This study investigates the interface between financial and marketing management in South African businesses by investigating the financial and marketing-management processes. This process orientation highlighted important interactions between the two functions. A critical analysis of secondary resources produced a clear theoretical foundation on which the development of the proposed interface framework was based. The critical literature analysis indicates four steps in the financial management process, namely, financial analysis, financial decision-making, financial planning and financial control (independent variables) and five steps in the marketing management process, namely, understanding the marketplace as well as customer needs and wants, designing a customer-driven marketing strategy, constructing an integrated marketing programme, building profitable relationships and capturing value from customers in the form of profits and customer equity. These steps were used to derive a proposed theoretical framework that shows how the steps in the financial-management process relate to those in the marketing-management process. The framework also indicates the perceptions of managers on the interface between the two functions. The perceptions on the interface include aspects such as the level of communication between the two departments, the understanding of each other‟s function and the flow of information between the two departments. From this framework, the six hypotheses were formulated to test the proposed relationships. The focus of the study is on the interface between financial management and marketing management; therefore, the population of this study comprised of financial and marketing managers in South Africa. The primary data relating to the interface between financial management and marketing management was acquired by means of an on-line web-based survey. Descriptive statistics was used to present, analyse and interpret the results of the data analysis. Various inferential statistical techniques (T-tests and chi-squared tests) were employed to determine whether respondents‟ perceptions of the items in the measuring instrument differed as result of whether they were employed in the finance or marketing sections of the business. Correlations (Pearson Product Moment correlations) were calculated for the purpose of investigating the relationships between the financial and marketing management variables used in this study. Factor analysis showed that financial management consisted of four factors that corresponded with the steps in the process, and marketing management produced five factors that related to the steps in the marketing management process. Lastly, statistical tests (MANOVA) were conducted to determine whether the perceptions of respondents, with regard to the financial and marketing management variables, were influenced by selected demographic variables. The results of the empirical study indicated positive relationships between all the variables in the framework. The marketing management factors, namely, mix and profit, reported the lowest correlations compared to the financial management factors. It was also found that financial and marketing managers had different perceptions of the steps in the financial-management process but that they did not have different views of the steps in the marketing-management process. Furthermore, financial and marketing managers had different opinions about the long-term perspective of the business as well as conflicting views with regard to the flow of information from finance to marketing. Financial managers were of the opinion that marketing managers did not understand financial methods and procedures and were unable to specify their requirements to finance. The proposed framework could be seen as the start of marketing theory development on finance interaction as it showed that interface relationships could be further explored.
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