Katerina Hellström

There are many references in literature to customer satisfaction and related non-financial measures driving the financial performance of a company. Here we report results of analysis in the North-European financial sector, mainly banking. Based on proposed financial and customer perceived KPIs operational measures are devised and measured for the studied corporation on different levels from global-corporate to individual branches. In addition, possible extensions to other industries of this relationship are studied and briefly reported. The analysis is based on panel approach where cross-section and time-series observations are studied for major actors. The Arellano-Bond estimation technique is used throughout. 

The paper investigates the value relevance of accounting information in the Czech Republic in 1994-2001. Value relevance is understood as the ability of financial statement information to capture or summarise information that affects share values and empirically tested as a statistical association between market values and accounting values. The objective of the study is to investigate the validity of the value relevance methodology by finding an accounting setting where the results of value relevance tests might be predicted unambiguously. If the results of these tests confirm the predicted results, the validity of the value relevance methodology might be assumed. A transition economy represented by the Czech Republic provides such an institutional and accounting setting. It might be assumed that value relevance of accounting information is lower in a transitional economy than in a well-developed market economy. It can also be assumed that the value relevance increases over time as a result of the progress in transition. The results of the study confirm these predicted results and give thus supportive evidence of the validity of the value relevance methodology.