Statements on Management Accounting

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

TITLE

Value Chain Analysis

for Assessing
Competitive Advantage

CREDITS
This statement was approved for issuance as a
Statement on Management Accounting by the
Management Accounting Committee (MAC) of the
Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). IMA appreciates the support of The Society of Management
Accountants of Canada (SMAC) in helping create this
SMA and extends appreciation to Joseph G. San
Miguel, of the Naval Postgraduate School, who drafted
the manuscript.

Published by
Institute of Management Accountants
10 Paragon Drive
Montvale, NJ 07645-1760
www.imanet.org

Special thanks are due to Randoif Holst, SMAC

Manager, Management Accounting Guidelines, for his
continuing project supervision and to the members of
the focus group (including MAC members Dennis Daly
and Thomas Huff) for contributing to the improvement
of the final document.

Copyright 1996
Institute of Management Accountants
All rights reserved

Statements on Management Accounting

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Value Chain Analysis for

Assessing Competitive Advantage
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.
II.
III.
IV.

Rationale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Value Chain Defined . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Competitive Advantage and
Customer Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
V. The Role of the Management
Accountant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
VI. The Value Chain Approach for
Assessing Competitive Advantage . . . . . .5
Internal Cost Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Internal Differentiation Analysis . . . . . . .10
Vertical Linkage Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . .13
VII. Strategic Frameworks for
Value Chain Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Exhibits
Exhibit 1:
Exhibit 2:
Exhibit
Exhibit
Exhibit
Exhibit
Exhibit
Exhibit

Industry Structure Analysis . . . . . . . . . .18

Exhibit

Core Competencies Analysis . . . . . . . . .19

Segmentation Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
VIII. Limitations of Value Chain Analysis . . . .26

Exhibit

IX. Organizational and Managerial

Accounting Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
X. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Appendix Value Chain Analysis vs. Conventional
Management Accounting
Bibliography

Exhibit
Exhibit

The Value Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Competitive Advantage Through
Low Cost and/or Differentiation . . .4
3: Process Cost Drivers . . . . . . . . . . .8
4: Competitor Cost Analysis . . . . . . .10
5: Value Chain for Crown, Cork
and Seal Company . . . . . . . . . . .12
6: Vertical Linkages in the Production
of Plastic Food Containers . . . . . .13
7: Value Chain Differences: The
Telecommunications Industry . . . .16
8: How Tetra-Pak Reconfigured
the Value Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
9: How IKEA Reconfigured the
Furniture Industry . . . . . . . . . . . .22
10: Approaches to Defining
Segmentation Variables . . . . . . . .24
11: Segmenting the British
Frozen Food Industry . . . . . . . . . .25
A-1: Value Chain vs. Conventional
Management Accounting . . . . . . .30

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

I . R AT I O N A L E
Competitive advantage for a company means not
just matching or surpassing what competitors
can do, but discovering what customers want and
then profitably satisfying, and even exceeding,
their expectations. As barriers to interregional
and international trade have diminished and as
access to goods and services has grown,
customers can locate and acquire the best of
what they want, at an acceptable price, wherever
it is in the world. Under growing competition and,
hence, rising customer expectations, a companys
penalty for complacency becomes even greater.
A strategic tool to measure the importance of
the customers perceived value is value chain
analysis. By enabling companies to determine
the strategic advantages and disadvantages of
their activities and value-creating processes in
the marketplace, value chain analysis becomes
essential for assessing competitive advantage.

II. SCOPE
This guideline is addressed to managers, and
more specifically to management accountants,
who may lead efforts to implement value chain
analysis in their organizations.

I I I . T H E VA L U E C H A I N D E F I N E D
The idea of a value chain was first suggested by
Michael Porter (1985) to depict how customer
value accumulates along a chain of activities
that lead to an end product or service.
Porter describes the value chain as the internal
processes or activities a company performs to
design, produce, market, deliver and support its
product. He further states that a firms value
chain and the way it performs individual activities
are a reflection of its history, its strategy, its
approach to implementing its strategy, and the
underlying economics of the activities themselves.
Porter describes two major categories of business activities: primary activities and support
activities. Primary activities are directly involved
in transforming inputs into outputs and in delivery
and after-sales support. These are generally also
the line activities of the organization. They
include:

The concepts, tools and techniques presented

apply to all organizations that produce and sell a
product or provide a service.

This guideline will help readers to:

link value chain analysis to organizational

goals, strategies and objectives;
broaden management awareness about value
chain analysis;
understand the value chain approach for
assessing competitive advantage;
comprehend useful strategic frameworks for
value chain analysis; and

appreciate the organizational and managerial

accounting challenges.

inbound logisticsmaterial handling and

warehousing;
operationstransforming inputs into the final
product;
outbound logisticsorder processing and distribution;
marketing and salescommunication, pricing
and channel management; and
serviceinstallation, repair and parts.

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Support activities support primary activities and

other support activities. They are handled by the
organizations staff functions and include:

procurementpurchasing of raw materials,

supplies and other consumable items as well
as assets;
technology developmenknow-how, procedures
and technological inputs needed in every value
chain activity;
human resource managementselection,
promotion and placement; appraisal; rewards;
management development; and labor/employee
relations; and
firm infrastructuregeneral management,
planning, finance, accounting, legal, government
affairs and quality management.

John Shank and V. Govindarajan (1993) describe

the value chain in broader terms than does
Porter. They state that the value chain for any
firm is the value-creating activities all the way
from basic raw material sources from component
suppliers through to the ultimate end-use product
delivered into the final consumers hands. This
description views the firm as part of an overall
chain of value-creating processes.
According to Shank and Govindarajan, the industry
value chain starts with the value-creating
processes of suppliers, who provide the basic
raw materials and components. It continues with
the value-creating processes of different classes
of buyers or end-use consumers, and culminates
in the disposal and recycling of materials.
The industry value chain and the value chain
activities within the firm are compared in Exhibit 1.

I V. C O M P E T I T I V E A DVA N TA G E
A N D C U S T O M E R VA L U E
In order to survive and prosper in an industry,
firms must meet two criteria: they must supply
what customers want to buy, and they must
survive competition. A firms overall competitive
advantage derives from the difference between
the value it offers to customers and its cost of
creating that customer value.
Competitive advantage in regard to products and
services takes two possible forms. The first is an
offering or differentiation advantage. If customers
perceive a product or service as superior, they
become more willing to pay a premium price
relative to the price they will pay for competing
offerings. The second is a relative low-cost
advantage, which customers gain when a
companys total costs undercut those of its
average competitor.

Differentiation Advantage
A differentiation advantage occurs when customers
perceive that a business units product offering
(defined to include all attributes relevant to the
buying decision) is of higher quality, incurs fewer
risks and/or outperforms competing product
offerings. For example, differentiation may include
a firms ability to deliver goods and services in a
timely manner, to produce better quality, to offer
the customer a wider range of goods and services,
and other factors that provide unique customer
value.
Once a company has successfully differentiated
its offering, management may exploit the advantage in one of two ways: increase price until it
just offsets the improvement in customer benefits,
thus maintaining current market share; or price
below the full premium level in order to build
market share.

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

E X H I B I T 1 : T H E VA L U E C HA I N

EXHIBIT 1. THE VALUE CHAIN

Industry
Value Chain

Value Chain Activities

within the Firm
Primary
Activities

Support
Activities

End-Use Consumer Pays for Profit Margins Throughout the Value Chain

R&D
Supplier
Value Chain

Procurement
Design

Firm Z
X Y Value Chain

Technology
Development
Production

Distribution
Value Chain

Human
Resource
Management
Marketing

Buyer
Value Chain

Firm
Infrastructure
Distribution

Disposal/
Recycle
Value Chain
Service

Many sources of cost advantage exist: access

Low-Cost Advantage
A firm enjoys a relative cost advantage if its total to low-cost raw materials; innovative process
Source:technology; low-cost access to distribution
costs are lower than the market average. This
relative cost advantage enables a business to channels or customers: and superior operating
do one of two things: price its product or service management. A company might also gain a
lower than its competitors in order to gain market relative cost advantage by exploiting economies
share and still maintain current profitability; of scale in some markets.
or match the price of competing products or
services and increase its profitability.
The relationship between low-cost advantage and
differentiation advantage is illustrated in Exhibit 2.

