Cost Management Practices and Strategic Perspectives: a study in the construction industry of the State of Parana

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cost management practices of building industry companies of Parana that follow the typology of Porter's strategies. The sample comprises member companies of the Association of Construction Industries of the State of Parana (PR-SINDUSCON) operating in the segment of residential buildings. The data were collected by means of questionnaires sent to 317 SINDUSCON members. 69 were returned and 54 used for our research. Exploratory Factorial Analysis of the data allowed us to identify two groups of cost management practices. Analyses suggest equality between the adopted cost management practices and the Cost Control Planning (CCP) practices among the companies of the Group 1, regardless of the generic strategy adopted. The companies of the Group 2 that adopted the differentiation strategy seem to use mainly the ACR cost management practice. Our findings differ from those obtained by Chenhall insofar as companies that adopt low cost strategies tend to use managerial controls focused on cost control and rigid budgetary controls.

Work and technological innovation in organic agriculture

Organic agriculture is a sustainable cultivation ecologically, economically and socially. Several researches in organic agriculture have been made from technical perspectives, economic traits or related to ecological aspects. There are practically no investigations into the nature of the technology used in organic agriculture, especially from an ergonomic perspective. From the activity analysis, this study aimed to map the technology used in the production of organic vegetables. Properties producing organic vegetables were selected representing the State of Sao Paulo. It was applied an instrument (questionnaire and semi-structured interview) with their managers and it was made visual records to identify adaptations, innovations and technological demands that simultaneously minimize the workload and the difficulties in performing the tasks and increase work productivity. For some of the technological innovations a digital scanner was used to generate a virtual solid model to facilitate its redesign and virtual prototyping. The main results show that organic farmers have little technology in product form. The main innovations that enable competitive advantage or allow higher labor productivity occur in the form of processes, organization and marketing.