Valuing and managing brands: An internal accounting perspective. An empirical investigation of attitudes to internal brand valuation and organisational and behavioural implications associated with the way that the internal brand management accounting system is operated.

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with accounting for the brand management function. Two distinct perspectives are taken: the first derives from aspects of organisational and behavioural accounting research, and the second concerns organisational implications of brand valuation. Both perspectives were initially approached by means of exploratory interviews and a literature review. Hypotheses pertaining to the first perspective were analysed via survey data collected in nine strongly-branded, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. Propositions concerned with the implications of brand valuation were developed and used as the basis for measuring attitudes to brand valuation. A questionnaire concerned with brand valuation attitudes was administered to senior-ranking officials in strongly-branded, FMCG companies. The final methodological phase, for both perspectives, involved a case study conducted in a strongly-branded, FMCG company. Significant findings arising from this study include: 1) Managers who see their company as being short-termist, hold more positive attitudes to brand valuation. 2) Marketing-orientated managers are more favourably disposed to brand valuation than accounting-orientated managers. 3) Organisational benefits arising from brand valuation are more strategically, than operationally, orientated. 4) Brand manager budget participation is significantly negatively-related to job-related tension, and positivelyrelated to trust in superior and attitude to reliance on accounting performance measures. 5) Budget participation is more effective in reducing jobrelated tension in situations of high, compared to low, task uncertainty situations. 6) Reliance on a brand manager's accounting performance is positively related to brand manager performance and motivation, and negatively associated with job-related tension.