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

EXHIBIT 2: COMPETITIVE ADVA N TAG E THRO UGH

LOW COST AND/OR D IFFERENTI ATION
EXHIBIT 2. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH
LOW COST AND/OR DIFFERENTIATION
Superior
Differentiation
Advantage

Differentiation
with Cost Advantage

StuckintheMiddle

Low-Cost Advantage

Relative
Differentiation
Position

Inferior
Inferior

Superior

Source: Shank and Govindarajan, 1993.

Relative Cost Position

Superior relative cost position offers equivalent distribution channel; profit variance analysis;
customer value for a lower price. Superior relative and financial analysis.
differentiation position offers Source:
betterShank,
customer
and Govindarajan, 1993.
Today, management accountants must also bring
value for an equivalent price.
skills in activity-based costing, benchmarking,
Organizations that fail to gain competitive re-engineering, target costing, life-cycle costing,
advantage through low cost or superior differen- economic value analysis, total quality managetiation, or both, are stuck-in-the-middle. For ment and value chain analysis. The Appendix
instance, several American bicycle makers, contrasts traditional management accounting
including Schwinn, Huffy, Murray and Columbia, with the requirements of value chain analysis.
found themselves in this position during the
1980s. These companies lacked a cost advantage Value chain analysis is a team effort.
and failed to foresee the emerging mountain Management accountants need to collaborate
bike market. By contrast, Cannondale captured with engineering, production, marketing, distribumarket share after introducing its large-diameter tion and service professionals to focus on the
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
frame bicycle.
identified in the value chain analysis results.

V. T H E R O L E O F T H E
M A N A G E M E N T A C C O U N TA N T
The management accountant is traditionally considered the resident expert on cost analysis;
cost estimation; cost behavior; standard costing; profitability analysis by product, customer or

By championing the use of value chain analysis,

the management accountant enhances the
firms value and demonstrates the value of the
finance staff to the firms growth and survival.

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

V I . T H E VA L U E C H A I N
APPROACH FOR ASSESSING
C O M P E T I T I V E A D VA N TA G E
Most corporations define their mission as one of
creating products or services. For these organizations, the products or services generated are
more important than any single step within their
value chain. In contrast, other companies are
acutely aware of the strategic importance of
individual activities within their value chain. They
thrive by concentrating on the particular
activities that allow them to capture maximum
value for their customers and themselves.
These firms use the value chain approach to better understand which segments, distribution
channels, price points, product differentiation,
selling propositions and value chain configurations will yield them the greatest competitive
advantage.
The way that the value chain approach helps
organizations assess competitive advantage is
through the following types of analysis:

The value chain approach for assessing competitive advantage is an integral part of the
strategic planning process. Like strategic
planning, value chain analysis is a continuous
process of gathering, evaluating and com
municating information for business decisionmaking. By stimulating strategic thinking,
the analysis helps managers envision the
companys future and implement decisions to
gain competitive advantage.

Internal Cost Analysis

Organizations use the value chain approach to
identify sources of profitability and to understand
the cost of their internal processes or activities.
The principal steps of internal cost analysis are:

internal cost analysisto determine the

sources of profitability and the relative cost
positions of internal value-creating processes;
internal differentiation analysisto understand
the sources of differentiation (including the cost)
within internal value-creating processes; and
vertical linkage analysisto understand the
relationships and associated costs among
external suppliers and customers in order to
maximize the value delivered to customers and
to minimize cost.

These types of analysis are not mutually exclusive.

Rather, firms begin by focusing on their internal
operations and gradually widen their focus to
consider their competitive position within their
industry.

identify the firms value-creating processes;

determine the portion of the total cost of the
product or service attributable to each valuecreating process;
identify the cost drivers for each process;
identify the links between processes; and
evaluate the opportunities for achieving
relative cost advantage.

Identify the firms value-creating processes.

To identify its value-creating processes, a firm
must de-emphasize its functional structure.
Most large businesses still organize themselves
as cost, revenue, profit and investment centres.
These and other organizational sub-units, such
as departments, functions, divisions or separate
companies, that are frequently used for control
purposes are not very useful for identifying valuecreating processes. Adopting a process perspective requires a horizontal view of the organization,
beginning with product inputs and ending with
outputs and customers.

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Processes are structured and measured sets of

activities designed to produce a specified output
for a particular customer or market. Emphasizing
process means focusing not on what work is done
but on how work is done within the organization.
While an organizations hierarchical structure
typically lays out responsibilities and reporting
relationships, its process structure shows how
the organization delivers customer value. While
it is not possible to measure or improve hierarchical structure in any absolute sense, processes
lend themselves to such measures as cost,
time, output quality and customer satisfaction.
Because processes normally cut across functional areas, defining process boundaries is not
always a straightforward task. People associated
with a particular business process may view it in
different ways. For example, the new product
development process could start with marketing
surveys or with delivery of product requirements
from marketing to development engineering. The
process could end with the release of product
specifications or with shipment of the first order.
Process boundaries should be defined independently of the way in which activities are organized.
Selecting the appropriate activity category may
be anything but straightforward. The key is to
classify value activities according to their true
contribution to the firms competitive advantage.
For example, if order processing is important to
a firms customer interactions, then this activity
should be classified under marketing.
Management at American Airlines, for example,
handed its marketing unit the task of developing
and implementing the carriers SABRE computerized reservation system. The result: a significant
competitive advantage that left the other airlines
scrambling to copy the system. Even mighty

United Airlines has failed to match Americans

installed base of terminals in travel agencies.
Determine the portion of the total cost of
the product or service attributable to each
value-creating process.
The next step of internal cost analysis is to trace
or assign costs and assets to each value-creating
process identified. Although firms maintain internal
reports and cost accounting information, this
information may not align with their processes.
Companies might have to reclassify their data or
conduct cost studies to assign costs and assets
to each process. Rather than conduct a detailed
cost study, an organization might use rough estimates to assign costs to their value-creating
processes.
A full-cost approach provides the best estimate
of life-cycle costs for evaluating the strategic
cost advantage of a firms value-creating
process. Without adopting this approach, a firm
risks sacrificing product development costs to
short-term profits.
For example, the savings in factory labor that an
organization gains through using flexible manufacturing systems, robotics and computerintegrated manufacturing might be offset by the
high cost of computer software programmers.
The information systems support costs should
be allocated to the value-creating processes
that benefit from the new systems as part of
the full cost.
For estimating the full cost of each value-creating
activity, the full utilization of the capacity of
the activity or its practical capacity is normally
used. Facility managers and equipment vendors
are useful sources of capacity estimates. If
estimates of full capacity vary widely, a firm
could perform the analysis with the resulting

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

costs to assess the sensitivity of the analysis to

the different capacity measures. When costs
vary dramatically, companies should seek more
information for a more realistic long-term
estimate of capacity.1

Structural cost drivers consist of organizational

factors that determine the economic structure
driving the cost of a firms products. These cost
drivers reflect a firms long-term decisions, which
position the firm in its industry and marketplace.
Structural cost drivers may change.

Although many of the processes identified may

be instrumental for achieving competitive advantage, various value-creating processes may have
differing effects on a firms costs or products.
Companies selling pencils, pens or paper clips,
for example, are unlikely to concern themselves
with after-sales service. But customer support
is a vital part of the competitive strategy for
makers of computers or high-speed copiers.

For example, large pharmaceutical companies

enjoy economies of scale that lower their unit
costs for expensive R&D. Elsewhere, Texas
Instruments has exploited the experience curve in
lowering its life-cycle product cost. However, bigger
is not necessarily better, as evidenced by the
success of steel companies mini-mill strategy.

Identify the cost drivers for each process.

The next step of internal cost analysis is to identify
the factor or cost determinants for each valuecreating process. By understanding what factors
drive costs, a firm can assign priorities among its
cost improvement initiatives. In order to determine
its relative cost advantage, a firm should also
know the cost factors of its competitors.2

Executional cost drivers capture a firms operational decisions on how best to employ its
resources to achieve its goals and objectives.
These cost drivers are determined by management policy, style and culture. How well a firm
executes its use of human and physical
resources will determine its level of success or
failure. For example, worker empowerment and
flattened organizations are helping many firms in
their continuous improvement efforts.

