Product life cycle cost analysis: the impact of customer profiling, competitive advantage, and quality of IS information

Abstract

Life cycle cost analysis is considered in the literature to be of increasing importance to firms as international competition intensifies and technological change continues. The literature increasingly emphasizes that rapid technological change and shortened life cycles have made product life cycle cost analysis critical to organizations. Although significant benefits are attributed to life cycle cost analysis, there is little evidence regarding the extent of its application in organizational settings. Moreover, there is scant systematic evidence available with respect to the array of factors that may influence its use. However, a review of the literature suggests that customer profiling, competitive advantage, and quality of information system information are three factors potentially impacting the extent to which life cycle cost analysis is used in firms. The results of the study illustrate first, the degree to which product life cycle cost analysis is used across a random sample of organizations. Second, that all three independent variables play a positive role in affecting the extent to which product life cycle costing is used in firms.