Sander van Triest

The implementation of customer profitability analysis: A case study

By using customer profitability analysis (CPA), firms can determine the profit contribution of customer segments and/or individual customers. This article presents an approach for the implementation of CPA. The implementation process is illustrated using a case study of a firm producing and selling professional cleaning products. The case study highlights specific issues related to CPA in an industrial setting, and the results provide examples of the possible benefits of implementing a process of regular CPA.

The use of costing information in Egypt: a research note

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the use of costing information in Egypt.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was carried out of 40 Egyptian privately held firms in four sectors (pharmaceutical, foodstuff, chemical, and packing and wrapping industries).Findings – The paper finds that the use and sophistication of costing information in Egypt is limited. No advanced accounting techniques seem to be applied, activity‐based costing concepts are largely unknown, and the main purpose of costing information is pricing decisions, rather than performance measurement, process improvement or cost reductions.Research limitations/implications – Considerable problems were encountered in obtaining responses to the questionnaire. The results suggest that not all questions were understood by the respondents, which could be caused by the use of Western management (accounting) terms and concepts in the questionnaire with which the respondents were unfamiliar.Originality/value – The paper is one of few surveys of ...

Do Fair Value Adjustments Influence Dividend Policy

We examine the impact of positive fair value adjustments on dividend policy. If fair value adjustments are transitory in nature and managers are able to assess their implications for future earnings, fair value adjustments in net income is expected to have no distribution consequences. However, positive fair value adjustments may lead to higher dividends when management incorrectly assesses their persistence. This can have a procyclical impact because higher dividends increase leverage, and thus risk. We use a Russian setting that mandates fair value accounting for financial instruments and requires disclosure of unrealised fair value adjustments in income. We find no empirical support for the concern that dividends increase in response to positive fair value adjustments. Rather, there is a negative relationship between positive fair value adjustments and dividend changes, which holds after controlling for dividend policy determinants and any endogenous nature of the revaluation decision. We discuss several possible explanations for this finding.

PRODUCT LAUNCH PERFORMANCE IN HI-TECH SMEs: NEWNESS TO THE FIRM AND THE ROLE OF MANAGEMENT CONTROLS

We investigate the impact of management control mechanisms on the success of new product launches in high-technology small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We argue that internal management controls will alleviate problems associated with product newness. Using survey data from 76 SMEs we find newness to the firm to be negatively related to product launch success, while the use of informal and formal controls have positive effects. Furthermore, informal controls within the SME moderate the negative relationship between newness and launch success. The results add to the debate on the impact of control mechanisms on innovative activities in SMEs.