While management accounting systems may

contain the total cost of each value-creating
process, they may not reveal the causes or factors
for the significant individual costs. Using single
output or volume measures (e.g., units, labor hours,
sales dollars) to assign costs is often misleading.
Multiple cost drivers usually provide more useful
information. Exhibit 3 illustrates examples of
structural and executional cost drivers.

1 The reader should refer to IMAs Statement on Management

Accounting, Measuring the Cost of Capacity, for
additional information regarding the various approaches used
for measuring capacity.

Few structural and executional cost drivers can

be operationalized under existing management
accounting systems in the cost analysis of the
value chain. However, these cost drivers do offer
an important reminder of the strategic decisions
that firms need to make, or at least acknowledge, in designing their value-generating systems.
Increasingly, companies are using activity-based
costing to understand the resources/costs
consumed by the activities and processes used
in delivering their products and services.

2. The reader should refer to IMAs Statement on Management

Accounting, Developing Comprehensive Competitive
Intelligence, for additional information regarding the
acquisition of competitive cost information.

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

EXHIBIT 3: PRO CESS CO ST DRIVERS
EXHIBIT 3. PROCESS COST DRIVERS
STRUCTURAL COST DRIVERS

Scale

How big an investment to make in

manufacturing, R&D, marketing
and other resources?

Scope

What is the degree of vertical

integration horizontal integration is
more related to scale?

Experience or learning

How often has the firm already done this?

Technology

What process technologies are

used within each step of the
firms value chain?

Complexity

How wide a line of products or services

to offer to customers?

EXECUTIONAL COST DRIVERS

Workforce involvement or participation

Is the workforce involved in decisions

and improvements in performance?

Total quality management

Are the workforce and managers

committed to total quality in processes
and products?

Capacity utilization

What are the scale choices on maximum

plant construction?

Plant layout efficiency

How efficient, against current norms,

is the plants layout?

Product configuration

Is the design or formulation of the

product effective?

Linkages with suppliers and customers

Is the linkage with suppliers and

customers exploited, according to the
firms value chain?

Source: Riley, 1987.

Source: Riley, 1987.
8

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Identify the links among processes.

While individual value activities are considered
separate and discrete, they are not necessarily
independent. Most activities within a value chain
are interdependent. Firms must not overlook
value chain linkages among interdependent
activities that may impact their total cost.
For example, cost improvement programs in one
value chain process may lower or increase costs
and/or revenues in other processes. Transfers of
goods and services from one value chain
process to another increases cost. Eliminating
these transfers reduces the costs of purchasing,
invoicing and other recordkeeping functions.
Tandem Computers eliminated its costs of
purchase orders, invoicing and other functions by
jointly developing a detailed bar code process
with its suppliers. By improving its upstream
design and engineering processes for the
Taurus, Ford saved on downstream production
and customer service costs. Using fewer floppy
drives and motherboards in its PCs has enabled
IBM to halve its delivered cost in two years.
As sources of competitive advantage, these relationships or linkages among activities can be as
important as the activities themselves. Such
linkages may also offer sustainable competitive
advantage, because their subtle, complex nature
makes them difficult for competitors to imitate.
Evaluate the opportunities for achieving
relative cost advantage.
In many organizations, cost reductions are made
across the board (e.g., eliminate 10 per cent
from every department). Because these firms
do not reduce their costs strategically, this effort
usually fails. More often than not, across-theboard cost reduction misconstrues the underlying
problem. The point is not to become more

efficient at insignificant activities, but to better

meet customer demands.
Using the value chain approach, a company goes
beyond simple across-the-board cuts and
attempts to lower cost and improve efficiency
within each value-creating process. For instance,
a company might negotiate lower costs of
process inputs such as wages or purchases, or
evaluate make-or-buy options.
Reducing process input costs often means negotiating lower wages (as with Chrysler and the
U.S. airlines during the mid-1980s) or moving
production to countries with cheaper labor costs.
Suppliers might be willing to drop their prices if
the company negotiates long-term contracts, an
approach used by Levi-Strauss in contracting
with its textile suppliers. Companies also use
buyer-seller partnerships to gain advantages in cost,
quality, time, flexibility, delivery and technology.3
United Parcel Service (UPS) outsourced its
customer service centers. In the process, the
company consolidated 65 customer service
centers representing 5,000 jobs down to
between eight and 10 service centers run by
contractors. UPS service center employees
earn $10 to $12 an hour versus the $6.50 to
$8 an hour paid to contractors.
Some processes may offer more opportunities
for improvement than others. In order to get the
most out of its cost reduction programs, a company should prioritize its value-creating processes. Under the 80:20 rule, 20 per cent of the
value-creating processes often accounts for 80
per cent of total costs.

3 For more information on buyer-seller partnerships, the

reader should refer to The Society of Management Accountants
of Canadas Management Accounting Guideline #32,
Building Buyer-Seller Partnerships.

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

E X H I B I T 4 : C O M P E T I T O R C O S T A NA LY S I S

EXHIBIT 4. COMPETITOR COST ANALYSIS

Independent
Auto Repair

Specialty
Brake Repair

100%

79%

Material
Material
Labor
Labor
Variable Shop
and SG&A
Fixed Shop
and SG&A

Variable Shop
and SG&A
Fixed Shop
and SG&A

Cost
Drivers

Cost
Reduction
21%

Purchasing scale
More efficient distribution

9%

Less-skilled labor
Lower compensation
More specialization
& productivity

7%

Scale offset by larger

advertising expenses

0%

Higher utilization of
equipment & facilities

5%

An example of the value chain approach to Internal Differentiation Analysis

achieving a relative cost advantage is illustrated The value chain approach is also used by organin Exhibit 4. This exhibit compares a specialty
izations
to identify opportunities for creating
Source: Riley,
1987.
brake repair firm with an independent auto repair and sustaining superior differentiation. In this
firm. By focusing on cost drivers such as scale, situation, the primary focus is on the customers
skill levels, wages and capacity utilization, the perceived value of the products and services.
specialty brake shop was able to reduce its
costs by 21 per cent. Its largest percentage cost As with internal cost analysis, internal differentireduction was in material cost.
ation analysis requires firms to first identify their
value-creating processes and primary cost drivers.
Companies can use comparisons with best They are then ready to perform a differentiation
practices, benchmarking and business process analysis using the following guidelines:
redesign to reduce their costs. The cost of quality
emphasizes that eliminating process and material identify the customers value-creating processes;
waste leads to significant cost savings and evaluate differentiation strategies for enhancing
customer satisfaction.
customer value; and
determine the best sustainable differentiation
strategies.

10

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Identify the customers value-creating

processes.
To pursue a superior differentiation strategy, a
firms processes must enhance those of its
customers. Thus, a firm should carefully study
the value-creating processes of its customers.
Exhibit 5 presents such an analysis for Crown,
Cork and Seal Company (CCS), a metal can maker,
and its customers in the late 1970s. The metal
container industry was characterized by low
growth, low profits and intense competition. CCS
succeeded with a differentiation strategy, which
is usually very difficult to accomplish in a
commodity-type business. Two different groups
of customersfood and beverage canners
accounted for 80 per cent of the metal containers
produced.
Evaluate differentiation strategies for
enhancing customer value.
The key to successful differentiation under the
value-chain approach is to identify the value-creating processes that distinguish a firms products or
services from those of its competitors. In making
this distinction, customer value is emphasized.
The ways customer value can be enhanced
through differentiation include:

product featuresthat are esthetically appealing or functionally superior. For example, the
Mercedes-Benz automobile accomplished this
feat so well for years that its name became
synonymous with the highest level of quality
people would describe a product as the
Mercedes-Benz of its category;
marketing channelsthat provide desired
levels of responsiveness, convenience, variety
and information. By placing its order-entry computers in Wal-Marts stores, Procter & Gamble
significantly reduced the overall order-entry
and processing costs for both firms. Providing

this unique service to a customer also enabled

P&G to improve its on-time delivery of ordered
merchandise;
service and supporttailored to end-user and
channel member sophistication and urgency of
need. For several decades, superior service
capabilities and high vendor switching costs
produced by proprietary architecture and software enabled IBM to build and maintain a
commanding leadership position in the mainframe computer industry. Until open systems
appeared in the mid-1980s, risk-averse customers were reluctant to make large capital
and conversion outlays for mainframe computer
systems without the manufacturers strong
assurance of reliability;
brand or image positioningthat lends greater
appeal to the companys offerings on critical
selection criteria. For many years, this quality
image has allowed the American Express Co.
to command a significant price premium in the
highly competitive financial services market
a premium that reflects, in its words, the
privilege of membership; and
priceincluding both net purchase price and
cost savings available to the customer through
the use of the product and service.

