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The Contemporary Art of Cost Management Methods during Product Development

Advances in Management Accounting

ISBN: 978-1-78441-166-4

Publication date: 23 September 2014

Abstract

Purpose

To provide an overview of research published in the management accounting literature on methods for cost management in new product development, such as a target costing, life cycle costing, component commonality, and modular design.

Methodology/approach

The structured literature search covered papers about 15 different cost management methods published in 40 journals in the period 1990–2013.

Findings

The search yielded a sample of 113 different papers. Many contained information about more than one method, and this yielded 149 references to specific methods. The number of references varied strongly per cost management method and per journal. Target costing has received by far the most attention in the publications in our sample; modular design, component commonality, and life cycle costing were ranked second and joint third. Most references were published in Management Science; Management Accounting Research; and Accounting, Organizations and Society. The results were strongly influenced by Management Science and Decision Science, because cost management methods with an engineering background were published above average in these two journals (design for manufacturing, component commonality, modular design, and product platforms) while other topics were published below average in these two journals.

Research Limitations/Implications

The scope of this review is accounting research. Future work could review the research on cost management methods in new product development published outside accounting.

Originality/value

The paper centers on methods for cost management, which complements reviews that focused on theoretical constructs of management accounting information and its use.

Keywords

Citation

Wouters, M. and Morales, S. (2014), "The Contemporary Art of Cost Management Methods during Product Development", Advances in Management Accounting (Advances in Management Accounting, Vol. 24), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 259-346. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1474-787120140000024008

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited