Strategic cost analysis as a tool for improving the efficiency of an enterprise business model

Abstract

The article substantiates that strategic cost analysis is becoming an integrative tool for improving the efficiency of an enterprise's business model in conditions of instability, growing resource constraints, technological changes, and increased risks. It is determined that the traditional logic of “accounting–control–reduction” does not provide a sustainable effect without aligning costs with the value creation mechanism, process building system, and monetization model. An approach is substantiated whereby cost management is considered a strategic competence that should be integrated into the analysis of the business model at the level of core activities, resources, partner networks, and customer interaction channels. A methodological understanding of strategic cost analysis is proposed, which combines identification of strategic cost drivers; cost behavior analysis; process-oriented cost grouping (based on management accounting and digital information systems); comparative scenario assessment (cost implications of decisions, technology changes, logistics circuits, product portfolio). Based on open statistical data, it is shown that the dominance of intermediate consumption in the structure of output use forms an objective business demand for strategic cost optimization tools, rather than just short-term savings. Practical directions for the application of target cost calculation and kaizen costing, digital control panels, and the “business model blocks – cost factors – instruments of influence” matrix are substantiated. The scientific novelty lies in the substantiation and formalization of the logic of the transition from cost analysis by items to cost analysis as a strategic resource of the business model and in the formulation of a proposal for an integrated decision-making algorithm to improve its efficiency through the management of the main cost factors of the enterprise.