Target costing as a strategic cost management tool for success of balanced scorecard system

The precondition of gaining and sustaining competitive advantage for companies that operate today＇s competitive markets is the effective cost management. Since price is determined by the market, the ways of increasing profits are productivity and cost reduction. Balanced scorecard system is accepted by academicians and practitioners as an effective strategic management tool for applying the strategy successfully. In the financial perspective of the balanced scorecard system, cost reduction is a strategic objective. It is necessary that company＇s cost reduction strategy should not only be a reaction to the market, but also a continual strategy. The approach which aims to the reduction of costs that reveal along product life cycle and preset this aim at the design stage is target costing （TC）. TC can be used as an effective tool in BSC＇s financial perspective for the objective of cost reduction. In this study, the authors aim to display how to integrate the TC to BSC.     

Tourist-income multipliers for Turkey

Differential tourist-income multipliers were calculated for Turkey using conventional input-output methodology and standard linear equations. High values were obtained for the ratio multipliers demonstrating the importance of secondary effects to the Turkish economy. Results indicated that tourists who spent more on retail purchases and less on hotels and restaurants, had a greater propensity to generate more direct and induced income. Information on relative impacts and touristspending patterns could therefore be useful to the policy makers.     

An analysis of the companies’ compliance with the EU disclosure requirements and corporate characteristics influencing it: A case study of Turkey

One of the factors shaping accounting disclosure of countries in Europe is the EU Fourth Directive (EUFD) which addresses individual company accounts. The EUFD has been claimed to have had an impact on accounting, including accounting disclosure, of not only the EU countries but also non-EU member European countries. Turkey is one of the non-EU member European countries claimed to be influenced by the EUFD and this study examined Turkish companies’ level of compliance with the disclosure requirements of the EUFD over the years (1986, 1987, 1991, 1992 and 1995), and assessed whether companies’ level of compliance had been influenced by their corporate characteristics, such as company size, listing status and industry type.Turkish companies’ level of compliance with the disclosure requirements of the EUFD was measured by an index (i.e. EUFD Disclosure Compliance Index—EUFDCDI). The index was developed by; constructing disclosure scoring sheet; obtaining annual reports of 61 sampled Turkish companies over the years; completing scoring sheet for each companies’ annual report; and creating disclosure index. The index (EUFDCDI) scores was, than, analysed for each year to assess the companies’ compliance with the EU disclosure requirements and both parametric and non-parametric test, were conducted to determine if there were significant changes in the extent of disclosure in compliance with the EUFD over the years. Furthermore, using the companies EUFDCDI score as dependent variable and corporate characteristics as independent variables, the Ordinary Least Square regression was run for each year to find out if the companies’ level of compliance with the EU disclosure requirements were influenced by their corporate characteristics.The results of this study revealed that Turkish companies’ compliance with the required disclosure by the EUFD varied within the range of 30–85%, but their compliance increased significantly from one year to another throughout the selected period. The results further revealed that listing status is one of the important corporate characteristics of the Turkish companies affecting their compliance with the EU disclosure requirements.     

Property Rights Protection of Biotechnology Innovations

Protection of intellectual property embedded in self-replicating biological innovations, such as genetically modified seed, presents two problems for the innovator: the need for copy protection of intellectual property and price competition between new seed and reproduced seed. We consider three regimes in two periods with asymmetric information: short-term contracts, biotechnological protection, and long-term contracts. We find that piracy imposes more intense competition for seed sales than does durability alone. Technology protection systems yield highest firm profit and long-term contracts outperform short-term contracts. Farmers prefer, in order, long-term, short-term, and biotechnical protection. Depending on monitoring cost, long-term contracts may be socially preferred to short-term contracts, with both preferred to biotechnical protection.