Brand Equity in Accountancy Firms: The mediating Role of Fundamental Principles

Oladipupo Muhrtala Tijani, Mathias Gboyega Ogundeji

Abstract


Purpose: This current study examines clients’ perception of external audit employees’ behavior on brand equity in professional accountancy context.

Design/methodology/approach: The study employs a structural equation model to analyze data gathered through interdisciplinary fieldwork.

Findings: The study find positive association between auditor objectivity, professional behavior, integrity and, confidentiality on brand association, perceived audit quality, and brand loyalty. The study identifies the significant impact of the codes of professional conduct as a predictor of external brand equity.

Research Limitations/Implications: Our sample is concentrated in the financial services Subsector. Our choice of respondents is another limitation as the emphasis is for clients of the local office of one Big N audit firm. Further, all factors examined and found to have strong impact on Brand-to-Brand (herein after B2B) brand equity are likely to be influenced by other extraneous factors not explored in the present context. Finally, these empirical findings are from auditor-client companies in Nigeria, but the measures are developed originally from past researches tested in other countries, especially in developing jurisdictions. This may have a significant impact on the data input, analysis, interpretations and conclusions.

Originality/Value: Regardless of these limitations this research offers a considerable amount of knowledge in marketing, auditing, and corporate governance and reporting system responsibilities.

 

Keywords: Brand equity, external audit, professional behavior, objectivity, integrity.

 

 

[PT]

Título: "Valor da marca nas empresas de contabilidade: o papel mediador dos princípios fundamentais"

Resumo

Objetivo: este estudo atual examina a percepção dos clientes sobre o comportamento dos funcionários de auditoria externa sobre o valor da marca no contexto da contabilidade profissional.

Projeto/metodologia/abordagem: o estudo emprega um modelo de equação estrutural para analisar os dados coletados por meio de trabalho de campo interdisciplinar.

Resultados: O estudo encontrou associação positiva entre objetividade do auditor, comportamento profissional, integridade e confidencialidade na associação da marca, qualidade da auditoria percebida e lealdade à marca. O estudo identifica o impacto significativo dos códigos de conduta profissional como um preditor do valor da marca externa.

Limitações/implicações: Nossa amostra está concentrada no subsetor de serviços financeiros. Nossa escolha de entrevistados é outra limitação, pois a ênfase é dada aos clientes do escritório local de uma empresa de auditoria da Big N. Além disso, todos os fatores examinados e considerados de forte impacto no valor da marca de marca para marca (daqui em diante B2B) provavelmente serão influenciados por outros fatores estranhos não explorados no contexto atual. Finalmente, essas descobertas empíricas são de empresas clientes-auditor na Nigéria, mas as medidas são desenvolvidas originalmente a partir de pesquisas anteriores testadas em outros países, especialmente nas jurisdições em desenvolvimento. Isso pode ter um impacto significativo na entrada, análise, interpretação e conclusão dos dados.

Originalidade/valor: independentemente dessas limitações, esta pesquisa oferece uma quantidade considerável de conhecimento em marketing, auditoria e governança corporativa e responsabilidades do sistema de relatórios.

 


Palavras-chave: Brand equity, auditoria externa, comportamento profissional, objetividade, integridade.


Full Text:

PDF

References


Aaker, D. A. (1996). Measuring Brand Equity Across Products and Markets. California Management Review, 38(3), 102-119.

Agarwal, M. K., & Vithala, R. R. (1996). An Empirical Comparison of Consumer-Based Measures of Brand Equity. Marketing Letters, 7(3), 237-247.

Ahrens, T., & Chapman, C. S. (2006). Doing Qualitative Field Research in Management Accounting: Positioning Data to Contribute to Theory. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 31, 819-841.

Alessandri, S. W., & Alessandri, T. M. (2004). Prompting and Protecting Corporate Identity: The Importance of Organizational and Industrial Context. Corporate Reputation Review, 7(3), 252-268.

Altman, I. (1990). Conceptualization Rapport. Psychological Inquiry, 1(4), 294-323.

Anderson, J. G., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Sturctural Equation Modeling in Practice: A Review and Recommended Two-Step Approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 411-423.

Armstrong, J. S., & Overton, T. S. (1977). Estimating Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys. Journal of Marketing Research, 14(3), 396-402.

Armstrong, P. (1985). Changing Management Control Strategies: The Role of Competition between Accountancy and other Organizational Professions. Accounting, organizations and society, 129-148.

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). (2011). The Accountancy Profession's Role in Creating Public Value. London: ACCA.

Atilgan, E., Aksoy, S., & Akinci, S. (2005). Determinants of Brand Equity: A Verification Approach in the Beverage Industry in Turkey. Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 23(3), 237-248.

