هزینه یابی مبتنی بر هدف و موقعیت نوآورانه اکتشافی: مقایسه ای بین fsQCA، رگراسیون چند متغیره و تجزیه و تحلیل دسته متغیر Target costing and innovation-exploratory configurations: A comparison of fsQCA, multivariate regression, and variable cluster analysis

1. Introduction Firms face increasing global economic competition, and reducing costs is not enough to sustain competitive advantages. Along with increasing pressure to hold costs down, customers require products that meet their needs in terms of quality, functionality, and price; whereas shareholders require profitability that reflects their risk. In this setting, strategic cost management tools play a paramount role in aligning cost management with strategy (Baker, 1995; Cooper & Slagmulder, 1999). In this paper, we investigate two related strands of literature that to the best of our knowledge have never been analyzed together: the determinants and perceived consequences of adopting different strategic cost management tools and their role in innovation. We focus primarily on the tools that managers perceive are associated with product and service innovation—target costing (TC). The literature shows that management accounting tools are associated with the increased flexibility necessary to respond to changes (e.g., Nixon & Burns, 2012). But, Chenhall and Moers (2015) argue that accounting systems move from simple planning and control tools to more complex innovation-oriented systems. However, the empirical evidence shows that many organizations still do not use strategic cost management (Nixon & Burns, 2012). Several papers identify a gap between the academic consensus on the definition and suitability of these tools and their business-cycle applications by managers (Juras, 2014; Nixon & Burns, 2012). Consequently, our research question focuses on the determinants of the adoption of TC and, in particular, any configurational differences that justify the aforementioned mixed results. We collect our data by surveying the 500 largest Portuguese firms in 2015. Our measurement scale is adapted from previous studies (Afonso, Nunes, Paisana, & Braga, 2008; Garg, Ghosh, Hudick, & Nowacki, 2003; Juras, 2014). The data reflects roughly a 20% answer rate. We use a multivariate regression analysis to analyze the determinants of adoption and then run a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze the perceived and intended consequences. Based on new products launched in the past three years, we find evidence for the importance of innovation (measured by new products launched in the past three year (Bisbe & Otley, 2004)), along with the economic group affiliation as fundamental reasons to pursue strategic cost management. The results also show that cost control and cost information are relevant perceived consequences, whereas a strategy’s definition seems to be perceived as less of a consequence even when taking into consideration innovation. The fsQCA shows both the asymmetric configuration of adopters and non-adopters and the strategic association between cost management tools and innovation-oriented framing (development costs focus vs production cost focus).