The 21st century is the era of knowledge economy. The competition among modern enterprises is not only the competition of material capital strength, but also the competition of intangible assets such as brand and enterprise culture. Whether an enterprise can obtain sustainable competitive advantages and excess profits depends on whether it has valuable, rare and elusive special products. Among the various assets of the enterprise, some special assets have the potential to obtain sustainable competitive advantages and excess profits. Enterprise culture is one of them. However, as a special resource of enterprises, corporate culture is often ignored by many enterprises. Its costs and benefits coexist. This paper mainly discusses the construction of corporate culture as intangible assets from the perspective of costs and benefits.
(1) cost of corporate culture
1.1 characteristics of corporate culture cost. General cost accounting has the characteristics of consumptive, compensatory, purposeful, comprehensive and compensatory. The cost of corporate culture is no exception. But in addition, it has other unique features:
1.1.1 persistence and permanence of cost occurrence. Enterprise culture is not established in one day or two days. It takes a long process to establish it. A good corporate culture needs several generations of people to constantly summarize and operate. For example, the "evergreen forest" enterprise culture of jiumuwang company was not established for a while. 17 years ago, jiumuwang had not established the evergreen forest enterprise culture. It publicized a "family style management mode". After 17 years of development, the company has gradually formed a set of more systematic "evergreen forest" corporate culture, which has been printed into a book. Many companies have come to learn from it, and it will continue to improve and develop in the future. Changqinglin enterprise culture grows with the growth of the enterprise, and the cost naturally runs through the whole process of the enterprise.
1.1.2 indirect nature of cost compensation. Due to the characteristics of enterprise culture itself, its input is different from other inputs that determine cost compensation by cost, price and profit. The compensation of the cost of enterprise culture should first be the impact on the enterprise image and the whole mental state of the enterprise, and then affect the production and operation of the enterprise, affect the value of the enterprise, so as to reflect the value of its cost. A lot of people will say "this is a good enterprise" when it comes to jiumuwang It is precisely because it has a good corporate culture that has changed the entire image of the company, established a brand, produced a brand effect, and enhanced the competitiveness of the company. So that the company's market share in the trousers Market for seven consecutive years will always be the first. In the last two or three years, the annual turnover has reached more than 1 billion yuan.
1.1.3 abstraction of cost occurrence purpose. The purpose of corporate culture cost is different from the general cost, and it has abstract characteristics. It occurs to create a good corporate image and mental state. The general cost is incurred to obtain goods or services. Establishment of jiumuwang "evergreen forest" enterprise culture. The overall social image of the company has been improved. The cost of the company cannot be measured concretely, nor can it obtain goods or services from the cost incurred.
1.2 composition of corporate culture cost.
1.2.1 divide from the process of enterprise culture creation. There are two ways to establish enterprise culture: internal and external. An internal approach is to improve the enterprise's own mechanism through various activities within the enterprise and form a "soil" conducive to the growth of culture within the enterprise. The other external way is to radiate the influence of the enterprise image to the society through the external activities of the enterprise and provide a good external environment for the establishment of the enterprise culture. From these points of view, the formation of enterprise culture will cost. The establishment process of enterprise culture is generally divided into: investigation and analysis stage, overall division stage, demonstration and experiment stage, communication and analysis stage, evaluation and adjustment stage, and consolidation and development stage. There are corresponding costs in each stage. It is not only necessary to adopt historical cost data, but also to continuously collect new data, which is mainly based on the unique characteristics of enterprise culture. The content of the enterprise culture cost of the internal way mainly includes setting up the organization, perfecting the enterprise culture mechanism and optimizing the internal environment of the enterprise. Jiumuwang established the corporate culture of changqinglin, and also set up various organizations. Such as trade union organizations and women's protection associations. In terms of optimizing the internal environment of the enterprise, the company has greening the surrounding environment of the enterprise and set up various entertainment venues. Such as basketball court, gym, etc. In terms of improving the mechanism of corporate culture, the company has set up libraries, chess and card rooms, Internet cafes and other entertainment places. And the establishment of these implementations will have corresponding input costs. The cost of corporate culture through external channels mainly refers to the promotion of corporate culture through various channels. For example, jiumuwang company founded jiumuwang weekly. Invite many professionals to visit the company and use some media to publicize the company's corporate culture. These are also costs. After the establishment of a good corporate culture, it must give full play to its role. This requires a certain material foundation, which is also part of the cost of corporate culture. We should instill the spirit of the enterprise into every employee and let them understand the enterprise deeply. Let them know that the enterprise is doing its best to provide them with development opportunities and stimulate the enthusiasm of each employee. To reach this level, we need to inculcate or imperceptibly train each employee through various ways. And these are all cost-effective. For example, jiumuwang company trains 100 enterprise elites. The training is mainly divided into three stages: the first stage is comprehensive quality training; The second stage is the training of professional ability: the third stage is the training of corporate culture, which will instill the spirit of corporate culture into them, make them feel a sense of belonging and integrate them into the group as soon as possible.