Awadallah, E. (2006). Investigating Professional Auditor's Perception of Factors Affecting their Ability to Resist Client Management Pressure in Audit Disputes. International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, 3(2), 220-239.

Baldauf, A., Cravens, K. S., & Binder, G. (2003). Performance consequences of Brand Equity Management: Evidence from Organizations in the Value Chain. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 12(4), pp. 220-236.

Bendixen, M., Bukasa, K. A., & Abratt, R. (2004). Brand Equity in the Business-to-Business Market. Industrial Marketing Journal, 33(5), 371-380.

Biedenbach, G., & Agneta Marell, A. (2010). The Impact of Customer Experience on Brand Equity in a Business-to-Business Services Setting. Journal of Brand Management, 17(6), 446-458.

Biedenbach, G., Bengtsson, M., & Wincent, J. (2011). Brand Equity in the Professional Service Context: Analyzing the Impact of Employee Role Behaviour and Customer - Employee Rapport. Industrial Marketing Management, 40, 1093-1102.

Bollen, K. A. (1989). Structural Equation Modeling with Latent Variables. New York: Wiley.

Brazel, J. F., & Bradford, M. (2011). Shedding New Light on Auditor Switching. Strategic Finance, January, 49-53.

Bubb, P. L., & van Reast, D. J. (1973). Loyalty as a Component of the Industrial Buying Decision. Industrial Marketing Management, 3(1), 25-32.

Buckstein, J. (2003). Recovery of the Accounting Profession Post-Enron. (Professional Development Network) s.l.: CGA.

Collier, J. E., & Bienstock, C. C. (2007). An Analysis of How Response Error is Assessed in Academic Marketing Research. Marketing Theory, 7(2), 163-183.

Cook, W. A. (1997). The Advertiser and Brand Equity: Superhero or Wizard of Odds. Journal of Advertising Research, 37(6), 5-5.

Cooper, D. J., Hayes, D. C., & Wolf, F. (1981). Accounting in Organized Anarchies: Understanding and Designing Accounting Systems in Ambigous Situations. Accounting, Organizations, and Society, 6, 119-132.

Covaleski, M. A., & Dirsmith, M. W. (1986). The Budgetary Process of Power and Politics. Accounting, organizations and society, 11(3), 193-214.

Davis, G., Chun, R., & Kamins, M. A. (2010). Reputation Gaps and the Performance of Service Organizations. Strategic Management Manual, 31(5), 530-546.

Ehrenberg, A. S. (1997). Despription and Prescription. Journal of Advertising Research, 37(6), 17-22.

Farquhar, P. H. (1989). Managing Brand Equity. Marketing Research, 1, 24-33.

Farr, A., & Hollis, N. S. (1997). What Do You Want Your Brand to be When it Grows Up: Big and Strong? Journal of Advertising Research, 37(6), 23-45.

Feldwick, P. (1996). What is Brand Equity Anyway, and How Do You Measure it? Journal of Market Research Society, 38(2), 85-104.

Fontaine, R., & Letaifa, B. S. (2012). The Reasons Clients Change Audit Firms and Client’s Perceived Value of the Audit Service: A Qualitative Study in Canada. Current Issues in Auditing, 7(1), 1.

Gordon, G. L., Calantone, R. J., & di Benedetto, A. C. (1993). Brand Equity in the Business-to-Business Sector: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 2(3), 4-16.

Gremler, D. D., & Gwinner, K. P. (2000). Customer-Employee Rapport in Service relationships. Journal of Service Research, 3(1), 82-104.

Hagg I., & Hedlund, G. (1979). Case studies in Accounting Research. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 4(½), 135-143.

Hair, J. F., Anderson, R. E., Babin, B. J., Tatham, R. L., & William, C. B. (2006). Multivariate Data Analysis. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prectice Hall.

Han, S. L., & Sung, H. S. (2008). Industrial Brand Value and Relationship Performance in Business Markets: A General Structural Equation Model. Industrial Marketing Management, 60(4), 807-818.

Heintzman, M., Leathers, D. G., Parrott, R. L., & Bennent, A. H. (1993). Non-Verbal Rapport Building Behaviors: Effects on Perception of a Supervisor. Management Communications Quaterly,7(November), 181-208.

Hennig-Thurau T., Groth, M., Paul, M., & Gremler, D. D. (2006). Are All Smiles Created Equal? How Emotional Contagion and Emotional Labor Affect Service

Relationships. Journal of Marketing, 70(3), 58-73.

Hite, J. M. (2003). Patterns of Multidimensionality Among Embedded Network Ties: A Topology of Relational Embeddedness in Emerging Entrepreneurial Firms. Strategic Organization, 1(1), 9-49.

Hutton, J. G. (1997). A Study of Brand Equity in an Organizational-Buying Context. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 6(6), 428-439.