Determine the best sustainable differentiation strategies.

For a firm to achieve superior differentiation, it
must utilize the best mix of resources in creating
value for its customers. In order to prioritize
its processes as sources of differentiation, a
company must determine what attributes of
each process enhance customer value.
The more unique a firms resources and skills,
the more sustainable is its differentiation advantage over competitors.

11

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

EXHIBIT 5: VALUE CH AIN FOR CROW N, C ORK AND SEAL COMPA NY

EXHIBIT 5. VALUE CHAIN FOR CROWN, CORK AND SEAL COMPANY

1
2
3
4
5

Crown, Cork & Seal

Distribution

Marketing

Canning

Processing

Inventory Holding

Purchasing

Service & Technical

Support

Sales

Consistency of product.
Quality of product.
Flexibility of
manufacturing.

Distribution

Containers for
specialized uses.
Special designs of
containers. Specially
strong or light containers.

Inventory Holding

Reliability of supply even

during metal shortages.

Manufacturing

Design, Engineering

Inventory Holding

Purchasing

Supplies of Steel
& Aluminum

High quality inputs.

Canners

Speed and competence

in maintaining
customers canning lines.
Quality of technical advice.
Fast, reliable order
processing.

Speed and flexibility of

delivery.
Ability to meet unexpected
orders from customers
at short notice.

1. Designing distinctive cans for customers may assist their own marketing activities.
2. Consistent can quality lowers customers canning costs by avoiding breakdowns and
holdups on their canning lines.
3. By maintaining high stocks and offering speedy delivery, customers can economize on their
own stockholding (they may even be able to move to a just-in-time system of can supply).
4. Efficient order processing can reduce customers ordering costs.
5. Capable and fast technical support can reduce the costs of breakdowns on canning lines.
Adapted from: Crown, Cork and Seal Company and the Metal Container Industry, and
Crown, Cork and Seal Company, Inc. Havard Business School, 1978.

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

CCS (Exhibit 5), for example, focused only on

tin-plated steel can production, not aluminum;
produced for beverage and aerosol customers, not
food processors; and invested in more can-forming
lines at its plants to reduce changeovers and
set-up wages. CCS was also willing to devote more
resources to customizing metal containers for
customers and to increase its responsiveness to
customers schedule and quality needs.
The payoffs for effective differentiation, and the
penalties for not differentiating, are clear. In
1980, Purolator Courier was bigger than Federal
Express; today the reverse is true. In 1982,
Dreyfus had more assets under management
than Fidelitya situation that had reversed itself
by the mid-90s.

Vertical Linkage Analysis

Linkages among value-creating processes do not
end with the activities within a firm. The greatest
competitive advantage may come out of linkages
between a firms value-creating activities and
those of its suppliers, channels or users.
Vertical linkage analysis is a much broader application of internal cost and differentiation analysis
that includes all upstream and downstream
value-creating processes throughout the industry.Vertical linkage analysis considers all links
from the source of raw materials to the disposal
and/or recycling of the product. Exhibit 6 outlines the vertical links involved in the production
of fast food containers.

EXHIBIT 6: VERTICAL LINKAGES IN THE PRODUCTION OF

PLASTIC FOOD CONTAINERS

EXHIBIT 6. VERTICAL LINKAGES IN THE PRODUCTION OF

PLASTIC FOOD CONTAINERS
Natural gas producers

Ethane producers

Styrene producers

Polystyrene producers

Fast food carton producers

Fast food restaurants

Final consumers

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Shank and Govindarajan (1993) state the

importance of vertical linkages:
...gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage requires that a firm understand the entire
value delivery system, not just the portion of the
value chain in which it participates. Suppliers
and customers and suppliers suppliers and
customers customers have profit margins that
are important to identify in understanding a
firms cost/differentiation positioning, because
the end-use customers ultimately pay for all
the profit margins along the entire value chain.
Vertical linkage can reveal which activities are
the most (and least) critical to competitive
advantage (or disadvantage). For example, Swiss
watchmakers succeeded for years as relatively
small, labor-intensive assemblers. Then came
the 1970s and the advent of low-cost, massproduced watches. The Swiss responded by
restructuring their industry to gain economies of
scale similar to those enjoyed by their new
global competitors.
However, the Swiss failed to realize that their
critical problem was not in manufacturing. This
set of activities added only a small proportion of
the value of their final product. Far more significant
were downstream activities in output logistics,
marketing, sales and service. Beyond being able
to make a watch cheaply, the Swiss had to lower
their costs of distribution and service. They
came up with the hugely successful Swatch,
which, besides being inexpensively priced, was
virtually indestructible and could be distributed
through numerous low-cost channels, from
department stores to discount houses.

Vertical linkage analysis includes the following

steps:

identify the industrys value chain and assign

costs, revenues and assets to value-creating
processes;
diagnose the cost drivers for each value-creating
process; and
evaluate the opportunities for sustainable
competitive advantage.

Identify the industrys value chain and

assign costs, revenues and assets to
value-creating processes.
Because vertical linkages can be complex
and intangible, they are often overlooked by
organizations. For example, the petroleum
industry consists of numerous value-creating
processes or activities, including exploration,
production, refining, marketing and distribution.
These processes define the value chain for this
industry. One company may participate in all
parts of this value chain; another firm may
participate in only a few. This diversity of operations and organizations makes it difficult to
adopt a standard approach for identifying
industry value chain processes.
Few firms have information systems that can
identify and analyze these subtle relationships.
For example, profitability and return on assets
are key measures of competitive advantage
throughout an industrys value chain. It can be
extremely difficult to obtain pertinent information
for these measures, including operating costs,
revenues and assets for each process throughout the industrys value chain. However, this
information is necessary to calculate a rate of
return on assets for each value chain process.
Obtaining the replacement or current cost of
physical assets used by a value-creating activity

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

is a necessary but often-complex undertaking.

Historical or book values usually provide inadequate measures of current investment. Plant
engineers, equipment vendors and independent
appraisal professionals may be consulted to
help establish current asset values. Likewise,
establishing prices for transferring goods and
services among value chain processes requires
an understanding of market or competitivebased rates. If at least one firm competes in
each stage of value creation, then competitive
market prices are available. If not, then a company
must use judgment in determining a transfer
price that incorporates a normal profit margin
on full costs. For long-term strategic decisionmaking, companies should use full cost under
conditions of full capacity for the value activity.
While several measures of capacity exist, the
best measure should represent the long-term
utilization of the value activitys assets (sometimes called practical capacity).
Publicly available financial reports produced by
firms throughout the industry value chain can
provide key financial information. Typically, this
information is neither in the proper format nor
disaggregated enough to accommodate vertical
linkage analysis. Significant analysis, data
manipulation and judgment may be necessary
to obtain the appropriate information for each
value chain process.
For intermediate transfers between processes,
competitive market prices, if available, should be
substituted for the internal transfer prices. For
example, competitive market prices for a single
link in the value chain may be obtained from
individual firms that operate only in that link of
the chain. For long-term cost estimation, full
costs should be used rather than marginal,
variable or incremental costs.

Diagnose the cost drivers for each valuecreating process.

Traditional management or cost accounting
systems often assign costs by using a single output measure of operating activity, such as output
volume. For vertical linkage analysis, a single
measure is inadequate to capture the underlying
cost categories. Direct labor-based measures
may be appropriate for labor-intensive activities;
operating hours may be appropriate for machinebased activities. The cost drivers illustrated
in Exhibit 3 may be used to identify the factors
that determine costs throughout the industry
value chain.
Evaluate the opportunities for sustainable
competitive advantage.
By nature, competitive advantage is relative. In
an ideal world, a firm can gauge its competitive
position by knowing its competitors value chains
and the rates of return on each. In reality, however, this may be rather difficult: the competitors
internal cost, revenue and asset data for its
processes are generally unavailable. Sufficient
qualitative information usually exists on a firms
major value-creating processes and the strategies
for each. By understanding how other companies
compete in each process of the industry value
chain, a firm can use the qualitative analysis to
seek out competitive niches even if financial
data are unavailable.
Value chains for three competitors in the rapidly
changing telecommunications industryAT&T,
NYNEX and IBMare listed in Exhibit 7, along with
the strategic differences for each firm (Hax and
Majiuf, 1991). The strategic differences reflect varying structural and executional cost drivers. In marketing, for instance, AT&T started with no organization
but with significant name recognition. The regional
marketing scale of NYNEX and the worldwide marketing scale of IBM are important cost advantages.

