Relationships between the aspects of target costing and business size: a study in the clothing industrial hub of Santa Cruz do Capibaribe-PE

Purpose: This article aimed to investigate the relationship between aspects of the target costing process and business size, in the context of companies in the clothing sector in the industrial hub of Santa Cruz do Capibaribe-PE. Methodology: The study was carried out through an exploratory, descriptive and quantitative research, with the sending of a structured questionnaire to the 110 clothing industries registered in the database of the Federation of Industries of the State of Pernambuco (FIEPE), achieving a rate of response of 21.82%. To analyze the relationships, the Kruskall-Wallis non-parametric statistical test was used, considering a significance level in the order of 95% (p=0.05). Results: Based on the methodological aspects used, the main results of the research allowed us to conclude that the use of aspects related to the planning phase of the target costing process is influenced by the size of the analyzed companies. On the other hand, the use of aspects of the design phase and the production phase was not influenced by business size. Contributions of the Study: This study contributes to the specialized literature on management accounting, especially in the Brazilian context, since target costing is still an artifact little explored in national publications. Another contribution to the literature concerns the method used, which permeated a quantitative approach, whereas most research that addresses target costing is developed through case studies. Furthermore, the research also contributes to the analyzed companies, presenting them with a useful management artifact in competitive environments, which can influence their adoption