Product costing in interorganizational relationships : A supplier's perspective

Product costing in interorganizational relationships is a study of how the supplier’s product costing and other types of cost data are used in a relationship with a buyer. Traditionally, management accounting is assumed to take place within an organization where the management of the company decides how to design the costing system based on the needs of the organization. However, many companies of today are involved in closer relationships with suppliers, buyers or an entire supply chain, which blurs the traditional boundaries between them. One of the key characteristics of such relationships is an extensive exchange of information for the coordination of the two parties. How the supplier’s product costing can support such cooperation is not dealt with to a large extent in the literature. This thesis describes, explores and to some extent explains the interorganizational use and design of the supplier’s product costing. Further, it explores the relationship between the supplier’s product costing and interorganizational cost management that normally is coordinated by the buyer. The empirical data is collected from three Swedish suppliers in the automotive industry. In short, the results of the thesis are: 15 different situations are identified where product costing and other types of cost data are used between the buyer and the supplier. The most important situations deal with the joint development of the product. The supplier’s product costing supports the interorganizational cost management in a number of different ways. This means that the supplier plays a more important role for reducing costs and increasing the efficiency of the cooperation than normally recognised in this type of literature. There are indications that the supplier questions and discusses the design of its costing system due to the external use