CUSTOMER-FOCUSED MANUFACTURING STRATEGY AND THE USE OF OPERATIONS-BASED NON-FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE-MEASURES - A RESEARCH NOTE

This note follows and extends Abernethy and Lillis (Accounting, Organi zations ann Society, 1995) by examining: (i) whether firms which maint ain a customer-focused manufacturing strategy also maintain an emphasi s on non-financial (operations-based) measures in their performance me asurement systems, and (ii) whether such an emphasis is associated wit h enhanced performance for those firms. Data are obtained via question naire survey of a random sample of manufacturing firms in Sydney, Aust ralia. Support is found for the hypothesized association between custo mer-focus strategy and the use of non-financial performance measures ( and hence for Abernethy and Lillis) but not for the link to organizati onal performance. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.