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

EXHIBIT 7: VALUE CHAIN DIFFERENCES:
THE TELECOMMUNIC AT IONS INDUSTRY
EXHIBIT 7. VALUE CHAIN DIFFERENCES:
THE TELECOMMNICATIONS INDUSTRY
Value Chain
Processes

Strategic Differences
AT&T

NYNEX

IBM

Procurement

Owns manufacturing
branch (Western Electric)

Free to use any

supplier it wants

Owns Rolm, CPE

manufacturer

Technology
Development

Technological leadership
through Bell Labs

Focus on software
products

Strong R&D in
computer hardware
and software
technologies

Operations

National presence
High quality of equipment
through heavy capital
expenditure
Similar communications
standards nationwide
Strongest national
telecommunications
network

Regional monopoly
Innovative
equipment from
outside suppliers
High-quality
regional network
through heavy
capital investment

Global presence
Leading computer
technology
Partnership with
MCI

Marketing
and Sales

New emphasis on
marketing (still weak)
High name recognition
Long-term relationship
with clients
Recruits computer
executives

Use of Bell logo

Focus on top 1,000
corporate customers
Sales and
distribution centres
close to customers

Strong reputation
for marketing
excellence
Already sells to most
major corporations
Experienced sales
force

Source: Hax and Majluf, 1991.

Finding innovative ways to perform value-creating and shipped the slabs to its large markets in the
Source: Hax and Majluf, 1991.
activities helps firms improve their overall perfor- Northeastern U.S. Only then did the company
mance and achieve competitive advantage. In mix the concentrate with water, thus avoiding the
order to thrive in the mature, highly competitive lengthy and costly shipment of water.
meat packing industry, for example, Iowa Beef
Processors built its plants near cattle ranches, Increased global competition forces firms to focus
thus eliminating the high cost of shipping cattle on worldwide sustainable competitive advantage.
to northern processing plants. In order to lower Porter (1990), one of a few strategists who have
its costs, Tropicana froze slabs of orange juice systematically studied global competition, cites four
concentrate near the orange groves in Florida major factors that influence national competitive

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

advantage. These are:

factor conditionsthe nations position in

factors of production, such as skilled labor or
infrastructure, necessary to compete in a
given industry;
demand conditionsthe nature of domestic
demand for the industrys product or service;
related and supporting industriesthe presence
or absence in the nation of supplier industries
and related industries that are internationally
competitive; and
firm strategy, structure and rivalrythe conditions
in the nation governing how companies are
created, organized and managed, and the
nature of domestic rivalry.

Geographic scope can allow firms to gain

substantial competitive advantages by sharing or
coordinating similar value activities in different
places. The importance of this advantage is
illustrated by the recent success of firms with a
global scope, such as Canon (Japan), Caterpillar
(U.S.), N.Y. Philips (Netherlands) and Siemens
(West Germany). These firms sell and service their
products in practically every corner of the globe.
Automakers like Ford or GM are even more global:
they carry out many key value-creating activities
from engineering to manufacturing and salesin
dozens of countries around the world. Japanese
auto companies are also globalizing rapidly, making
huge investments in manufacturing facilities in,
for example, South Korea, Singapore and the U.S.
Nikes key value-creating processes are shoe
design, manufacture of shoe components and
final assembly. All major inputs to each process
are available in the U.S. However, Nike locates
component manufacturing, requiring moderately
skilled labor and capital, in Taiwan and South
Korea. It locates assembly operations, a labor-

intensive activity, in low-wage Asian countries

such as China, Thailand and the Philippines.
Taking a global view of the value chain is not
without disadvantages. One possible negative
factor is transportation between linked processes.
Transportation consumes time and adds to
costs. Shipments of electronic components
between the Far East and North American
assembly plants may take at least a month.
Transporting components to local assembly
plants may save transport and inventory costs.
Scattering value-creating processes around the
world can also lead to poor control, communication and coordination. Close proximity of R&D,
engineering, production and marketing personnel
may provide synergistic benefits in meeting
customer needs.
For example, to increase its worldwide tire production capacity to compete with Michelin,
Japans Bridgestone acquired Firestone Tire &
Rubber in the U.S. Muddled strategies, slow
decision-making and poor communication
between Tokyo and Akron, Ohio, led to major
losses, layoffs and a sell-off of assets.
The North American Free Trade Agreement
among Canada, Mexico and the U.S. has introduced new relationships affecting value-chain
analysis for suppliers and buyers alike. These
relationships require careful scrutiny. For example,
lower labor costs in Mexico have motivated
companies to locate their assembly and manufacturing processes there. However, some firms
have experienced costly productivity and quality
problems that more than offset their labor savings.
Each firm must balance the benefits/cost of a
multi-location decision.

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

To properly evaluate the opportunities for competitive advantage in the global marketplace,
firms need to consider such things as a countrys
values, political climate, environmental concerns,
trade relations, tax laws, inflation rates and
currency fluctuations. The recent devaluation of
the Mexican peso is an example of the risks of
moving operations to uncertain economies.

Bargaining power of buyers

The degree of buyer power generally depends on:

V I I . S T R AT E G I C F R A M E W O R K S
F O R VA L U E C H A I N A N A LY S I S

Value chain analysis requires a strategic framework

or focus for organizing internal and external information, for analyzing information, and for summarizing findings and recommendations. Because value
chain analysis is still evolving, no uniform practices
have yet been established. However, borrowing
recent concepts from strategists and organization
experts, three useful strategic frameworks for value
chain analysis are:

industry structure analysis;

core competencies; and
segmentation analysis.

Industry Structure Analysis

Michael Porter (1980, 1985) developed the five
forces model as a way to organize information
about an industry structure to evaluate its
potential attractiveness.
Under this model, the profitability of an industry
or market measured by the long-term return on
investment of the average firm depends largely
on five factors that influence profitability.
These are:

bargaining power of buyers;

bargaining power of suppliers;
threat of substitute products or services;
threat of new entrants; and
intensity of competition.

customer concentration (the higher the

concentration of customers, the greater their
negotiating leverage);
the propensity for customers to integrate backward (the higher the propensity for backward
integration, the greater the bargaining leverage);
costs of switching suppliers (the lower the
switching costs, the greater the buyers leverage); and
the number of alternative suppliers (the greater
the number, the greater the customers leverage).

Bargaining power of suppliers

Just as powerful buyers can squeeze profits by
putting downward pressure on prices, suppliers
squeeze profits by increasing input costs. The
same factors that determine the power of buyers
also determine the power of suppliers. The bargaining power of suppliers and buyers relative to
the firm depends on the relationships between
their value chains. Bargaining power will be a
function of relative strengths, in particular, value
activities that depend on one another.
Identifying the specific activities involved and the
nature of their strengths and relationships can
give important insights into the power balance
between buyer and seller, and how it may be
altered for the firms benefit.
Threat of substitute products or services
The potential for profit in an industry is determined by the maximum price that customers
are willing to pay. This depends primarily on the
availability of substitutes. When few substitutes
exist for a producte.g., gasolineconsumers
are willing to pay a potentially high price. If close
substitutes for a product exist, then there is a
limit to what price customers are willing to pay.

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Any price increase will then cause some customers

to switch to substitutes. A thorough understanding of the value chains of buyers as they relate
to the firms product can help in assessing (and
combating) the threat of substitution.
Threat of new entrants
If an industry is earning a return on invested
capital above the cost of capital, that industry
will act as a magnet to firms outside the industry.
Unless the entry of new firms is barred, the rate
of profit must fall to the competitive level. Even
the mere threat of entry may be sufficient to
ensure that established firms constrain their
prices to the competitive level.
Intensity of competition
Markets experiencing rapid growth typically see
less intense competition. Rival companies can usually satisfy profitability and growth without having
to take market shares from their competitors.
The variety and nature of the value chains of
competitors shape many of the characteristics
of an industry. The relative importance of
economies of scale versus economies of scope,
for example, depends on the kind(s) of technology
employed in competitors value chains. The
stability of the industry and of its competitive
situation also relates to what happens to the
value chains of firms in the industry. The effectiveness of low cost versus differentiation strategies
depends on the nature of users value chains,
and on how competitors value chains interact
with those of both sellers and users.
Since these five forces are ever-changing,
Porters framework needs to be employed as
a dynamic analytical tool. This is because
competition is a dynamic process: equilibrium is
never reached and industry structures are
constantly being reformed.

