Asian Journal of Research in Business Economics and Management

Cost is universal and most highly visible performance metric for indicating project success, which are always prioritized by top management and control professionals. Cost management should be regarded as a process requiring the integration of separate discipline and involvement of the internal and external experts. Effective cost management requires the implementation of methodologies and steps that are repeatable and can be integrated with organization goals. For MSMEs to compete effectively in the global market, the cost of a product should be reduced by increasing productivity, by reducing manufacturing costs at the shop floor. The need is to see the cost management practices employed and the efficacies of such practices, which will enhance the opportunity to improve the decision-making process of the MSMEs. This paper ranks the functional areas planned by the enterprises for cost reduction and benefits derived and infers the relative importance of variables in discriminating MSME's and also analyse the strength of existing cost management practices on priority basis by grouping into cost management dimensions and operational dimensions. In the process, Garrett ranking technique, Multiple Regression, Canonical Discriminant analysis and Factor analysis were performed to arrive at the inferences. Managerial Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.