Strategic Management Accounting on Hospitality Group Company In F&B: Multiple Case Study

Studies Management and Finance Economics, of Journal 0504-2644 (online): ISSN 0490,-2644 (print): ISSN 5202 November 11 Issue 80 Volume 8.317 Factor: Impact ,16-i11-10.47191/jefms/v8 DOI: Article 8372 -7279 No: Page JEFMS, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijefm.co.in Page 7279 Strategic Management Accounting on Hospitality Group Company In F&B: Multiple Case Study I Gede Budiarta1, I Putu Sudana2, Ni Made Adi Erawati3, Ni Putu Sri Harta Mimba4 1,2,3,4Faculty of Economics and Business, Udayana University, Bali, Indonesia ABSTRACT: This research aims to analyze the application of Strategic Management Accounting in the success of a company with 13 business branches established in 2019, focusing on five methods of strategic costing and three competitor accounting methods: target costing, attribute costing, life cycle costing, cost of quality, value chain costing, ompetitor cost assessment, competitor position monitoring, and competitor performance appraisal. The study explores how these methods contribute to the company’s success and operational efficiency. Through in-depth interviews with the Chief Operating Officer, General Manager, and Venue Manager, this research finds that the implementation of strategic costing and competitor accounting not only enhances profitability and competitor operational analysis but also creates added value through service differentiation and customer experience. The success of strategic costing and competitor accounting implementation is supported by strong collaboration among top management, which adopts a flexible, data-driven decision-making approach based on Strategic Choice theory. Additionally, the use of a cloud-based ERP system (Quinos) has proven effective in monitoring and controlling costs in real-time, allowing the company to respond quickly to market changes. The results of this study indicate that the integration of strategic costing and competitor accounting witrh strategic decision making plays a crucial role in maintaining the company's competitiveness in this highly dynamic industry. This research is expected to contribute to the literature on Strategic Management Accounting and managerial practices in the hospitality sector, as well as provide recommendations for companies to enhance sustainability and financial independence. KEYWORD: Strategic Management Accounting, Strategic Costing, Competitor Accounting, Strategic Choice Theory, Decision Making. INTRODUCTION The food and beverage (F&B) sector within the hospitality industry plays a pivotal role in driving Bali’s economic growth. As Erawati et al. (2025) emphasise, hospitality activities influence not only tourism development but also local socio-cultural and environmental dynamics. Within this context, Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) has become increasingly relevant, providing a comprehensive framework for addressing the industry’s unique characteristics—high operational costs, global supply chain dependence, fluctuating demand, and the need for continuous innovation (Syahreza & Fernanda, 2023). Through tools such as competitor analysis, cost management, performance measurement, and strategic costing, SMA enables firms to enhance competitiveness and maintain long-term sustainability (Phornlaphatrachakorn & Na-kalasindhu, 2020). SMA integrates financial and non-financial information to support strategic decision-making by analysing business and competitive environments (Ditkaew, 2023). It is not merely a theoretical construct but a managerial approach that enhances strategic foresight and risk mitigation (Herda et al., 2022). Previous research indicates that SMA, when effectively implemented, contributes significantly to operational efficiency and market expansion (Ma et al., 2022; Sari, 2025). By evaluating multiple decision alternatives, SMA helps organisations predict consequences, optimise resources, and strengthen competitive advantage (Irwanty et al., 2022). Despite the sector’s rapid growth, F&B businesses in Bali face complex challenges—intense competition among homogeneous products, volatile raw material prices, shifting consumer preferences, and regulatory changes (Abdurrahman et al., 2024). Success therefore depends not only on delivering superior products and services but also on adopting data-driven strategic frameworks. A leading hospitality group in Bali has demonstrated exceptional growth, operating thirteen distinct venues across the island within five years. This success underscores the company’s consistent implementation of SMA, particularly through strategic Strategic Management Accounting on Hospitality Group Company In F&B: Multiple Case Study JEFMS, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijefm.co.in Page 7280 costing and competitor accounting, which inform financial control, cost efficiency, and strategic positioning (Amaanullah et al., 2025). Strategic costing supports performance evaluation, coordination, and motivation by integrating key techniques such as activitybased, life-cycle, target, and value chain costing (Campos et al., 2022; Cibu et al., 2021). Meanwhile, competitor accounting facilitates strategic assessment of rival performance and market structure. Under the strategic choice theory, top managers play a decisive role in shaping organisational strategies, where SMA serves as a critical bridge between environmental dynamics and decision-making effectiveness. Of particular interest in this study is the gender-responsive leadership context, as the hospitality group’s chief operating officer—a female leader—has successfully managed diverse venues, challenging traditional