Abstract

Competing effectively in the contemporary marketing landscape is becoming increasing challenging. Equally increasing therefore is the pertinence for organisations to be customer oriented. Academic discourse emphasises the need for more customer-oriented approach. Inspired by gaps in the literature, this study explores the contingency factors and performance implications of customer accounting in the Kuwaiti financial services industry. A questionnaire was used to collect data, and data analysis was based on 115 responses from management accountants of participating firms. This study reports critical insights that enhance the no one-size fits all notion of contingency foundation. For organisations in the industrial and geographical setting covered in this study, the insights from this study offer relevant cues for optimising customer accounting operationalisation and maximising the organisational performance impact. The limitations of this study have been acknowledged and critical directions for further knowledge development flagged.

Introduction

For many decades, scholars have emphasised the importance of management accounting in organisational dynamics (e.g. [1,2,3,4]. Theoretically, it is contended that if organisations endorse and effectively implement management accounting practices, they would achieve improved performance. A plausible rationale for that argument is that management accounting plays the critical enabling role of providing management with relevant information to enhance managerial decision-making for overall organisational performance (e.g. [5,6,7]. Given this importance, there is increasing research interest on management accounting practices (e.g.[4, 6, 8,9,10].

Despite that increase, there is still much room for empirical research towards enhancing the understanding of this topic. (e.g. [6, 11,12,13,14]). Bearing in mind that successful managerial decisions improve overall organisational profitability [15, 16] and also that the extent to which the overall organisational profitability is improved hinges on strategic alignment (e.g. [17,18,19]), the focus on management accounting has evolved much for over 25-years now, with scholars emphasising more the strategic component (strategic management accounting) (SMA). Within this focus, scholars advocate for a management accounting approach that gives due attention to the need for accounting for strategic positioning [19,20,21]. Elaborated by Langfield-Smith [9], SMA advocates contend that accounting should be strategically tailored towards achieving a more market-oriented focus.

Discussion and conclusion

Theoretical implications
This study contributes to the understanding of customer accounting practices usage, contingency factors, and organisational performance impact (e.g. [6, 24, 25, 51]). With regard to customer accounting practices usage, this study contributes in the way of reinforcing prior research that underlines the importance for a customer-oriented accounting approach in management accounting (e.g. [6, 10, 24, 25]). The results from this study show that Kuwaiti FSOs are embracing customer accounting practices as a way of staying customer oriented.

Secondly, this current study contributes to the literature on the contingency factors of customer accounting practices usage (e.g. [6, 24, 25, 48, 51]). The evidence from this study offers supports and contrasts to past literature, an outcome that thus add support to the contextual intricacies that surround contingency features. This study argues that competition intensity would aid the adoption of customer accounting practices, evidence that reinforces Foster and Gupta [48] but contrasts Ojra [6] who found no support in the Palestinian context. Furthermore, this current study supports and contrasts Guilding and McManus [51] who suggest a support as well as contrast for the notion that high competition intensity would lead to high customer accounting practices usage.