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Product Costs (product + cost)
Selected AbstractsFinancial factors in R&D budget setting: the impact of interfunctional market coordination, strategic alliances, and the nature of competitionACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 2 2004Alan S. Dunk Abstract Increasingly demanding markets, changes in technology and greater international competition have made the effective management of product R&D together with its associated costs essential. The magnitude of R&D costs are of concern to many companies, potentially inhibiting organizations from investing in new product development. Although rising costs of R&D and the growing dependence of companies on R&D for product leadership increase the need to plan and evaluate R&D activities more effectively, difficulties have been experienced in applying budgetary control systems to R&D. Despite such concerns, the published literature indicates that an emphasis on financial factors in setting the size of R&D budgets is becoming a competitive necessity. A review of the published literature suggests that interfunctional market coordination, the relative use of strategic alliances and the nature of competition in terms of product cost versus product innovation are potentially instrumental in influencing the degree of emphasis on financial factors in R&D budget setting. The results of the present study indicate that these three organizational and environmental variables result in an emphasis on financial factors in setting the size of R&D budgets. Implications drawn from the findings are discussed. [source] Avoiding Accounting Fixation: Determinants of Cognitive Adaptation to Differences in Accounting Method,CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 2 2005DAVID T. DEARMAN Abstract Much research over the last 30 years has provided evidence that individuals display accounting fixation; that is, their cognitive process does not appropriately adapt to cross-sectional or temporal differences in an accounting method. This paper presents the results of a quasi-experimental test of the hypothesis that cognitive adaptation to a change in accounting method is an ordinal interactive function of three person characteristics: relevant accounting knowledge, general problem-solving ability, and intrinsic motivation to appropriately engage in the decision task. Based on a product-pricing decision task in which participants are provided with product costs reported by two generally employed product-costing methods (activity-based costing [ABC] and volume-based costing), the results show that the majority of participants did not change their cognitive behavior when there was a change in the costing method. Further, those participants who did adapt to the change in accounting method, and thus avoided accounting fixation, did so by debiasing costs reported by volume-based costing but not by ABC. Finally, these adapters generally exhibited high values for all three of the person characteristics compared with those who did not adapt. [source] Promoting energy efficiency in small island states: overcoming barriers to the adoption of compact fluorescent lighting in Saint LuciaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 5 2007Travis W. Reynolds Abstract The ,island factor' refers to a series of shared energy-related issues that many island nations face due to their isolation and limited population size. Under such conditions, one of the only ways to reduce energy costs for consumers is through energy efficiency , including the use of energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs. This study uses consumer survey data to investigate how awareness, past purchasing behaviour, and demographic characteristics influence Saint Lucian consumers' intentions to purchase energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs. The findings indicate that a lack of awareness and understanding of energy efficiency, combined with high product costs and a lack of product availability currently inhibit the adoption of compact fluorescent technologies by Saint Lucian consumers. Awareness of energy efficiency, income and geographic location are identified as significant factors related to increased use of and willingness to pay for compact fluorescent bulbs. In the discussion, possibilities for public education and cost subsidy for compact fluorescent bulb promotion are proposed. [source] Runner balancing by a direct genetic optimization of shrinkagePOLYMER ENGINEERING & SCIENCE, Issue 10 2004Kevin Alam The proposed approach to the runner-balancing problem evaluates differences in shrinkage among the cavities and uses this direct measure of product quality to balance runner systems instead of the indirect methods traditionally used. The runner-balancing problem was characterized by multiple objectives, which consider both cost and product quality. The resulting multi-objective optimization problem was solved with a multi-objective genetic algorithm. Runner-balancing optimizations varied the diameters and lengths of the runners and the processing conditions. The results suggest that balanced runner systems, which exhibit large differences in cavity pressure profiles, can have lower product costs than systems characterized by similar fill times and cavity pressure profiles. The optimization of the secondary runner lengths and processing conditions also reduced costs significantly. Polym. Eng. Sci. 44:1949,1959, 2004. © 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers. [source] | ||||||||||