gender biases in managerial competence (Galizzi et al., 2021; Tommaso et al., 2019; Sormin et al., 2023). Grounded in these considerations, this study examines the implementation of Strategic Management Accounting—focusing on strategic costing and competitor accounting—within Bali’s hospitality F&B sector. Using a qualitative case study approach, the research seeks to explore how SMA practices contribute to managerial decision-making, operational performance, and sustainable competitiveness across multiple venues with differing operational contexts. METHODS This study employs a qualitative multiple–case study design to investigate the implementation of Strategic Management Accounting—specifically strategic costing and competitor accounting—within a leading hospitality F&B group in Bali during 2024– 2025. Aligned with case study logic (Yin, 2018), the approach privileges depth and contextual richness, with the researcher acting as the principal instrument and using data triangulation to enhance credibility. Primary data were collected through semistructured, in-depth interviews with key informants occupying strategic roles—Chief Operating Officer, General Managers, Accounting Managers, and Venue Managers—selected purposively for their direct involvement in financial decision-making and operational control. Secondary data comprised company documents, notably financial reports and related records, complemented by non-participant documentary observation. Data analysis followed a systematic, step-wise procedure: organising a case database; reducing and coding data into themes; pattern matching against theoretical propositions; iterative explanation building; and triangulating across interviews and documents before drawing conclusions and crafting the analytic narrative. QDA Miner Lite supported coding and theme development, preserving an auditable chain of evidence and reinforcing analytic transparency. The scope is confined to SMA practices that inform financial decision quality and competitive positioning across multiple venues, enabling analytic transferability to settings with comparable organisational and market conditions. RESULT AND DISCUSSION The study analysed thirteen venues across seven legal entities within a leading hospitality F&B group in Bali. Informants—Chief Operating Officer (COO), General Managers (GMs), Venue Managers (VMs), and Accounting Managers—operate under differentiated responsibilities shaped by venue concept, location, market positioning, and operational maturity. Venues span distinct formats: an avocado-led all-day café, a specialty coffee–pastry hub, a delivery-only salad/bowl kitchen, fire-based cuisine, a Mediterranean restaurant with rooftop bar, modern Greek dining, an eight-seat omakase counter, a multi-site burger and ginbar brand, and a hybrid salon–wine bar. This heterogeneity provides a robust context for cross-case patterning. Across cases, strategic costing is applied to balance cost efficiency with customer value, coordinated hierarchically yet integratively by COO–GM–VM triads. Common practices include target costing for menu pricing and margin planning, strict input-quality control, and service value-add (promotions and entertainment). Competitor accounting is simultaneously institutionalised through routine price surveys, supplier/brand tracking, and systematic review mining to infer rivals’ unit costs and service quality. Table 4.3 documents decision roles by venue, while Table 4.4 summarises the coded thematic structure used in analysis (e.g., Target Costing—Ingredients, Waste, Environment, Selling Price; Value Chain Costing—Strategic Direction, Cost Distribution, Feedback). Differences emerge in the emphasis placed on specific strategic-costing techniques. Target costing anchors margin discipline exante; attribute costing differentiates through concept, ingredient freshness, service design, and entertainment; life-cycle costing underpins six-monthly menu renewals and event programming; cost of quality prioritises prevention (training, product knowledge, soft skills) and quick recovery (complimentary remedies); and value-chain costing reallocates spend to high-value activities (menu innovation, guest experience) while outsourcing low-leverage logistics. In practice, GMs leverage vendor consolidation (e.g., volume discounts) and waste monetisation (e.g., by-product sales, partnerships for organic refuse), while VMs manage daily variance in input prices and quality, especially under seasonal supply constraints. Decision rights are distributed. Although the COO sets strategic guardrails and approves pricing, GMs and VMs act as situational decision makers for budgeting, supplier selection, waste control, and service recovery—consistent with informant testimony (“…there are daily decisions GM/VM must own…” P1-2). For life-cycle costing, the COO funds menu R&D and testing to ensure Strategic Management Accounting on Hospitality Group Company In F&B: Multiple Case Study JEFMS, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijefm.co.in Page 7281 pricing covers promotional uplift during new-menu launches and event cycles. For cost of quality, on-the-job supervision by GMs/VMs enables immediate correction and maintains speed standards for dine-in and delivery. Competitor accounting is operationalised in three streams. First, Competitor Cost Assessment triangulates rivals’ input quality (brands, suppliers), price points, and implied unit costs; managerial judgement stresses that superior ingredients alone do not guarantee perceived value without culinary capability. Secondly, Competitor Position Monitoring tracks rivals’ social-media cadence, booking-platform reviews, and viral trends; insights feed