Philipp Plank analyses the question, what drives the quality of
cost-systems and is the quality of cost-systems directly and at best
positively related to the firms' performance. In other words, is it
worth investing in complex cost allocation systems or are there
environmental and/or production settings in which less enhanced systems
perform adequately. Using simulations, a benchmark firm (first-best
solution) perfectly allocating cost to products is compared to firms
implementing heuristic cost-allocation schemes (second-best solution) to
identify the profit gap resulting from decisions based on limited
information. Into this discussion, the idea of cost-stickiness is
integrated, thereby indicating a new planning approach.