The Entrepreneur and the Application of the System of Target Costing In Small Business of the Plastic Segment: an Action- Research

Abstract

Small business (SB’s) perform key role in national economy, but there are many difficulties to remain active in the market for long periods of time. This work emphasized the profile of the entrepreneur and the current status of SB in Brazil. One of the problems of these companies is how to manage (or not) costs, leading them sometimes to obtain damages in its operations. The aim was to verify, through action research, if the System of Target Costing generates economic and financial information timely and useful, is an innovative instrument for the management of costs and results of a small business’ entrepreneur. To develop the research, we tried to a small business run by entrepreneurs who, with a focus on managing its costs, agree to actively get involved in the research, cooperative and participatory as advocates for the methodology used. The information cleared from the application of the System of Target Costing in the company examined, which covered the values of the maximum cost to be incurred in each product and the need for reductions to achieve the target, were considered by partner-entrepreneurs as useful and timely because it is easy to investigation and interpretation, and innovative and strategic management of small business.