This paper aims to advance the use of numerical experiments to investigate issues that surround the design of cost systems. As with laboratory and field experiments, researchers must decide on the independent variables and their levels, the experimental design, and the dependent variables....

We demonstrate the need to view in a dynamic context any decision based on limited information. We focus on the use of product costs in selecting the product portfolio. We show how ex post data regarding the actual costs from implementing the decision leads to updating of product cost estimates...

Limited information about the demand for some of the resources needed to produce goods and services (e.g., incomplete and imperfect bills of materials) forces firms to use heuristics when planning resource capacity. We examine the performance of five heuristics: two drawn from practice, two that...