The adoption and use of target costing in Dutch listed firms

This paper reports the results of a survey study among Dutch listed manufacturing companies on the adoption and use of costing practices that resemble the Japanese target costing concepts. Twenty-two of thirty-two responding firms claimed to use costing practices similar to target costing. The distribution of adoption over industries confirmed the expectation that assembling firms show a relatively high adoption of target costing. The adoption of these techniques appears to be related to an intense competitive and unpredictable enviromnent. Similar to target costing studies in Japan and Germany, the main objective for adopting these techniques in the sample is to reduce costs. The product development and design departments appear to be leading in the target cost management process, while the accounting department is only moderately involved. Finally, the most frequently adopted organizational form for target cost management are team structures, in which multiple functions combine knowledge and capabilities in the product development process.