Market orientation and accounting information - a product-level study

Abstract

From the early 1990’s, both the marketing and accounting disciplines have reported insightful and similar developments. In seeking to define and measure the marketing concept, research on ‘market orientation’ has highlighted the need for organization-wide information and action on customers and competitors. In accounting, research into ‘strategic management accounting’ has also emphasised the need for customer and competitor information in management decision-making.

Given the common and interdisciplinary nature of the extant research in marketing and accounting, a theoretical framework is developed in this thesis for examining market orientation and accounting information linkages at a product-level. The subsequent undertaking and detailed analysis and description of an organisational case-study suggests that the inclusion of a number of variables into the initial theoretical framework would provide a more robust and practice-orientated model for examining market orientation and accounting information. Product-attribute level measures of customer- and competitor-orientation are developed from the case-study and the effectiveness of a market-orientation in facilitating the satisfaction of customer needs at a profit to the firm is questioned where there is an absence of market-orientated accounting information.