A major difficulty in industry structure analysis

lies in defining the specific industry. No industry
has clear boundaries either in terms of products
or geographical areas. For example, does one
analyze the industry environment of Ford as the
transportation equipment industry, the motor
vehicles and equipment industry or the
automobile industry?
To overcome the difficulty of defining an industry,
the concept of substitutability can be applied to
a firms supply and demand chains. On the
demand side, if buyers are willing to substitute
one product for anothere.g., Toyotas for Fords
then the manufacturers belong in a single
industry. However, this guideline does not always
hold. For example, customers may be unwilling
to substitute Apple Macintosh computers for
Compaq computers, even though both manufacturers belong to the same industry. On the
supply side, if two manufacturers can make
each others products, then they belong to a
single industry.
Porters model sometimes draws criticism for
neglecting the difficulty of obtaining and maintaining the information required to perform an
industry structure analysis. While such an
exercise may be time-consuming, it is essential
to obtain a detailed database in order to fully
understand an organizations competitive
environment. Dismissing the task as too difficult
is tempting, and may lead to inappropriate
decision-making.
Core Competencies Analysis
Industry structure analysis is well suited to
describing the what of competitiveness, i.e., what
makes one firm or one industry more profitable
than another. But understanding the particulars
of such advantages as low cost, quality, customer
service and time to market may still leave the

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

question of why largely unanswered. For example,

why do some companies seem able to continually
create new forms of competitive advantage while
others seem able only to observe and follow?
Why are some firms net advantage creators and
others net advantage imitators? For assessing
competitive advantage it is necessary not only to
keep score of existing advantageswhat they
are and who has thembut also to discover
what it is that drives the process of advantage
creation. Industry structure analysis is much better
suited to the first task than to the second.
Thus, industry structure analysis must be
supplemented by an equally explicit core competence focus. Organizations need to be viewed
not only as a portfolio of products or services,
but also as a portfolio of core competencies.
Core competencies are created by superior
integration of technological, physical and human
resources. They represent distinctive skills as
well as intangible, invisible, intellectual assets
and cultural capabilities. Cultural capabilities
refer to the ability to manage change, the ability
to learn and teamworking. Organizations should
be viewed as a bundle of a few core competencies, each supported by several individual skills.
Core competencies are the connective tissue
that holds together a portfolio of seemingly
diverse businesses. They are the lingua franca that
allows managers to translate insights and experience from one business setting into another.
Core competence-based diversification reduces
risk and investment and increases the opportunities for transferring learning and best practice
across business units.
For instance, the New York Times stated that
Microsofts only factory asset is the human imagination. This company has excelled in inventing

new ways of using information technology for a wide

variety of end users. In contrast, using its core competence in information processing, Xerox developed icons, pull-down menus and the computer
mouse, but failed to exploit the marketplace.
A core competence is identified by the following
tests:

Can it be leveraged?does it provide potential

access to a wide variety of markets?
Does it enhance customer value?does it make
a significant contribution to the perceived
customer benefits of the end product?
Can it be imitated?does it reduce the threat
of imitation by competitors?

Applying the value chain approach to core competencies for competitive advantage includes
the following steps:

validate core competencies in current

businesses;
export or leverage core competencies to the
value chains of other existing businesses;
use core competencies to reconfigure the
value chains of existing businesses; and
use core competencies to create new value chains.

Validate core competencies in current

businesses.
Core competencies should tie together the portfolio
of end products and help a firm excel in dominating its industry. For example, Corning Glasss core
competence is its ability to melt specialty glass.
Pyrex, television bulbs, headlamps and optical
wave guides are just a few of the products of this
successful producer. Procter & Gambles R&D
expertise and marketing/distribution skills provide a significant competitive advantage in a wide
range of mass consumer products (e.g., Ivory,
Tide, Folgers, Crisco, Pampers).

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Core competencies need to be continually

validated. In the early 1970s, Timex held half
of the global market for watches with its core
competence in low-cost management of precision
manufacturing. By the mid-1970s, the watch
industry moved to digital technology, making
Timexs core competence irrelevant.
Export or leverage competencies to the
value chains of other existing businesses.
The same set of core competencies can be
exploited in multiple businesses by exporting
core competencies to the value chains of other
existing businesses.
For example, one of Hondas core competencies
is designing and producing small engines. By
exporting this core competence to a wide variety
of business lines, the company seeks to have six
Hondas in every garage: autos, motorcycles,
snowmobiles, lawnmowers, snow blowers, chain
saws and power tools. Other Honda core competencies are dealership management and shorter
product development cycles.
Marriott Corp. has core competencies in food
service and hospitality skills, standardized hotel
operating procedures, and a shared procurement

and distribution system. Besides employing

these core competencies in hotels, the company
uses them in its other businesses, including
institutional food service, consumer food and
restaurants, cruise ships and theme parks.
AT&T extended its core competence as an
efficient processor of customer accounts by
entering the credit card business. Kimberly Clarks
entry into disposable diapers extended its core
competence in the design of paper products.
Use core competencies to reconfigure the
value chains of existing businesses.
While firms may manage their existing value
chains better than their competitors, sophisticated
firms work harder on using their core competencies to reconfigure the value chain to improve
payoffs. Otherwise, competitors may exploit
opportunities.
For example, Japanese watchmakers sidestepped traditional distribution channels in favor
of mass merchandisers such as department
store chains. By efficiently consolidating freight,
Emery Freight dominated the air freight industry
and was consistently a leader in profitability in
U.S. industry. Federal Express reconfigured the

EXHIBIT
8: HOW
TETRA-PAK
RECONFIGURED
THEVALUE
VALUCHAIN
E C HAIN
EXHIBIT
8. HOW
TETRA-PAK
RECONFIGURED THE

FILLING

RETAIL
DISPLAY

TRANSPORT

CUSTOMERS

Make container
on site

No refrigerated
trucks

Low store handling

Longer shelf life

Tetra-Pak specialized
equipment

No wasted space
in filling & packing

No need to
refrigerate & less
space is required

No need to
refrigerate & less
space is required

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air freight business by focusing on the overnight

delivery of small packages.
Tetra-Pak is an excellent example of a firm that
reconfigured the value chain in the packaging
industry for dairy products and orange juice.
Tetra-Pak designed a filling machine for its a
septic packages and changed the packaging
industry. Exhibit 8 illustrates Tetra-Paks changes
to the value chain.
Another example of a value chain reconfiguration
is IKEA, which grew from a small, Swedish mailorder furniture operation to one of the worlds
largest retailers of home furnishings (Normann &
Ramirez, 1993). As illustrated in Exhibit 9, IKEA
selected numerous factors to offer prices that are
25-50 per cent lower than those of competitors.

Use core competencies to create new

value chains.
With strong core competencies in its existing
businesses, an organization can seek new
customers by developing new value chains.
For example, Federal Express (FedEx) transferred
its expertise in the delivery of small packages to
contract new business with L.L. Bean for
overnight distribution. Disney has exported its
people-moving skills to urban mass transit for
Oakland, California.
The development of the corporate purchasing
card is exporting the expertise of credit card
companies, such as American Express and Visa,
to process small purchase transactions for other
companies.

