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The aim of this paper is to explore the managing of cost drivers using a business model (BM) design. Particularly, the paper explores the link between a BM and cost driver analysis adopting a service-dominant logic (SDL) perspective. The empirical domain addresses the dynamic and complex scenarios of electric cars, where many actors are involved, several marketing and technological aspects are still unclear and where the high cost of batteries delays the wide diffusion of electric vehicles. The paper explores how SDL could support the BM design and how the cost driver analysis and BM design are linked when the SDL perspective is adopted.

This paper analyses secondary data and findings collected by interviews performed with managers belonging to the automotive sector.

The results show that the BM design could be a solution to address cost problems and the cost driver analysis may play a role in formulating an economically sustainable BM. Splitting a product into a “package of services” can provide direction for research of an alternative BM design in an attempt to manage the impact of cost drivers and pursue economic sustainability.

This paper explores a topic that has not yet focused on cost management research, i.e. the link between BM and cost driver analysis adopting an SDL perspective.

Commercial vehicle accidents impose very significant costs on industry and society but for a variety of reasons the full costs are often poorly understood. Advocates that vehicle operators should undertake a full and systematic analysis of accident levels, causes and costs. Introduces the CCSM model of vehicle accident reduction. By undertaking analysis based on this approach, most vehicle operators should be able to identify measures to reduce accidents substantially. Typical measures include the implementation of vehicle accident monitoring systems, driver age and experience policies, reviews of vehicle speed policy, driver training schemes, more systematic driver recruitment and better vehicle specification.

Preface The functions of business divide into several areas and the general focus of this book is on one of the most important although least understood of these—DISTRIBUTION. The particular focus is on reviewing current practice in distribution costing and on attempting to push the frontiers back a little by suggesting some new approaches to overcome previously defined shortcomings.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the roles various drivers such as cost, strategy and risk play when business process outsourcing/information technology enabled services (BPO/ITES) firms in India outsource their information technology (IT) functions to third-party vendors. If all key drivers associated with IT outsourcing were understood, and such knowledge of those variables was incorporated into the reasons for outsourcing, there would be a greater probability of a successful outcome.

A “hybrid” (quantitative and qualitative) research methodology was used to gain insight into the IT-outsourcing paradigm by BPO/ITES firms in India. A structured questionnaire related to IT-outsourcing activities conducted from 1999 to 2010 was distributed to nine firms. The resulting data were then analyzed. In addition, two Indian BPO/ITES firms that had outsourced their IT to a third-party vendor to cut cost generously granted in-depth information into their IT-outsourcing paradigm and life cycle.

IT outsourcing is perhaps more complicated than other types of outsourcing. Focussing purely on cost is very risky. Practitioners need to take all three drivers – cost, strategy and risk into consideration. Any degradation of services or responsibilities due to IT outsourcing would mean a very unhappy client or even loss of business.

BPO/ITES firms in India tend to focus only on cost reduction from IT outsourcing without taking into consideration other equally important drivers such as strategy and risk. This paper counsels a holistic approach toward IT outsourcing for a successful outcome. In addition, an IT-outsourcing framework and guide is proposed for practitioners.

Activity‐based approaches, often referred to as activity‐based costing or activity‐based management, have recently gained attention as being useful tools for a better understanding of cost behaviour and cost control. Such approaches aim at providing accurate cost information in order to keep track of costs and to yield continuous improvement. Presents two case studies where activity‐based projects were run. The two firms studied represent two different objectives with the activity analysis, namely product costing and activity control. The characteristics of the activity information affect its usefulness, and in this article, activity information is subdivided into quantitative and qualitative information. Argues that it is important to have a clear objective with an activity‐based approach in order to gather the appropriate type of activity information and thereby exploit the potential improvement opportunities. Only quantitative activity information suffices for approaches aiming at costing, whereas approaches aiming at activity control require also qualitative activity information. The two case studies illustrate the significance of using the type of activity information that fits the purpose.

This paper aims to investigate whether firms strategically use retirement plans to retain employees with core competencies and whether offering these retirement plans provides competitive advantages that lead to greater profitability.

The data set consists of annual financial data reported to the US Department of Transportation by long haul truckload carriers. The paper uses linear regression analysis to test the hypotheses. Descriptive statistics, univariate comparisons and robustness tests are also reported.

The findings support the assertion that offering a retirement plan is positively related to the attraction and retention of skilled workers and that firms that offer retirement plans are more profitable.

Data limitations preclude proving a definitive causal relationship. With the increasing availability of rich and timely data sets at both the firm and employee levels, future research may enhance the understanding of the role that pensions play in both labor and firm productivity.