weekly management meetings and guide venue-specific offers (e.g., happy hour bundles, breakfast sets, chef collaborations). Thirdly, Competitor Performance Appraisal benchmarks rivals’ revenue potential using seat capacity and typical average spend (~IDR 190,000 per pax) against healthy cost structures (e.g., indicative caps for marketing, maintenance) to infer sustainable profitability bands of roughly 20–25% for efficient F&B operations. Digital infrastructure strengthens cost governance. An ERP/PoS–Back Office suite (Quinos) provides cloud-based cost tracking, flagging items with atypical cost percentages within the period. We conceptualise this role as Strategic Costing Back Office (SCBO): an analytic backbone integrating operational and financial data to support long-horizon decisions, resource efficiency, and value creation across the supply chain. Financially, mature venues consistently target a minimum profitability of 20% of net sales, supported by stable cost bases and cash-flow sufficiency. Part of branch profits is centrally retained to finance group-level expansion, signalling disciplined internal capital markets. By contrast, newly opened venues (2024–2025 cohorts) exhibit lower and more volatile profitability due to construction and remediation outlays and therefore require temporary investor injections; consequently, their contributions to group consolidation funds remain limited during ramp-up. Overall, the cross-case evidence indicates that sustained performance is underpinned by: (i) disciplined target costing linked to market-anchored pricing; (ii) selective investment in attributes that customers value (freshness, experience, design, entertainment); (iii) life-cycle refresh of offerings to avoid demand fatigue; (iv) prevention-oriented quality systems with rapid service recovery; (v) value-chain budgeting that concentrates spend on differentiating activities; (vi) competitor analytics embedded in weekly managerial routines; and (vii) SCBO-enabled, data-driven course correction. The synergy between these SMA practices and capable, distributed decision-making explains the group’s ability to scale diverse concepts while preserving margin discipline and competitive relevance. CONCLUSION The implementation of Strategic Management Accounting, particularly through the five complementary strategic costing techniques—target costing, attribute costing, life-cycle costing, cost of quality, and value-chain costing—has proven effective in supporting the success of hospitality food and beverage companies in Bali. Each method plays a distinct but interrelated role in enhancing profitability, cost efficiency, and customer value through differentiated service and experience. In line with Strategic Choice theory, strategic decision-making ultimately rests with top management. However, this study reveals that decision-making processes are collaborative rather than individual. The distributed leadership pattern shared among the Chief Operating Officer, General Managers, and Venue Managers promotes flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness to market dynamics. The company effectively leverages rapid technological development through the use of a cloud-based ERP system (Quinos), which transforms back-office operations from a purely administrative role into a strategic analytical centre. This enables faster, more accurate, and real-time cost control and decision-making. Strategic costing contributes significantly to business sustainability by converting waste into additional income and utilising local raw materials. In addition, effective profit management—through retained earnings and owner distributions—facilitates consistent business expansion, including the opening of new branches funded by operational results. Competitor accounting plays a crucial role in improving company performance and competitiveness. Through competitor cost assessment, the firm evaluates rival cost efficiency; competitor position monitoring helps identify market trends and competitor strategies; and competitor performance appraisal enables management to assess profitability and operational effectiveness. Together, these analytical approaches generate more informed, efficient, and competitiveness-oriented managerial decisions for long-term success. Managerial Implication This study provides both theoretical and practical implications for the advancement of Strategic Management Accounting in the hospitality industry. Theoretically, it expands existing literature by demonstrating that integrated strategic costing—comprising target costing, attribute costing, life-cycle costing, cost of quality, and value-chain costing—is not only relevant to manufacturing but also highly effective in service industries such as food and beverages. It further strengthens the theoretical understanding of competitor accounting as a foundation for internal strategic formulation through Competitor Cost Assessment, Competitor Strategic Management Accounting on Hospitality Group Company In F&B: Multiple Case Study JEFMS, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijefm.co.in Page 7282 Position Monitoring, and Competitor Performance Appraisal. The study also reinforces the Strategic Choice theory, showing that decision-making can be distributed among the Chief Operating Officer, General Managers, and Venue Managers, supported by the emerging concept of the Strategic Costing Back Office (SCBO) enabled by the ERP system (Quinos). Practically, the findings highlight the importance of adopting strategic costing and competitor accounting as best practices for improving profitability, cost efficiency, and competitiveness. 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