Jayawardhena, C., Souchon, A. L., Farrell, A. M., & Glanville, K. (2007). Outcomes of Service Encounter Quality in a Business-to-Business Context. Industrial Marketing Context, 36(5), 575-588.

Jones, M. A., & Suh, J. (2000). Transaction-Specific Satisfaction and Overall Satisafction: An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Services Marketing, 14(2), 147-159.

Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, Measuring and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity. Journal of Marketing, 57(1), 1-22.

Keller, K. L. (2008). Strategic Brand Management (3rd ed.). New Delhi, India: Dorling Kindersley.

Kenneth, C. E., Clow, R., & Baack, D. E. (2007). Corporate Image and Brand Management. In E. Kenneth, R. Clow, D. Baack, & P. Hall (Eds.). Integrated Advertising, Promotion and Marketing Communications (3rd ed.). New Delhi: Pearson Education.

Kim, J. H., & Hyun Y. J. (2011). A model to Investigate the Influence of Marketing-Mix Efforts and Corporate Image on Brand Equity in the IT Software Sector. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(3), 424-438.

Kim, K. H. (1998). An Analysis of Optimum Number of Response Categories for Korean Consumers. Journal Global Academy of Marketing Science, 11(3), 61-86.

Kocak, A., Abimbola, T. & Ozer, A. (2007). Consumer Brand Equity in a Cross-Cultural Replication: An Evaluation of a Scale. Journal of Marketing Management, 23(1-2), 157-173.

Kotler, P., & Pfoertsch, W. (2007). Being Known of Being one of Many: The Need for Brand Management for Business-to-Business Companies. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 22(6), 357-362.

Leone, R. P., Rao, V. R., Keller, K. L., Luo, A. M., McAlister, L., & Srivastava, R. (2006). Linking Brand Equity to Customer Equity. Journal of Service Research, 125-138.

Li, L. Y. (2010). Encouraging Extra-Role Behaviour in a Channel Context: The Role of Economic, Social and Justica-Based Sharedness Mechanisms. Industrial Marketing Management, 39, 195-201.

Magri, J., & Baldacchino, P. J. (2004). Factors Contributing to Auditor-Change Decisions in Malta. Managerial Auditing Journal, 19(7), 956-968.

Mahajan, V. M., Rao, V. R., & Srivastava. R. K. (1994). An Approach to Assess the Importance of Brand Equity in Acquisition Decisions. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 11, 221-235.

Marinova, S. T., Cui, J., & Marinov, M. A. (2008, July-September). Customer Relationships and Brand Equity in China's Banking Services. Revista de Administracao FACES Journal, 11-27.

McLaughlin, D. M. & Carr, E. G. (2005). Quality of Rapport as a Setting Event for Problem Behavior: Assessment and Intervention. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 7(Spring), 68-91.

McQuiston, D. H. (2004). Successful Branding of a Commodity Product: The Case of Raex Laser Steel. Industrial Marketing Management, 33(4), 345-354.

Michell, P., King, J. & Reast, J. (2001). Brand Values Related to Industrial Products. Industrial Marketing Management, 30(5), 415-425

Mudambi, S. (2002). Branding Importance in Business-to-Business Markets: Three Buyer Clusters. Industrial Marketing Management, 31(6), 525-533.

Nam, J., Ekinci, Y., & Whyatt, G. (2011). Brand Equity, Brand Loyalty, and Consumer Satsifaction. Annuals of Tourism Research, 38(3), 1009-1030.

Netemeyer, R. G., Krishnan, B., Pullig, C., Wang, G., Yagci, M., & Dean, D. H. (2006). Developing and Validating Measures of Facets of Customer-Based Brand Equity: A Conceptual Model. Journal of Business Research, 13(4), 399-422.

Nyadzayo, M. W., Matanda, M. J., & Ewing, M. T. (2011). Brand Relationships and Brand Equity in Franchising. Industrial Marketing Management, 40, 1103-1115.

Olins, W. (1990). The Wolff Olins Guide to Corporate identity. London: The Design School.

Pappu, R., & Quester, P. (2006). Does Customer Satisfaction Lead to Improved Brand Equity? An Empirical Examination of Two Categories of Retail Brands. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 15(1), 4-14.

Pappu, R., Quester, P., & Cooksey, R. W. (2005). Consumer-Based Brand Equity: Improving the Measurement - Empirical Evidence. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 14(3), 143-154.

Parker, L. D. (1987). An Historical Analysis of Ethical Pronouncements and Debate in the Australian Accounting Profession. Abacus, 126-140.

Pierce, A. (2007). Ethics and the Professional Accounting Firm: A Literature Review. Scotland: The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common Method Biases in Behavioral Research: A Critical Review of the Literature and Recommended Remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879-903.

