovanju u oblasti poslovnog upravljanja. Univerziteti i više strukovne škole sada nude veliki broj predmeta iz oblasti kontrolinga. U ovom radu ćemo analizirati razvoj kontrolinga kao akademske discipline u Nemačkoj, uz upotrebu pisanih dokumenata i empirijskog istraživanja kojeg smo obavili tokom 2010. godine među profesorima kontrolinga u Nemačkoj. Rezultati jasno pokazuju da se kontroling razvio iz bliske oblasti računovodstva ka integrisanoj funkciji menadžmenta. Ipak, videli smo i da postoje značajne mogućnosti za dalji razvoj u sadašnjoj oblasti kontrolinga u Nemačkoj, kao što je navođenje više stranih izvora, više radova na engleskom jeziku u međunarodnim časopisima i veći naglasak na novim pristupima, kao što je integrisana funkcija finansija.

Ključne reči: Nemačka, istraživanja u oblasti kontrolinga, nastava, koncepti, univerzitet.