Integration between Target Costing and Activity Based Costing and its Role in Rationalizing Investment Decisions : Case Study

Target costing and activity-based costing are cost management tools that support strategic cost management in addressing these challenges, especially since this requires integrating the two technologies. Accordingly, the research problem is defined by two questions: How can integration be achieved between target costing and activity-based costing to measure the costs of new products? What is the role of integration between target costing and activity-based costing in rationalizing investment decisions? The research aims to clarify how this integration of costing technology is achieved and to demonstrate its role in rationalizing investment decisions. The research included proposing a model to achieve the integration described above and testing it through a case study at one of the private universities in Mosul city. The results show that integrating target costing technology with activity-based costing rationalizes investment decisions by enhancing decision-makers' cost awareness. This is reflected in the efficiency of the investment decision, as it provides measures and indicators that support the accurate evaluation of investment projects and proposals, and their comparison. The main research recommendations are to adopt modern cost management methods, most notably the activity-based costing system and target costing, to develop cost systems for economic units in Iraq that meet the requirements for their application in these units, in line with significant developments in accounting work techniques.