Management accounting practices in the Portuguese lodging industry

International Journal of Hospitality Management, 2011

The present study aims to explore budgeting practices of Turkish hotels in the Antalya region which is the most prominent tourism center of the country. The results indicate that having a budget committee and budget manual are common for Turkish hotels. Secondly, participative budgeting is advocated within the industry. Furthermore, budget period seems dynamic, because hotels state that they revise budgets and make periodic reporting within the budget period. Profitability and cost control are the primary reasons in budget preparation. Finally, budgets are viewed as one of the primary performance indicators.

International Journal of Hospitality Management (ABS 3), 2009

This study examines the relationship between cost system functionality and contingent factors in the hospitality industry. An empirical survey via questionnaires was conducted on a sample of 100 leading hotels enterprises in Greece. Data analysis showed that the majority of hotels’ cost systems do not provide qualitative cost data. Results indicate that the level of cost system functionality is significant positively associated with the low cost strategy and the extent of the use of cost data (USD). No association was found between cost system design and size, level of competition, number of services variants and hotels’ management status.

Journal of Applied Accounting Research (ABS 2), 2012

The study describes the current costing and management control practices in Algarve"s hotel sector. The study further evaluates the extent of the adoption of the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI, enacted 1926). The paucity of research on management accounting and control systems in service organizations, such as hotels, motivates this research. Data was collected from financial managers of 66 (four and five star) hotels, through personal interviews using a structured questionnaire. Results indicate a high level of adoption of the USALI and of other traditional management accounting tools. However, Activity Based Costing (ABC), Customer Profitability Analysis (CPA), Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and other innovative tools, have low or null adoption rates. Some of the findings reported in the paper are not in line with those from other studies, suggesting that a careful data collection is important to ensure reliability.

Este estudo caracteriza as práticas de custeio e controlo de gestão nas unidades hoteleiras de quatro e cinco estrelas do Algarve e mede o grau de adopção do Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI, o plano de contabilidade desenvolvido em 1926 para o sector hoteleiro). O estudo justifica-se pela escassez de investigação sobre os sistemas de contabilidade e controlo de gestão no sector dos serviços, em particular nos hotéis. Os dados foram recolhidos através de um inquérito aos responsáveis do departamento financeiro de 66 unidades hoteleiras utilizando o meio de recolha presencial. Os resultados revelam uma elevada taxa de adopção do USALI e de técnicas de contabilidade de gestão tradicionais, como é o caso dos orçamentos, mas uma reduzida ou nula utilização do custeio baseado nas actividades (CBA), da análise de rendibilidade de clientes, do Balanced Scorecard (BSC) e de outras técnicas contemporâneas. Os resultados contrariam os reportados por alguns autores e mostram a importância da investigação estar assente em meios de recolha de dados que assegurem a sua fiabilidade.

The study aims to investigate the applicability of target Costing Methodology (TC) in Jordanian's hotel industry. To achieve the study's objectives, the researchers employed a descriptive statistics and structured questionnaire addressed to managers in hotels departments such as marketing, accounting, design, research and development. A likert scale and one sample statistical t-test were applied to test the paragraphs and hypothesis of the study. The general findings of the study include the following: (1) Jordanian hotels staff are highly aware of target costing and its great implementation benefits. (2) The essential requirement for implementing target costing approach is available in Jordanian hotels.

Interview and survey data have been collected to study the nature and antecedents of accounting systems involved in hotel outsourcing decision-making and control. It has been found that there is considerable cross-hotel variation in the degree of accounting system involvement in outsourcing management. Performance and whether outsourcing decisions are made in the context of a longterm strategic agenda, appear to be variables affecting both the nature of accounting involvement and the degree of accounting sophistication in hotel outsourcing management. Hotel quality was also a significant factor affecting the degree of accounting sophistication in hotel outsourcing. It appears that accounting appraisal of outsourcing proposals rarely include long-term oriented sophisticated techniques such as the discounting of future cash flows. It is conjectured that this may be because outsourcing decisions are not conducted in the context of the formal capital budgeting process.

This is a study of activity-based cost management practices, in a value-chain analytic framework, being followed by the corporate India. A nationwide survey has been conducted to capture the issues in the design and applications of contemporary cost and management tools. The examination of responses conditional on ABC-adoption revealed that the firms who have adopted ABC were significantly more successful in capturing accurate cost information for value chain analysis and supply chain analysis vis-à-vis the firms who had not adopted ABC. The extent of ABCM adoption in the service sector had not been found significantly different from that in manufacturing sector.

Structured abstract Purpose: The limited research interest in the hospitality industry has prevented the conclusion on the relationship between management accounting reports and the industry development in Nigeria. This study examines the effect of management accounting reports on the development of the quoted hotels in Nigeria. Design/Methodology/approach: This paper made use of primary data collected from 164 selected management staff of the four quoted hotels in Nigeria. A response rate of 112 copies of questionnaire representing 68.29% was achieved. Regression analysis technique was employed to measure the strength of the association between the variables. Findings: The results revealed that management accounting reports has a significant relationship with the development experienced by quoted hotels in Nigeria. Research limitations: This study suffers from some limitations. The first is the small size of the population. Secondly, the study concentrated on quoted hotels in Nigeria which account for about 3% of the hotels in Nigeria. Result may differ if other hotels are included in the study. Practical implications: The study concluded that management accounting reports has given quoted hotels a competitive advantage. Originality/ Value: The few existing studies conducted on development of hotels in Nigeria were measured in terms of overall guest satisfaction with services rendered. This study took a step further to analyze the effects of service pricing, optimal liquidity and service contribution determination on the quoted hotels client base, investment behaviour and profitability leading development of the subsector in Nigeria. These issues were omitted in the previous studies.

Small and Medium scale enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in economic and social development of developing countries. However, their existence is often threatened by the poor accounting practices they are characterized with. SMEs are often failing to leverage adequately the potential of management accounting for helping them achieve their financial objectives, including profitability and liquidity. This research examined Management Accounting Practices in three sectors of SMEs within Ilorin metropolis, Kwara State, Nigeria. Seventy seven (77) copies of the questionnaire were administered and 64 copies were retrieved. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used. The result shows that more of traditional accounting method were being used and little of contemporary method which mean that the use of costing, budgeting and performance evaluation are more prevalent. The results also show that a significant number of respondents have adopted one or more measures both financial and non-financial but the reliance on financial measures is greater than non-financial measures. The main non-financial measures frequently used by respondents are survey of customer satisfaction, on-time delivery and employee turnover. The study also found out that three out of the five contingent factors (size, qualified internal accountant and owner/manager participation) affecting the extent of use of MAPs do not have significant relationship with MAPs. While technology has significant relationship with MAPs and also, MAPs also indicated strong large positive relationship with organizational performance.