Target Costing Practices: A Review of Literature (original) (raw)

Target Costing Evolution: A Review of the Literature from IFAC’s (1998) Perspective Model

Asian Social Science, 2014

During the last two decades, with increasing competition in highly changing business environment, literature has cautioned against the efficiency and capability of traditional management accounting techniques in providing sufficient information needed for decision making. In coping with continuing changes in business environment and increasing pressure of competition, cost and management accounting techniques have been changed and new techniques have been developed, especially in the last two decades. This is to enable organizations to stay competitive by producing better quality products at lower costs. As Target Costing (TC) has been innovatively adopted to achieve this objective by Japanese companies in the 1960s, this paper attempts to show the historical development of TC. Premised on the review of forty (42) refereed journal articles published in various accounting journals during the periods of 1984 to 2013, this paper shows how, over times, the TC practices have undergone a three-phase evolution from cost reduction and control to cost and profit management and to quality and functionality improvement. Specifically, the paper examines the evolutionary facet of TC by using the 1998 IFAC-based management accounting evolution framework.

Target costing: Adoption and its relationships with the competition intensity, intended strategy and firm size

Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Journal, 2019

The paper aims to examine the level of the adoption of the target costing (TC) system by Saudi manufacturing companies and its relationships with competition intensity, intended strategy and firm size. The paper used a questionnaire survey to measure the adoption of TC and the effect of competition intensity and intended strategy on this adoption. Descriptive statistic and regression analysis were preformed to analyse the data and obtain the results. This study found that Saudi manufacturing companies were interested to adopt the TC system. In addition, it found that the competition intensity positively affects TC adoption. Moreover, the study found that companies that used a differentiation strategy were more inclined to adopt the TC than those that used a cost leadership strategy. Finally, it found that large manufacturing companies tend to adopt TC more than small ones. This is among the pioneer studies to study the TC system in Saudi Arabia, introducing a new area of investigation. Moreover, the study contributes to managerial accounting research in developing economies by providing new insights into the underexplored Saudi Arabia market. The findings of this paper could elucidate the importance of adoption of TC as a technique with a potential to support the economic growth of the country.

A comparative study of the adoption and implementation of target costing in the UK, Australia and New Zealand

Most of the studies on target costing (TC) only provide insight into the adoption and perceived benefits of TC, and do not address the levels of implementation of the technique. These studies also assume that TC is only relevant to manufacturing firms and therefore do not investigate the adoption of this technique in service firms, and consequently exclude service firms from their surveys and analysis. Furthermore, most studies do not examine factors influencing the adoption of TC systems. Contributing to these gaps in the literature, this paper reports the results of a survey among CIMA-qualified management accountants working in manufacturing and service firms in the UK, Australia and New Zealand on the adoption and implementation of TC. The study examines the importance of attributes of TC (namely relative advantage, compatibility, ease of use, result demonstrability, trialability) for decision makers to adopt and implement such cost and management accounting innovation. The survey indicates that TC is equally prevalent among manufacturing and service firms while in terms of the levels of implementation there is a significant difference between manufacturing and service firms. The study shows that there is a growing interest in the examination of all cost-reducing strategies at the planning stage and adoption of value engineering to incorporate customer requirements rather than focusing on the adoption of cost-cutting strategies at the production stage.

Target costing in Turkish manufacturing enterprises

Rapid developments in technology, change in customer expectations, shortening product life cycles and especially increasing global competition force the companies to reach the targets of "low cost, short time and high quality" at the same time and the highest level possible. Therefore, companies utilize the modern management accounting techniques in achieving these goals. One of the most important among these methods is "Target Costing".

The Extent of Using the Target Costing Technique by Jordanian Industrial Shareholding Companies

European Journal of Business and Management, 2016

The current research aims at examining whether or not the Jordanian Industrial Public Corporations use the target costing technique. For this purpose the researchers distributed around 70 questionnaires, while just 52 questionnaires of them are examined. Each questionnaire encompasses 16 questions, whereas 8 of these questions are addressed to all companies; while the remaining questions are addressed to the companies those are used the target costing system. The results reveal that 35% of companies use the target costing system, whether partly 27% or totally 8% and 65% of companies don’t use this system. The study concludes that the major reasons behind not using the target costing system; are due to the lack of target costing knowledge and the management supporting is not enough in additional to the old habits in calculating value. The study recommends Jordanian companies to use the target costing, as it is deemed as an essential part of the management of total cost. Keywords: Tar...