E X H IB I T 9 : H OW I K E A R E C O N F I G U R E D T H E F U R NI T U R E I N DU S T RY
EXHIBIT 9. HOW IKEA RECONFIGURED THE FURNITURE INDUSTRY

Value Chain

Major Choice

Design

Simple, high quality, designed to lower cost

Parts

Standard & common, global supplier network

Assembly

By the customer

Transport/stocking

Computerized system for suppliers & warehouses

Marketing

Scandinavian image

Display

Focus on designs, not pieces, to create value

Home delivery

By the customer

andRamirez,
Ramirez,1993.
1993.
Source:Normann
Normannand
Source:

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

In a recent agreement, Roadway Logistics

Systems, a unit of Roadway Services Inc., will
manage and track all inbound and outbound
shipments for Dell Computer Corp., including
operations in Europe and Asia. The logistics
company will also handle transportation for
service and repair needs.
Segmentation Analysis
Industries are sometimes collections of different
market segments. Vertically integrated industries
are good examples of a string of natural businesses from the source of raw material to the end use
by the final consumer. Several firms in the paper
and steel industries are vertically integrated. Not all
firms in an industry participate in all segments.
If the nature and intensity of Porters five forces
or the core competencies vary for various
segments of an industry, then the structural characteristics of different industry segments need to be
examined. This analysis will reveal the competitive
advantages or disadvantages of different segments.
A firm may use this information to decide to exit the
segment, to enter a segment, reconfigure one or
more segments, or embark on cost reduction/
differentiation programs.
Differences in structure and competition among
segments may also mean differences in key
success factors among segments.
Using the value chain approach for segmentation
analysis, Grant (1991) recommends five steps:

identify segmentation variables and categories;

construct a segmentation matrix;
analyze segment attractiveness;
identify key success factors for each segment;
and
analyze attractiveness of broad versus narrow
segment scope.

Identify segmentation variables

and categories.
There may be literally millions of ways to divide up
the market into segments. Typically, an analysis
considers between 5 to 10 segmentation variables.
These variables are evaluated on the basis of their
ability to identify segments for which different competitive strategies are (or should be) pursued.
The selection of the most useful segment-defining
variables is rarely obvious. Industries may be
subdivided by product lines, type of customer,
channels of distribution and region/geography.
The most common segmentation variables
considered are type of customer and product
related, as illustrated in Exhibit 10.
The first set of variables describes segments in
terms of general characteristics unrelated to the
product involved. Thus, a bakery might be concerned with geographic segments, focusing on
one or more regions or even neighborhoods. It
might also divide its market into organizational
types such as at-home customers, restaurants,
dining operations in schools, hospitals and so
on. Demographics can define segments representing strategic opportunities such as single
parents, professional women and elderly people.
The second category of segment variables
includes those that are related to the product.
One of the most frequently employed is usage. A
bakery may employ a very different strategy in
serving restaurants that are heavy users of
bakery products than restaurants that use fewer
bakery products. Zenith made a niche for itself
in the very competitive personal computer
industry by focusing on government, which is
the largest computer user.
Segmenting by competitor is useful because it
frequently leads to a well-defined strategy and a

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

EXHIBI T 10: APPRO ACHES TO DEFINING

SEGMENTAT ION VARIABLE S
EXHIBIT 10. APPROACHES TO DEFINING SEGMENTATION VARIABLES

Customer Characteristics
Geographic
Type of organization
Size of firm
Lifestyle
Sex
Age
Occupation

Small communities as markets for discount stores

Computer needs of restaurants versus manufacturing
firms versus banks versus retailers
Large hospital versus medium versus small
Jaguar buyers tend to be more adventurous, less
conservative than buyers of Mercedes-Benz and BMW
The Virginia Slims cigarettes for women
Cereals for children versus adults
The paper copier needs of lawyers versus bankers
versus dentists

Product-related Approaches
User type
Usage
Benefits sought
Price sensitivity
Competitor
Application
Brand loyalty

Appliance buyer - home builder, remodeler, homeowner

The heavy potato user - the fast-food outlets
Dessert eaters - those who are calorie-conscious versus
those who are more concerned with convenience
Price-sensitive Honda Civic buyer versus the luxury
Mercedes-Benz buyer
Those computer users now committed to IBM
Professional users of chain saws versus the homeowner
Those committed to IBM versus others

segments, a segmentation matrix can be

strong positioning statement. Thus, a target
Source:
customer group for the Toyota Cressida consists developed. Two or more dimensions may be
of buyers of high-performance European cars used to partition an industry.
such as the BMW. The Cressida is positioned
against the BMW as offering comparable perfor- For example, restaurants could be divided into
four dimensions: type of cuisine, price range,
mance for a substantially lower cost.
type of service (e.g., sit-down, buffet, cafeteria,
take-out, fast food) and location.
Construct a segmentation matrix.
After customer- and product-related variables
have been selected for identifying different

24

PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

E X H IB I T 1 1 : S E G M E N T I N G TH E B RI T I S H F RO Z E N F O O D I N D US T RY
EXHIBIT 11. SEGMENTING THE BRITISH FROZEN FOOD INDUSTRY
DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS
Supermarkets
Producers
Brands

P
R
O
D
U
C
T
T
Y
P
E
S

Retailers
Brands

Independent
Grocery
Retailers

Specialist
Freezer
Stores

Caterers

Vegetables
Fruits
Meat
Products
Desserts
Convenience
Ready Meals

Note: The above matrix identifies five categories of frozen food, and five distribution channels. While the basic
distinction of customers is between retail and catering, within retailing there are three distinct categories of outlet:
supermarkets, independent grocery stores, and specialist retailers of frozen food (home freezer centres). In
addition, different market conditions exist for processors supplying frozen foods for sale under their own brand
names as opposed to those supplying frozen foods for sale under the brand name of the retailer.
Source: Monopolies and Mergers Commission, Frozen Foods (HMSO, London 1976); and P. Geroski and T. Vlassopoulos,
The rise and fall of a market leader; Frozen foods in the UK, London Business School, Case series 9, 1989.
Source: Monopolies and Mergers Commission, Frozen Foods (HMSO, London 1976); and
P. Geroski and T. Vlassopoulos, The rise and fall of a market leader; Frozen foods in the UK,
A segmentation matrix for London
the British
beseries
used9,to
evaluate the profitability of different
Businessfrozen
School, Case
1989.

foods industry is presented in Exhibit 11. Five

types of product and five channels of distribution
are used to construct the two-dimensional segmentation matrix consisting of 25 potential
segments. However, not every cell in the matrix
may be relevant. Empty cells may represent
future opportunities for products or services.
Analyze segment attractiveness.
Competitive assessments using industry structure
analysis or core competencies analysis can also

segments. However, the competitive focus shifts

to an analysis of the different segments.
For example, in the frozen foods industry segmentation, independent grocers and caterers
may be willing to substitute fresh fruits and
vegetables for frozen goods. Therefore, the
threat of substitutes within the segments and
from outside sources must be carefully examined.

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

In addition, the interrelationship among segments

must be carefully considered. For example, caterers
may purchase frozen food items from supermarkets at bargain prices. Segments may be natural
buyers, sellers or substitutes for one another.
In the automobile industry, the luxury car and
sports car segments were high-priced, high-margin
products with less intense competition than
other automobile segments. The introduction of
high-quality, lower-priced Acura, Lexus and Infiniti
autos changed the competitive structure of
these high-priced segments.
Identify key success factors for each
segment.
Quality, delivery, customer satisfaction, market
share, profitability and return on investment are
common measures of corporate success. In this
regard, each segment must be assessed using
the most appropriate key success factors. Cost
and differentiation advantages should be highlighted by these measures.
Examination of differences among segments in
buyers purchase criteria can reveal clear differences in key success factors.
Analyze attractiveness of broad versus
narrow segment scope.
A wide choice of segments for an industry
requires careful matching of a firms resources
with the market. The competitive advantage of
each segment may be identified in terms of low
cost and/or differentiation.
Sharing costs across different market segments
may provide a competitive advantage. For example,
Gillette broadened its shaving systems to
include electric shavers through its 1970 acquisition of Braun. Lipton recently entered the
bottled iced-tea market.