1.2.2 from the perspective of accounting analysis. The accounting analysis object of enterprise culture is the cost that the enterprise directly and actively generates for the enterprise culture. The reason why it is defined as "direct" and "active" is because of the particularity of the purpose of cost occurrence. In the process of enterprise development, it is inevitable that some behaviors will damage the enterprise image. And the compensation of these losses can be regarded as a cost step that is the same as the error. For example, if an employee reflects that the company is in arrears of wages, it is not only necessary to return the wages to the employees, but also necessary to find out why this situation occurs and explain it to the employees. If the employees have spread it to the outside world, it is also necessary to clarify it to the outside world. Each step is costly. Since the establishment of the corporate culture of jiumuwang changqinglin in 2002, there have been some behaviors damaging the corporate image, such as complaints about the quality of the company's products and poor after-sales service. The company has also paid a certain price for this behavior. The cost of corporate culture runs through the whole enterprise space and time, and needs to be attributed to corporate culture according to its purpose. Because the corporate culture and various activities are related to each other, the consolidation will cause a large number of duplicate accounting in the accounting work, resulting in complicated work.
(2) benefits of corporate culture
Enterprise culture is the soul of an enterprise's spirit and innovation, the pillar on which an enterprise depends for survival and development, and the foundation for an enterprise to stand in the market economy and sustainable growth.
2.1 enterprise culture realizes value in the process of physical production.
2.1.1 procurement stage: timeliness of supply. If an enterprise establishes a good corporate image in society, it can establish a long-term and stable strategic alliance with suppliers. Microsoft has achieved zero inventory, mainly because Microsoft has a good reputation. With the core value of "integrity first", jiumuwang has established stable cooperative relations with many suppliers. Even if the enterprise's funds cannot be remitted to the suppliers for the time being, they will provide materials first with the company's good image and reputation.
2.1.2 production stage: advanced management concepts and methods, scientific manufacturing process and manufacturing process, rapid information network, efficient organization structure and professional technical staff constitute modern production and manufacturing. These mechanisms are part of the corporate culture. With these mechanisms and a series of incentive mechanisms, jiumuwang company has greatly improved production efficiency and saved production costs. In the production process, the enterprise culture of "cost reduction and everyone's responsibility" has been formed. This kind of mechanism, this kind of culture emphasizes humanized self motivation, and does not need any restriction of factors. Adopt an incentive mechanism to mobilize subjective initiative to achieve full participation and independent management. This concept is a low-cost cost management, and also a very effective management method to reduce costs.
2.1.3 sales stage: commodities are the product of the comprehensive effect of various assets of the enterprise. Commodities with enterprise brand reflect the quality, value and product efficacy. At the same time, it also carries the culture, reputation and image of the enterprise. The recognition and purchase of goods by customers is the ultimate realization of enterprise value. Good corporate culture has enhanced the brand appeal of customers and established some fixed consumer groups. Jiumuwang is an expert in the field of western trousers. He has a fixed consumer group in the field of western trousers and is a brand loyalist. The company has ranked first in the market share of western trousers for seven consecutive years.
