COMPETITORS' ACCOUNTING AS AN INSTRUMENT OF MANAGEMENT STRATEGICAL INFORMING - CROATIAN EXPERIENCE

Competitors’ accounting, as a central part of the competition analysis, is a contemporary instrument of strategic accounting that, analyzing the collected quantitative data on the current operations of competitors and details of competitors concerning their near future endeavors, ensures high-quality basis for making strategic business decisions. The purpose of this paper is to determine the specifics of the type and intensity of the competitors accounting techniques used according to the size of businesses, the number of competitors in the market, the level of competitiveness of the market, the market position of the surveyed subjects as well as the type of competitive strategy they used.
This paper presents the results of research conducted by using the survey method. The conclusions were drawn using the statistical methods as well as method of induction. Number of competitors’ accounting techniques used differs depending on the size of businesses and their market position while the type of competitive strategy, degree of competitiveness of the market and the number of competitors in the market does not significantly affect the number of techniques used. Competitors accounting techniques are intensively used by large businesses and entities that are the market leaders, followers and challengers.