On the other hand, when the Toro Company

broadened its distribution channels for its snow
blowers and lawnmowers to include discount
chains, it almost went bankrupt. Feeling
betrayed, a number of Toros dealers dropped
its products.
Taking a narrow segment focus may leave a firm
vulnerable to competitors. For instance, by relying
solely on its lemon-lime soft drink, 7-Up left itself
at a competitive disadvantage to Coca-Cola and
Pepsi. Recently, Hallmark Cards Co. has begun
to market its premium image greeting cards
through discounters. Hurt by discounters, some
of Hallmarks 9,000 independent specialty
shops have begun selling cards from Hallmarks
competitors.
In many industries, aggressive firms are moving
toward multiple-segment strategies. Campbell
Soup, for example, makes its nacho cheese
soup spicier for Texas and California customers
and offers a Creole soup for Southern markets
and a red-bean soup for Hispanic areas. In New
York, Campbell uses promotions linking
Swanson frozen dinners with the New York
Giants football team; in the Sierra mountains,
skiers are treated to hot soup samples.
Developing multiple strategies is costly and
often must be justified by an enhanced
aggregate impact.
Some firms decide to avoid or abandon segments
because of limited resources or because of uncertain attractiveness. For example, in the 1960s,
IBM decided not to enter the mini-computer
segment. This allowed upstart Digital Equipment
Corp. to dominate this segment of the computer
industry. General Electric abandoned the computer
industry completely. Under CEO Jack Welch, GEs
major segments must be first or second in market
share, or risk being sold.

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

A segment justifying a unique strategy must be

of worthwhile size to support a business strategy.
Furthermore, that business strategy needs to be
effective with respect to the target segment in
order to be cost effective. In general, it is costly
to develop a strategy for a segment. The question
usually is whether or not the effectiveness of the
strategy will compensate for this added cost.

V I I I . L I M I TAT I O N S O F VA L U E
C H A I N A N A LY S I S
Value chain analysis is neither an exact science
nor is it easy. It is more art than preparing
precise accounting reports. There are several
limitations to the implementation and interpretation of value chain analysis. First, the internal
data on costs, revenues and assets used for
value chain analysis are derived from one periods
financial information. For long-term strategic
decision-making, changes in cost structures,
market prices and capital investments from one
period to the next may alter the implications of
value chain analysis. Organizations should
ensure that the value chain analysis is valid for
future periods. Otherwise, the value chain analysis must be repeated under new conditions.

or services with no external or competitive market

information, transfer prices must be estimated
on the basis of the best information available.
Isolating cost drivers for each value-creating
activity, identifying value chain linkages across
activities, and computing supplier and customer
profit margins present serious challenges. The
use of full cost assumes that the full capacity of
the value chain activitys facilities is used to
derive the costs. Plant and manufacturing
personnel and vendors of equipment are good
sources for capacity information. They can also be
helpful in estimating the current or replacement
cost of the assets. Independent companies,
such as Valuation Research Corp. in Milwaukee,
provide valuation services for assets.
Despite the calculational difficulties, experience
indicates that performing value chain analysis
can yield firms invaluable information on their
competitive situation, cost structure, and linkages with suppliers and customers.

I X . O R G A N I Z AT I O N A L A N D
MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING
CHALLENGES

Identifying stages in an industrys value chain is

limited by the ability to locate at least one firm
that participates in a specific stage. Breaking a
value stage into two or more stages when an
outside firm does not compete in these stages
is strictly judgmental.

Value chain analysis offers an excellent opportunity

to integrate strategic planning with management
accounting to guide the firm to growth and survival.
This change in focus for management accounting
is necessary to maintain its critical role as the
information profession.

As discussed previously, finding the costs,

revenues and assets for each value chain activity
sometimes presents serious difficulties. There is
much experimentation underway that may provide
better approaches. Having at least one firm operate
in each value chain activity helps identify external
prices for goods and services transferred
between value chains. For intermediate products

The most significant challenge for senior management and management accountants is to
recognize that the traditional, functional, internally
oriented information system is inadequate for
the firm engaged in global competition.
Another challenge for management accountants
is to bring the importance of customer value to

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

the forefront of managements strategic thinking.

For many managers and firms, this requires a
great deal of education and awareness.
Management accountants should take the initiative to bring the value chain message to major
players in the firm. Seminars, articles, value
chain examples and company-specific applications are useful to illustrate the advantages of
value chain analysis.
Although value chain analysis requires expertise
in internal operations and information, it
demands a great deal of external information.
Management accountants must seek relevant
financial and non-financial information from
sources outside the organization.
Management accountants must integrate databases and potential sources of timely information
on competitive forces confronting the business.
This calls for innovation and creativity in
gathering and analyzing information for management decisions.
Designing internal and external information systems to assist managers in planning, monitoring
and improving value-creating processes is another
challenge facing management accountants.

management accountant should ensure that the

CEO is committed to value chain analysis and
the organizational changes necessary for its
successful implementation.
For many service companies, Porters value chain
model emphasizing manufacturing firms may
appear inappropriate. However, every organization
(banks, hospitals, airlines, professional firms)
has a variety of primary and support value-creating
activities to which value chain analysis applies.
For example, a publishing company might have
the following primary activities: information
acquisition, editorial, production, distribution,
sales and service. Support activities include new
product and business development, technology
assessment and development, human resource
management and firm infrastructure. If strategy
is seen as the pursuit of competitive advantage,
the link between the formulation of service
strategy and operational service delivery is vital.

X. CONCLUSION
As a unifying theme, value chain analysis presents
organizations with an overarching tool for improving
their strategic planning and resource allocation.
The goal is to provide management with sufficient
options to sustain its competitive advantage in an
ever-changing business environment.

Information technology is improving daily but

existing information systems are slow to change.
Management accountants should solicit support
from all senior managers for allocating
resources to develop and improve value chainoriented information systems.

Analyzing costs and differentiation through the

value chain is an essential component in the search
for competitive advantage. The data problems
are not insignificant and the answers will not
always be precise.

Value chain analysis requires the cooperation of

all managers involved in value chain processes,
including engineers, designers, production
managers, marketing managers and distribution
managers. Leadership from the CEO is vital to
successful cooperation of managers. The

Nevertheless, there will be considerable benefit

in the debate that results from the process and
in the enhanced quantitative awareness of the
external competitive arena and of the firms part
in it. As so often in strategic planning, the
process is often as valuable as the outcome.

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

A P P E N D I X : VA L U E C H A I N
A N A LY S I S V S . C O N V E N T I O N A L
MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
Information generated from the traditional management accounting systems, including cost
accounting, is generally unsuitable for value
chain analysis for a variety of reasons. Exhibit A-1
provides a comparison of value chain analysis
and traditional management accounting.
Generally, traditional management accounting
focuses on internal information. It often places
excessive emphasis on manufacturing costs. It
also assumes that cost reduction must be found
in the value-added process, i.e., selling price
less the cost of raw material.
Using a value added approach can be misleading,
since there are many other purchased inputs
such as engineering, maintenance, distribution
and service. The value-added process starts too
late because it ignores linkages with suppliers,
and stops too early because it ignores linkages
with customers.
The value chain approach encompasses external
and internal data, uses appropriate cost drivers
for all major value-creating processes, exploits
linkages throughout the value chain, and
provides continuous monitoring of a firms
strategic competitive advantage.

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

E X H I B I T A - 1: VA L U E C H A I N V S . C ON V E N T I O NA L
M AVS.
N AG
E ME N T AC C OMANAGEMENT
UNTING
EXHIBIT A-1. VALUE CHAIN
CONVENTIONAL
ACCOUNTING
Traditional Management
Accounting

Value Chain Analysis

in the Strategic Framework

Focus

Internal

External

Perspective

Value added

Entire set of linked activities from

suppliers to end-use customers

Cost Driver
Concept

Single cost driver

(cost is a function of volume)

Multiple cost drivers

Structural drivers (e.g., scale,
pe experience,
sco
technology
d complexity) an
Executional drivers (e.g., participative
management, total quality management
and plant layout)
A set of unique cost drivers for each
value activity

Application at the overall

firm level (cost-volumeprofit analysis)

Cost
Containment
Philosophy

Across the board cost

reductions

View cost containment as a function of

the cost drivers regulating each value
activity
Exploit linkages with suppliers
Exploit linkages with customers
Exploit process linkages within the firm
Spend to save

Insights for
Strategic
Decisions

Somewhat limited

Identify cost drivers at the individual

activity level, and develop cost/
differentiation advantage either by
controlling those drivers better than
competitors or by reconfiguring the value
chain (e.g., Federal Express in mail
delivery, and MCI in long distance
telephone)
For each value activity, ask strategic
questions pertaining to:
Make versus buy
Forward/backward integration
Quantify and assess supplier power and
buyer power, and exploit linkages with
suppliers and buyers

Adapted from: Shank and Govindarajan, 1993.

Adapted from: Shank and Govindarajan, 1993.

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PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

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