Obračun troškova kao instrument unapređenja ekoloških performansi entiteta u agrobiznisu

Abstract

Acquiring and preserving competitive advantage requires companies to closely monitor and analyze their business costs and take timely corrective actions. The fact that business sustainability requires the consideration of not only economic aspects, but also the social and environmental dimensions of business, has created the need in cost management to understand the implications of business operations for the broader environment of entities. The greatest number of modern techniques and methods of cost calculation and analysis put primary focus on the costs that arise from the production phase. From the perspective of global competition, taking into consideration the imperative of maintaining sustainable business in the long run, the obtained information is not sufficient for the needs of designing, implementing and revising competitive strategies. This is particularly significant for entities operating in the fields of agriculture and agribusiness, whose activities, as it is well known, have a significant impact on the environment and its degradation. The aim of the paper is to point out the importance of creating cost accounting information that goes beyond the traditionally understood operating costs in order to quantitatively encompass and give a monetary presentation of environmental business aspects, which are very important in a modern business environment for capturing, analyzing, managing and improving the overall performance of an entity. For those purposes, the paper considers true cost accounting and points to the specificity of its application in agribusiness entities.