This study provides evidence that retirement plans may serve as a strategic tool in highly competitive industries characterized by high labor turnover. This study shows that by analyzing the degree of cost stickiness in income statement line-items, it is possible to bypass the need for more granular analyses to uncover meaningful economic relationships. Finally, this study contributes to the literature examining the implications of operating decisions for financial performance (a balanced scorecard perspective), and it shows that offering pension benefits is related to stronger financial performance.

The airline industry is structurally challenged by its very nature, because of high overhead and capital costs. This is further exacerbated by macro-predictability and micro-uncertainty, thereby making it difficult for airlines in South Africa to attain operational efficiency. The purpose of this study is to identify drivers of operational efficiency and their impacts on airline performances in South Africa.

An extensive data collection using primary and secondary sources enabled the researchers to gather data on all the airlines operating in South Africa, for the period of 2012-2016, on a variety of parameters. A two-stage empirical analysis was carried out, which involved estimation of operational efficiencies during the first stage by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and determination of performance drivers during the second stage by using a two-way random-effects generalised least squares regression and also a Tobit model.

From the study, it is clear that two structural drivers, namely, “aircraft size” and “seat load factor”, and two executional drivers, namely, “low cost business model” and “revenue hours per aircraft”, significantly impacted (p < 0.05) positively on airline efficiencies in South Africa. To improve efficiency, management should first concentrate on the drivers that can be changed in the short-term (executional drivers) and later focus on the drivers that require long-term planning (structural drivers). However, among the structural drivers, only “aircraft families” had a negative impact on airline efficiencies, whilst among executional drivers, only “block hours” negatively impacted on airline efficiencies.

Despite the importance of this study, it is not free of limitations. Firstly, because of the small size of the industry, fewer airlines and lack of detailed data, the study could not consider other important factors such as optimal routing and network structure. Secondly, although non-aeronautical revenues have become increasingly important in airline management, they were not included in this study. Further studies may investigate the impact of these factors on airline efficiency.

The results have potential policy implications. Firstly, as the domestic airline market in South Africa is too small to operate with a smaller aircraft efficiently, airlines that intend to make use of smaller aircraft should first identify niche markets where they can have a route monopoly, such as SA Airlink. Secondly, as block time negatively affected airline efficiency, airlines can undertake schedule adjustments to reduce block time and thus improve technical efficiency.

This paper is a first attempt to identify drivers of operational efficiency in the airline industry in South Africa. The results indicate that DEA is a useful tool to identify factors impacting airline efficiency and could improve airline performances in South Africa.

While management-accounting research continues to focus on cost drivers, research has recently begun to examine revenue drivers. We review the research on revenue drivers with reference to five revenue-driver models in the accounting literature. The revenue drivers identified by quantitative empirical research are located in a revenue-driver model based on their levels of analysis (customer, product, organization, industry) and other characteristics of a revenue driver–revenue relation. Implications of this model for research are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the utility costs in Swiss office buildings. Owing to their high amount, as well as from an ecological perspective, the utility costs of a building are a relevant aspect of facility management. Against this backdrop the provision of utilities and waste disposal of buildings must be optimized. Benchmarking is an important instrument in this effort. On the one hand, it requires indictors and on the other, it requires knowledge of how they can be influenced (relevant cost drivers).

A study of the specialist literature revealed, from a theoretical perspective, the relevant drivers of utility costs. Using regression analyses, these drivers are examined on the basis of a set of primary data collected within Switzerland (105 owner‐operated office buildings). In addition, this data set also provided indicators for utility costs.

For the properties surveyed, a utility cost median of CHF 39/m² usable floor area and year was ascertained (with a lower and upper quartile of CHF 32 and CHF 47/m² usable floor area and year, respectively). Furthermore, it should be noted that in principle it is the building characteristics (extent and standard of technical installations) that determine the utility costs, while aspects of usage (e.g. share of residential and recreational area) are of secondary importance.

The majority of the projects studied are office buildings of banks and insurance companies. For this reason, it can be assumed that these properties have a comparatively high standard. Whether the interrelations found also apply to office buildings with other standards must be clarified by additional studies.

This study identifies cost indicators for utilities and waste disposal of Swiss office buildings.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of different drivers for assigning activity costs to products in warehouse logistics environment.

An action research case study in the warehouse logistics of an electronics wholesaler. Data were collected from a single activity which was analysed in depth.

The study illustrates that there may be significant variation in activity costs that cannot be traced with any single transaction‐based driver. Automatic data collection methods can be used to support cost accounting in such a situation. It was clearly demonstrated that in certain environments it is possible to significantly increase the accuracy and versatility of accounting by measuring the actual durations together with other variables.

The results are derived from a single company and activity.

Gives accountants in environments where data is rich and plentiful examples of methods for analysing the data for obtaining a deeper understanding of the cost behaviour of activities and products.

Complements the discussion on activity cost drivers and logistics costing.