Aspects of Obstacles for Applying Target Costing: A Survey of Manufacturing Firms in Egypt

2014

The present investigation aims to determine the aspects of obstacles for applying Target Costing(TC) system in Egyptian case and the significant differences among effects of these obstacles. The study used the survey method to describe and analyze the obstacles in some Egyptian firms. The population of the study is Egyptian manufacturing firms. Accordingly, the number of received questionnaires was 388 (21 Egyptian manufacturing firms) in 2013. Finally, the study found that there is a significant divergence among obstacles for applying Target Costing (TC) system in Egyptian manufacturing firms (Internal and external).The external dimensions are the most influence of internal dimensions, where the weakness of the competition is the highest effect in the external dimensions case but resistance top management is the highest effect in external dimensions case.

Target Costing: Adoption and its Relationships with Competition Intensity, Intended Strategy and Firm Size

Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Journal, 2019

The paper aims to examine the level of the adoption of the target costing (TC) system by Saudi manufacturing companies and its relationships with competition intensity, intended strategy and firm size. The paper used a questionnaire survey to measure the adoption of TC and the effect of competition intensity and intended strategy on this adoption. Descriptive statistic and regression analysis were preformed to analyse the data and obtain the results. This study found that Saudi manufacturing companies were interested to adopt the TC system. In addition, it found that the competition intensity positively affects TC adoption. Moreover, the study found that companies that used a differentiation strategy were more inclined to adopt the TC than those that used a cost leadership strategy. Finally, it found that large manufacturing companies tend to adopt TC more than small ones. This is among the pioneer studies to study the TC system in Saudi Arabia, introducing a new area of investigati...

The impact of target costing on the competitiveness and financial security of enterprises

Inżynieria Bezpieczeństwa Obiektów Antropogenicznych

The main goal of companies operating on the market is the desire to achieve success. The feelings and criteria for assessing the company's success are varied. For employees, success means a high level of remuneration, additional non-wage benefits, job security and a good atmosphere at the workplace. Management measures success with financial results, product quality, market share, customer satisfaction, innovation, production efficiency, manufacturing costs, and the company's image.In the literature on the subject, the basic measure of the company's success is achieving a competitive advantage, gaining a relatively large market share, which will ensure financial security allowing for further development.Financial security depends largely on the extent to which management knowledge is known and understood, what are the financial skills and behavior of the management staff, the use of which contributes to the effective management of the company's resources.In the curre...

The Role of Target Costing in Reducing Costs and Developing Products in the Jordanian Public Shareholding Industrial Companiesn

International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, 2016

This study aimed to identify the role of target costing in products cost reduction, as well as identify the role of target costing in products development in Jordanian shareholding industrial companies. The questionnaire has been prepared for this purpose and distributed to a sample of (60) Jordanian shareholding industrial companies who responded to this study, and (51) questionnaire was subjected to analysis. The results were analyzed data showed a number of results one of the most important, It leads the application of target costing system to reduce costs in the Jordanian industrial companies, as well as the study showed that the application of target costing system leads to the development of products in the Jordanian industrial companies is reflected through the many considerations taken into account. The study recommended that there is a need to activate the necessary elements for further costing reduction, and try to use elements currently available as an initial step for th...

COST MEASUREMENT AND COST MANAGEMENT IN TARGET COSTING

Firms are coping with a competitive scenario characterized by quick changes produced by internationalization, concentration, restructuring, technological innovation processes and financial market crisis. On the one hand market enlargement have increased the number and the segmentation of customers and have raised the number of competitors, on the other hand technological innovation has reduced product life cycle. So firms have to adjust their management models to this scenario, pursuing customer satisfaction and respecting cost constraints. In a context where price is a variable fixed by the market, firms have to switch from the cost measurement logic to the cost management one, adopting target costing methodology. The target costing process is a price driven, customer oriented profit planning and cost management system. It works, in a cross functional way, from the design stage throughout all the product life cycle and it involves the entire value chain. The process implementation ...