1、中文 3400 字 本科毕业论文（设计） 外 文 翻 译 外文题目 Strategic Cost Management 外文出处 Financial Management,2010(2)： 34-35 外文作者 Sophia Aluko， Jonathan Mayhall， Melanie Wauquiez， Alan Vercio 原文： Strategic Cost Management Abstract:The value chain concept has been discussed in the strategy literature for more than a decade
2、now. As a generic concept for organizing our thinking about strategic positioning, its significance is widely accepted. But empirical examples of the power of the concept for shaping cost analysis have not yet reached the literature. This paper reports a disguised field study in which a value chain
3、is constructed. The insights for cost management which emerge are contrasted with those which are suggested by two traditional analysis techniques - a 2x2 growth/share matrix and conventional cost analysis. The purpose of the paper is to extend our knowledge about how to construct and use value chai
4、ns in managerial accounting. The authors believe the concept is powerful and deserves far more empirical study as a way to make the strategic perspective more explicit in managerial cost analysis. While accounting systems do contain useful data for cost analysis, they often get in the way of strateg
5、ic cost analysis -Porter 1985,page 63 One of the major themes in strategic cost management (SCM) concerns the focus of cost management efforts. Stated in question form: How do we organize our thinking about cost management? In the SCM framework, managing costs effectively requires a broad focus, ext
6、ernal to the firm. Porter 1985 has called this the value chain. The value chain for any firm in any business is the linked set of value-creating activities all the way from basic raw material sources through to the ultimate end-use product delivered into the final consumers hands. This focus is exte
7、rnal to the firm, seeing each firm in the context of the overall chain of value-creating activities of which it is very probably only a part. We are aware of no firms which span the entire value chain in which they operate. Though the value chain concept has been around for more than 10 years, the s
8、trategic power of this concept has not been well articulated. Based on an extensive literature search, we were not able to find even one complete empirically derived value chain for a firm. There is a clear need to begin to document real world examples of how the value chain framework provides strat
9、egic insights that are unlikely to emerge from other frameworks. We believe it is important to begin to bring this perspective into the domain of managerial accounting. This paper is an attempt to begin to fill this need. STRATEGIC POWER OF THE VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS-THE BASICS ： Whether or not a firm
10、 can develop and sustain differentiation and/or cost advantage depends fundamentally on the configuration of its value chain relative to the value chain configuration of each of its competitors. We believe Porter 1985 is correct when he argues that competitive advantage in the marketplace ultimately
11、 derives from providing better customer value for equivalent cost or equivalent customer value for a lower cost. From this perspective, value chain analysis is essential to determine exactly where in the firms segment of the chain-from design to distribution-customer value can be enhanced or costs l
12、owered. As argued by Shank 1989, ignoring linkages upstream from the firm as well as downstream is just too restrictive a perspective. Danger of Ignoring Value Chain Linkages ： The value chain framework is a method for breaking down the chain of activities that runs from basic raw materials to end-u
13、se customers into strategically relevant segments in order to understand the behavior of costs and the sources of differentiation. As noted earlier, a firm is typically only a part of the larger set of activities in the value creation and delivery system. Since no two firms of which we are aware, ev
14、en in the same industry, compete in exactly the same set of markets with exactly the same set of suppliers, the overall value chain for each firm is unique. Suppliers not only produce and deliver inputs used in a firms value activities, but they importantly influence the firms cost/differentiation p
15、osition. For example, developments by steel mini-mills lowered the operating costs of wire products users who are the customers of the customers of the mini mill - 2 stages down the value chain. Similarly, customers actions can have a significant impact on the firms value activities. For example, wh
16、en printing press manufacturers create a new press of 3 meters width, the profitability of paper mills is affected, because paper machine widths must match some multiple of printing press width.As we will discuss more fully below, gaining and sustaining competitive advantage requires that a firm und
17、erstand the entire value creation and delivery system, not Just the portion of the value chain in which it participates. Suppliers and customers and suppliers suppliers and customers customers have profit margins that are important to identify in understanding a firms cost/differentiation positionin
18、g, since the end-use customers ultimately pay for all the profit margins along the entire value chain. Value Chain Insights for Different Competitors: If competitor A (the most fully integrated company in the exhibit) calculates the Return on Assets at each stage of the chain by adjusting all transf
19、er prices to competitive market levels, it could highlight potential areas where the firm could more economically buy from the outside instead of making (strategic choice of make or buy). With a complete value chain, competitors B, C, D, E, F, and G might be able to identify possibilities to forward
20、 or backward integrate into areas which can enhance their performance. Westvaco, for example, recently stopped manufacturing envelope paper although it still owns a large envelope converter. Champion International, on the other hand, has sold its envelope converting business but still produces envelope paper. Both choices, although apparently inconsistent, could be plausible given the specific strategies of Westvaco and Champion. Each value activity has a set of unique cost drivers that explain variations in
