ADOÇÃO DE PRÁTICAS DE GESTÃO EXTERNA DE CUSTOS: UM ESTUDO MULTICASO EM EMPRESAS DA REGIÃO DA SERRA GAÚCHA

Abstract

With the increase of competitiveness among companies, characterized by strong market dispute, the search for competitive advantage is a continuing and growing necessity. The companies came to be understood and managed as part of a system, participating in a frequent information exchange with the external environment. This means that only the internal management is no longer enough to compete. With regard to costs, this means that besides the own costs is also necessary that the company monitor the costs of other companies, particularly competitors. In this context, the goal of this article is to identify the adoption of external cost analysis practices by seven companies located in Serra Gaúcha region. This is an exploratory and qualitative study, organized in a multiple case study format. Data collection, carried out in the period of November and December/2010 was conducted through semi-structured interviews and content analysis. The main results indicate that some of the external cost management practices are used by companies, yet in an incipient form. The practices most listed by companies were: reverse engineering (3), reverse markup (1), information system (2), value chain analysis (3). Therefore, the positioning of the companies is still far from that emphasized by literature on the subject. Difficulties in accessing external data, lack of personnel skilled in these activities and satisfaction with current information are the main arguments for the low usage. Keywords: