Christopher John Guilding

The incidence, perceived merit and antecedents of customer accounting: an exploratory note

The results of a survey appraising the frequency and perceived merit of customer accounting (CA) practices are reported. Given the limited attention afforded the subject in the normative and empirical literatures, CA usage appears to be greater than what might have been reasonably anticipated. Evidence of a positive association between market orientation and CA, as well as a weak positive association between competition intensity and CA is provided.

Competitor-focused accounting: an exploratory note

The results of a survey appraising the frequency and perceived helpfulness of competitor-focused accounting (CFA) practices are reported. Given the limited attention afforded the subject in the management accounting literature, CFA usage has been found to be higher than what might have been reasonably anticipated. Three factors have been found to play statistically significant contingent roles in connection with CFA usage and perceived helpfulness: company size, competitive strategy and strategic mission. Little evidence of any systematic relationship between industry type and CFA has been found.

Hotel Owner/Operator Structures: Implications for Capital Budgeting Process

The findings of a field study concerned with appraising capital budgeting process implications arising from different owner/operator structures employed in the hotel industry are reported. Dimensions of conflict that can arise between hotel operators and owners are examined. Consistent with expectations motivated by agency theory, data collected suggest that capital budgeting systems in hotels operating under a divorced owner/operator structure exhibit more formalisation and a greater propensity for investment proposal cash forecast biasing. These findings suggest a degree of dysfunctionalism associated with the divorced/owner operator structure widely adopted in the hotel industry.

Benchmarking the incidence of strategic management accounting in Slovenia

Purpose – To benchmark the degree to which companies in Slovenia, a country that has experienced success in its transition to a market economy, apply strategic management accounting (SMA) techniques.Design/methodology/approach – Survey data collected in Slovenia has been benchmarked to survey data collected in similarly sized Australian companies.Findings – For the Slovenian sample, while none of the techniques investigated are applied extensively, it has been found that competitor focused SMA techniques are the most popular. A group of SMA techniques that have a costing orientation are applied more extensively in Slovenian companies than in the Australian benchmark sample. It has also been found that some techniques that have a relatively high popularity ranking in one country, rank relatively lowly in the other country.Research limitations/implications – In addition to the generally accepted limitations of survey research, it should be noted that there is no definitive listing of SMA techniques and deba...

Exploring the potential of customer accounting: A synthesis of the accounting and marketing literatures

A review of the marketing and accounting literatures has revealed that to date no previous study has examined the intersection of the marketing and accounting literatures pertinent to Customer Accounting (CA). This paper provides a synthesis of these two literatures by exploring the potential of CA. It updates the recent achievements in the CA literature from an accounting perspective and explores the nature of marketing based measures pertaining to customer marketing and management. It appears there is considerable potential for accountants to draw on points of focus raised in the marketing literature to further advance customer focused accounting measures of performance.

Strategy, strategic management accounting and performance: a configurational analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of different configurational archetypes of strategy and strategic management accounting and to appraise how management accountings horizontal and vertical alignment with strategy can facilitate performance.Design/methodology/approach – The study deploys a holistic configurational approach to examine the relationship between strategy, strategic management accounting, and performance. Configurations are derived empirically, using an inductive approach, from a sample of 109 manufacturing companies.Findings – The observed configurations (i.e. “analytics”, “blue‐chips”, “first movers”, “domestic protectors”, “laggards and socialism relics”) constitute varying levels of performance and varying degrees of fit. Support is provided for the equifinality proposition that different strategic and structural alternatives are associated with similar performance levels. Equivocal support is provided for the configurational proposition that internall...

Hotel management contracts and deficiencies in owner-operator capital expenditure goal congruency

A review of the findings of prior empirical research concerning hotel management contracts between owners and operators is undertaken. It is noted that management contracts have become increasingly commonplace in the international hotel sector and that gross revenue and gross operating profit are the most extensively used determinants of operator incentive fee remuneration. These findings present a platform for examining how revenue and gross operating profit are deficient in promoting owner—operator goal congruency. In light of this, return on investment (ROI) and residual income (RI) are examined as potential alternative determinants of operator reimbursement. Although it is appears that both ROI and RI as determinants of hotel operator fees would represent an advance in promoting owner—operator goal congruency, a rationale outlining how RI is preferable to ROI is outlined.

An empirical investigation of the importance of cost‐plus pricing

Purpose – This paper has two specific objectives: to appraise the relative importance of cost‐plus pricing and to develop and test hypotheses concerned with contingent factors that might affect the degree of importance attached to cost‐plus pricing.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected via a mailed survey of UK and Australian companies. Tests were applied and non‐response bias was not a threat to the validity of the findings.Findings – A relatively high degree of importance attached to cost‐plus pricing is noted, although there appears to be a substantial number of companies that use cost‐plus pricing for a relatively small sub‐set of products and services. Companies confronted by high competition intensity attach relatively high degrees of importance to cost‐plus pricing and manufacturing companies attach a relatively low degree of importance to cost‐plus pricing.Originality/value – The paper makes a contribution, given that only two empirical studies with a specific focus on cost‐plus pricin...

How Property Title Impacts Urban Consolidation: A Life Cycle Examination of Multi-title Developments

Continuing urbanisation is triggering an increase in multi-titled housing internationally. This trend has given rise to a substantial research interest in the social consequences of higher density living. Fewer enquiries have been directed to examining how property title subdivisions generate social issues in multi-titled housing. This is a significant gap in the literature, as the tensions inherent in multi-title developments have significant implications for individuals, developments and entire metropolitan areas. This article employs a life cycle framework to examine the profound operational and governance challenges that are associated with the fusion of private lot ownership with common property ownership. The article calls for a more explicit recognition of these challenges by academics, policymakers, practitioners and the broader community.

Brand value accounting: an international comparison of perceived managerial implications

Data concerned with the managerial implications of brand value accounting were collected from accountants and marketing managers working in strongly branded companies in New Zealand (N.Z.), the United Kingdom (U.K.) and the United States (U.S.). Since the external reporting climate in the U.S. prohibits the inclusion of brand value as a separate asset in the published balance sheet, it was anticipated that U.S. managers would be the least positively disposed to the potential of beneficial managerial implications deriving from brand valuation. Contrary to this expectation, managers in the U.K are the least positively disposed to potential managerial implications associated with brand value accounting. This result is particularly interesting as brand value accounting has commanded considerable attention from the U.K. accounting profession since the late 1980s when several large U.K. companies elected to capitalize brand values in their external financial statements. In addition to the international differences noted, the degree of commonality of findings across the three countries is also noteworthy. The data reported provide strong support for the view that there is considerable potential for positive managerial implications from brand value accounting.