2.1.4 service stage: technology, price and service are the "troika" of enterprise development. Almost all consumers will consider the after-sales service provided by the enterprise in addition to quality and price when purchasing goods. Jiumuwang enterprise inculcates the corporate culture of "bringing smiles to customers and sincerely serving customers" into every shopping guide. You can feel their enthusiasm and sincerity in the exclusive stores of jiumuwang. They provide customers with the best service. They not only have sofas and water for customers to rest, but also help customers tailor clothes for free, so that customers can buy with confidence and wear comfortably. It is this service attitude that makes the company's image in the eyes of customers constantly improve.
2.2 enterprise culture realizes value in reducing human resource cost. Although there will be a lot of costs in personnel training, the later benefits it brings are huge. Jiumuwang recruits employees every year. In each recruitment, a series of trainings are carried out to instill the enterprise culture into every employee, so that new employees can regard jiumuwang as their home. However, the benefits brought in the later period are huge. Every employee contributes his youth to it, and develops the habit of being good at thinking at work instead of doing something mechanically. There will be innovations every year, which brings benefits to the enterprise. For example, in this atmosphere, the manager of the company's business department studied himself and developed the purchase, sales and inventory template, which is undoubtedly a great contribution to the company. It not only improves work efficiency, but also reduces a lot of unnecessary work. The workload that should have been completed by five people can now be completed by one person. The workload that could have been completed in two days can now be completed in a few hours. This not only reduces the cost of human resources, but also reduces the cost of time. In addition, many excellent talents are attracted by the excellent corporate culture of the company. A good environment is where talents grow.
(3) weighing the construction of enterprise culture with cost and benefit
The cost-benefit theory believes that some costs are spent to obtain greater benefits, which is similar to the consumption concept of "spending money to save money". Indeed, the simple cost reduction is limited. Sometimes, the absolute amount of the cost is increased, but the income of the enterprise is increased. Weighing the construction of enterprise culture with cost and benefit and analyzing the benefit of enterprise culture refers to the effect of enterprise culture work. Whether the enterprise culture has played a role, whether it has played a role in the production and development of the enterprise, whether the entrepreneurs and employees have taken on a new look, whether the work efficiency has been improved, and whether the society has a good response to the views of the enterprise can be evaluated through the enterprise culture.
3.1 quantification is adopted. From the perspective of accounting, the cost of enterprise culture is measured by the historical cost method and the replacement cost method when maintaining the production and development of enterprise culture. For example, in January 2002, jiumuwang company spent 8000 yuan on organizational personnel, 2000 yuan on expert consultation, 1500 yuan on data collection, and 800 yuan on value training for new employees. According to the historical cost method, the cost of this month is: 8000 + 2000 + 1500 + 800 = 12300 yuan; If the value of enterprise culture is reassessed in 2004, the salary increases by 15%, the corresponding consulting fee increases to 4000 yuan, the data collection fee is 2200 yuan, and the employee training is 1000 yuan, then the replacement cost is 8000 x (1 + 15%) + 4000 + 2200 + 1000 = 16400 yuan.
As the favorable factors brought by the enterprise culture can not be directly seen by the enterprise, the cost and income of its input can be compared by the "back extrapolation method". Based on the income difference of the enterprise, excluding the income changes caused by other influencing factors, what remains is the effect of the enterprise culture on the enterprise. So as to provide a basis for enterprises to evaluate and adjust their own corporate culture. The influence of enterprise culture on an enterprise is far-reaching and cannot be judged according to the cost income value at a time. In the past, the monthly output of jiumuwang company was 1000 pieces, the monthly sales volume was 1000 pieces, and the unit price was 800 yuan. Through the establishment of the enterprise culture, the employees' enthusiasm for production was improved. In January 2004, the output reached 1200 pieces. Due to the improvement of efficiency, the sales price of enterprise products is reduced to 750 yuan / piece. In addition, due to the renewal of the enterprise image, the society has a better impression on the enterprise. So that the product can be fully sold. Then the corporate culture income is: (1200-1000) × 800 = 160000 yuan. There is a problem worth considering here. The economic income of enterprise culture is 1200X 750-1000 × 800 = 100000 yuan, or 160000 yuan, I think it should be 160000 yuan. This is because the subsequent reduction is the result of the enterprise's management measures based on the changes caused by the enterprise culture, rather than the result of the enterprise culture itself.