Ponemon, S. L. (1987). Ethical Judgements in Accounting: A Cognitive-Developmental Perspective. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 126-140.

Porter, M. E. (1985). Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, Free Press.

Rauyruen, P., & Miller, K. E. (2007). Relationship Quality as a Predictor of B2B Customer Loyalty. Journal of Business Research, 60(1), 21-31.

Rest, J. R. (1979). Development in Judging Moral Issues. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.

Roberts, J., & Merrilees, B. (2007). Multiple Roles of Brands in Business-to-Business Services. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 22(6), 410-417.

Roper, S., & Davis, G. (2010). Business to Business Branding: External and Internal Satsifiers and the Role of Training Quality. European Journal of Marketing, 44(5), 567-590.

Rose, W. H., & Carole, W. (1994). Effects of Interpersonal Trust and Time Pressure on Mnagaerial Mediation Strategy in a Simulated Organizational Dispute. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(3), 228-248.

Sampson, A. (2004). Who Runs This place? London: John Murray.

Sharp, B. (2001). Brand Equity and Market-Based Assets of Professional Service Firms. Journal of Professional Services Marketing, 13(1), 3-13.

Shaw, J., Giglierano, J., & Kallis, J. M. (1989). Marketing Complex Technical Products the Importance of Intangible Attributes. Industrial Marketing Management, 18(1), 45-53.

Shipley, D., & Paul, H. (1993). Brand-Naming industrial products. Industrial Marketing Management, 22(1), 59-66.

Simon, C. J., & Sullivan, M. W. (1993). The Measurement and Determinants of Brand Equity: A Financial Approach. Marketing Science, 12(4), 28-52.

Smith, D. J., Nicola Gradojevic, & Irwin, W. S. (2007). An Analysis of Brand Equity Determinants: Gross Profit, Advertising, Research, and Development. Journal of Businessand Economics Research, 5(11), 103-116.

Suhayati, E. (2012). The Influence of Audit Fee, Audit ime Budget Pressure and Public Accountant Attitude on the Public Accountant Dysfunctional Behavior and its Implications on Audit Quality Survey on "Small" Scale Public Accounting Firms in Java. 3rd International Conference on Business Economic Research (3rd ICBER 2012) Proceeding, Indonesia.

Taylor, S. A., Hunter, G. L., & Lindberg, D. L. (2007). Understanding (Customer-Based) Brand Equity in Financial Services. Journal of Services Marketing, 241-252.

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). (2007, June). Corporate Reputation: Perspectives of Measuring and Managing Principal Risk, 1-44.

Van Riel, A. C., De Mortanges, C. P., & Sandra Streukens, S. (2005). Marketing Antecedents of Industrial Brand Equity: An Empirical investigation in Specialty Chemicals. Industrial Marketing Management, 34(8), 841-847.

Veloutsou, C. A., & Panigyrakis, G. G. (2005). Consumer Brand Manager's Job Stress, Job Satisfaction, Perceived Performance and Intention to Leave. Journal of Marketing Management, 20(1), 105-131.

Villarejo-Ramos, A. F., & Sanchez-Franco, M. J. (2005). The Impact of Marketing Communications and Price Promotion on Brand Equity. Journal of Brand Management, 12(6), pp. 431-444.

Washburn, J. H., & Plank, R. R. (2002). Measuring Brand Equity: An Evaluation of a Consumer-Based Brand Equity Scale. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 10(1), 388-402.

Watkins, A. L., Hillison, W., & Morecroft, S. E. (2004). Audit Quality: A Synthesis of Theory and Empirical Evidence. Journal of Accounting Literature, 23, 153-193.

Webster, F. E., & Keller, K. L. (2004). A Roadmap for Branding in Industrial Markets. Journal of Brand Management, 11(5), 388-402.

Willmot, H. (1986). Organising the Profession: A Theoretical and History Examination of the Development of the Major Accountancy Bodies in the U.K. Accounting, Organization and Society, 555-580.

Yoo, B., & Donthu, N. (2001). Developing and Validating a Multidimensional Consumer-Based Brand Equity Scale. Journal of Business Research, 52(1), 1-14.

Zyglidopoulos, Stelious C., Alessandri, S. W., & Alessandri, T. M. (2006). Exploring the Moderators on the Branding Strategy - Financial Performance Relationship. London: University of Cambridge, George Business School.




Copyright (c) European Journal of Applied Business and Management

 

European Journal of Applied Business and Management

ISSN: 2183-5594

DOI: https://doi.org/10.58869/EJABM

Indexing:

EBSCO | CROSSREF | GOOGLE SCHOLAR | LATINDEX | DRJI | ICI JOURNALS MASTER | REDIB | MIAR