The profitability of individual customers can show substantial variation, both in money amounts and in margins (percentages). The literature suggests that larger customers have a…
Abstract
Purpose
The profitability of individual customers can show substantial variation, both in money amounts and in margins (percentages). The literature suggests that larger customers have a higher customer profitability margin: a dollar in revenue from a large customer generates more profit than a dollar in revenue from a small customer. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between customer size and the customer profitability margin.
Design/methodology/approach
Draws up a model with five variables (customer size, product margin, exchange efficiency, support, customer profitability margin) and hypothesizes the relationships between the variables. Uses LISREL to test the relationships on a database from a business‐to‐business setting.
Findings
The relationship between customer size and customer profitability margin is not direct, but runs through other variables, mainly exchange efficiency. It is not the result of larger customers paying higher product margins or having fewer customer support demands.
Research limitations/implications
Adds to the empirical literature on customer profitability. Ideally, this would be done using panel data rather than the cross‐sectional data used in this paper.
Practical implications
Profitability data at the level of individual customers provide useful insights. Customer size as such is not a driver of the customer profitability margin. Identify the trade‐offs between customer size, product margins (discounts), support demands, and exchange costs that ultimately lead to customer profitability.
Originality/value
Adds to the empirical literature on customer profitability and offers practical implications for managing customer relationships.
Details
Keywords
Sander van Triest and Mohamed Fathy Elshahat
This paper aims to investigate the use of costing information in Egypt.
Abstract
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 management accounting practices in Africa, and (to the best of one's knowledge) the first in Egypt.
Details
Keywords
Christie L. Comunale, Charles A. Barragato and Denise Buhrau
In this study, we examine the role of temporal framing in the context of tax audit risk. Using construal-level theory, we propose that compared with an every-year frame (e.g., 1.5…
Abstract
In this study, we examine the role of temporal framing in the context of tax audit risk. Using construal-level theory, we propose that compared with an every-year frame (e.g., 1.5 million returns are audited every year), framing audit risk in an everyday frame (e.g., 4,000 returns are audited every day) will make audit risk seem more likely and thus increase taxpayer compliance. We test whether perceived fairness of the tax system, an individual difference variable related to tax compliance, moderates the effect of temporal framing on behavioral intentions. The results show that communicating risk in a day frame rather than a year frame increases compliance for taxpayers who perceive the tax system as unfair but not for taxpayers who perceive the tax system as fair. Increasing compliance among taxpayers who perceive the tax system as unfair is crucial, as they are less likely to be compliant. Thus, framing audit risk can assist in increasing taxpayer compliance.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to critically review the literature to assess the relevance of the S‐shaped model of family labor supply for industrialized countries.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically review the literature to assess the relevance of the S‐shaped model of family labor supply for industrialized countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Studies use a wide variety of methodologies and therefore are not readily comparable, but instead they cover a wide range of relevant factors such as historical trends, fringe benefits and home mortgages, ethnic differences, farm labor, low‐income households, child care, the impact of welfare benefits, and the problem of the measurement of work hours.
Findings
In spite of welfare systems that blur somewhat the predicted income effect at lower wage levels (forward falling segment primarily for women), this model appears to still bear some relevance for these countries, in particular in the face of declining real wages. Families have generally moved up higher along that curve, with less differentiated gender roles, women's stronger labor force attachment, and assortative mating of educated women.
Originality/value
The model is mostly relevant for LDCs and has far‐reaching practical consequences, while the review highlights the complexity of labor supply in industrialized countries.
Details
Keywords
Lebene Richmond Soga, Yemisi Bolade-Ogunfodun and Anna De Amicis
This paper explores flexible working practices (FWPs) and takes a critical view that argues a need to consider not only access to digital technological resources but also the vast…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores flexible working practices (FWPs) and takes a critical view that argues a need to consider not only access to digital technological resources but also the vast array of factors that constrain one’s ability to use technology for its intended benefits, as constituting the digital divide post-COVID-19 lockdown.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a critical evaluation of the extant literature, we engage in a conceptual undertaking to develop theoretical propositions that form the basis for future empirical undertakings. To theoretically ground the arguments raised, we deploy the ontological lens of actor-network theory to illuminate the socio-technical dimensions of the digital divide in light of FWPs.
Findings
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to adopt socially distanced work practices has become a reality for many organisations. We find that the adoption of FWPs, enabled by digital technologies, simultaneously signals hidden inequalities. We also develop a conceptual framework which depicts user responses in different technology environments that can either be limiting or enabling for individuals’ work productivity.
Originality/value
With regards to the digital divide, attention has often focused on access to digital technologies, as the term “digital divide” portrays. The implication is that the array of factors and resources that individuals are heterogeneously networked to, which also constitute the digital divide, is often taken for granted. We take a different ontological view that brings to the fore other factors at play within an individual’s network of relations.
研究目的
本文擬探索彈性工作安排,並以批判性的觀點、去論證當我們探討2019冠狀病毒病封鎖解除後的數字鴻溝究竟是由什麼組成時,我們必須考慮數字技術資源的使用權限,以及關注各個有關的因素,因這些因素限制了我們從應用技術獲得預期效益的能力。
研究設計/方法/理念
我們對現存文獻作批判性的評價,藉此參與一項概念性的工作,以便能建立可以成為將來實證性工作基礎的理論命題;為使提出的論點能得到理論上的依據,我們使用行動者網絡理論的本體論鏡頭,去闡明鑒於彈性工作安排的數字鴻溝的各個社會技術維度。
研究結果
由於2019冠狀病毒病大爆發的關係,許多機構和組織都因實際情況而需採用保持社交距離的工作安排。我們發現、當我們採用有賴數字技術的發展而成行的彈性工作安排時,我們同時也會使不為人知的不平等狀況浮現出來;我們也注意到、不同的技術環境會限制個人的工作生產力,又或相反地助其建立工作生產力;就此,我們建立了一個可以描繪就這些不同的技術環境、用戶會如何回應的概念框架。
研究的原創性/價值
就數字鴻溝而言,人們的關注總放在數字技術使用權限的差異上,就如數字鴻溝這個術語所塑造的形象一樣。這種關注可能帶來的影響是即使有不同的因素和資源、即使個人會以各種形式與不同的因素和資源聯繫起來,而這些因素和資源構成了數字鴻溝,人們卻把這些因素和資源視為理所當然。我們採用不同的本體論觀點,希望藉此使個人關係網絡內起著作用的其它因素能突顯出來、免被忽視。