ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the influences upon and the issues arising in the design of Marketing Accounting Systems (MAS). It reviews the influences and issues which relate to the design of marketing accounting systems. The chapter also reviews the evolution in the practices of MAS, utilising the surveys of the area published during the fifty years between 1932 and 1982. It attempts to consider these issues by drawing upon both empirical and theoretical works which place accounting systems within their organisational context and which explicitly consider diversity in accounting systems design. The chapter attempts to render explicit why diversity in practice may exist in the area of accounting for marketing. It examines both the evolution in the practice of accounting for marketing during the fifty years to 1983 and the major variables which influence the design of such accounting systems.