Recent research implies that the association between competition intensity and management accounting system (MAS) design varies with the type of competition involved, depending on the purpose of the MAS in focus. This study finds that competition intensity can be positively or negatively associated with customer accounting (CA) sophistication depending on the extent to which firms tailor their activities and offerings to meet individual customer needs (engage in a particular type of competition labelled ‘customer service competition’). When customer service competition is high we predict there will be a positive relationship between competition intensity and CA sophistication, whereas when customer service competition is low this relationship is negative. Drawing on archival data and survey responses collected from 209 firms, we obtained results that support this hypothesis. The study provides the first empirical evidence of a crossover interaction effect between competition intensity and competition type on MAS design. Moreover, the study extends earlier work on CA by developing and finding empirical evidence supporting a model which provides a more nuanced understanding that explains why certain firms implement sophisticated CA practices while others are content with simpler CA.

最近的研究表明，竞争强度与管理会计系统（MAS）设计之间的关联会随所涉及的竞争类型而变化，这取决于所关注的MAS的目的。这项研究发现竞争强度可以是正面的或负面的与客户会计（CA）的复杂程度相关联，具体取决于公司为满足个人客户需求而进行的活动和产品定制的程度（参与标记为“客户服务竞争”的特定类型的竞争）。当客户服务竞争较高时，我们预测竞争强度与CA复杂度之间将存在正相关关系，而当客户服务竞争较低时，这种关系为负相关关系。利用来自209家公司的档案数据和调查反馈，我们获得了支持这一假设的结果。该研究为MAS设计中竞争强度和竞争类型之间的交叉相互作用效应提供了第一批经验证据。此外，