Back-Seat Driver or Cost Driver?

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how manufacturing firms use cost drivers and if any factors affect manufacturing firms’ cost driver approach. Theoretical Perspective: The thesis theoretical perspective concentrates on explaining the concept of cost drivers, reviewing existing empirical findings and identification of factors which could affect manufacturing company´s approach towards cost drivers. Methodology: A survey was created and sent out to professionals within the Swedish manufacturing industry, which was statistically analyzed in SPSS. Empirical foundation: The study´s primary data is collected from mid-sized manufacturing firms´, with their headquarters in Sweden. Conclusion: We found that strategic cost driver consideration and usage have positive influence on manufacturing firms’ financial performance and achievement of strategic goals. Furthermore, Swedish manufacturing firms tends to mostly consider cost drivers if they have an impact and are derived from the underlying economic structure. For which, less statistically and more intuitive methods are used by our respondents. Finally, variations existed among firms and some specific cost driver approaches were affected by different factors.