Profit is an income and a cost. According to the cost and benefit analysis, the size of profit is proportional to the effect of corporate culture, which directly reflects the quantitative results of corporate culture construction. Then the company's corporate culture profit - 160000-16400 = 143600 yuan. The cost is calculated according to the replacement method, because the effect of corporate culture has certain time difference. According to the replacement cost method, it can more accurately reflect the difference between the enterprise's cultural input and income.
The above only considers the impact on the company's benefits after the establishment of the corporate culture, excluding the impact of science and technology, policies and other factors on the company during the period. If the impact of these factors is added, the overall impact caused by these factors shall be calculated according to the corresponding method, and then the reverse deduction shall be deducted. The influence of factors such as science and technology from 2002 to 2007 is shown in the figure:
From the figure, we can see the impact of other factors on jiumuwang company from 2002 to 2007, and calculate the proportion of various factors. Then we can get the contribution of corporate culture to its production: 143600 × 80% = 114880 yuan.
3.2 non quantitative method is adopted. The construction of enterprise culture is a long-term process. There is a long time gap between its costs and benefits. It is not as periodic as the production. Moreover, the benefits themselves are fuzzy. At the beginning of the cost input, the enterprise culture did not have an impact on the employees and the public, so there was no benefit. However, with the acceleration of the construction progress, the enterprise culture will increasingly affect the internal and external environment of the enterprise to play a role, and its benefits will be greater and greater, and the investment will be rewarded. Therefore, the enterprise culture itself is an inseparable whole. In order to deepen our understanding, we can take a look at the relationship between the cost input and benefit generation of jiumuwang company's corporate culture from 2002 to 2007, as shown in Figure 2. From the figure, we can clearly see that jiumuwang company invested a large amount of costs in 2002, but the income was basically zero. This shows that the corporate culture has not played its role. However, with the penetration of corporate culture into the enterprise, We can see that it brings more and more benefits. From this, we can also see the indirect nature of the cost compensation of enterprise culture. However, the use of legend analysis has certain limitations, that is, it considers the periodicity of the cost and benefit of enterprise culture. In fact, the benefit of enterprise culture itself has certain fuzziness.
3.3 some problems in cost and benefit analysis
3.3.1 cost benefit matching. From the perspective of enterprise culture itself, it is an inseparable whole. If the matching principle is overemphasized, many new unnecessary costs will be incurred. This is also determined by the unique characteristics of enterprise culture. From the actual situation, it can be said that few enterprises will spend time and energy on the benefit of enterprise culture. Therefore, fuzzy is more scientific and clear than clear.
3.3.2 accrual basis and cash basis. The new accounting standards put the accrual basis on the accounting basis, which is higher than the accounting principles. However, the accrual basis should still be based on the accounting matching. Since the enterprise culture is difficult to achieve the matching of specific projects, the accrual basis cannot be realized. We regard corporate culture as an intangible project, a project that grows together with the enterprise and runs through the whole process of enterprise growth. If measured by the project cost method, it belongs to the cash basis of collection and payment compared with the enterprise, so the cash basis of collection and payment is more suitable.
3.3.3 historical cost principle and replacement cost principle. The historical cost principle is also called the actual cost and original cost principle, which means that the cost incurred by an enterprise should be measured according to its actual consumption. The replacement cost method refers to a method to determine the cost by subtracting the deductible loss and depreciation from the current full replacement cost. Due to the time difference between the cost and benefit of enterprise culture, it is necessary to adopt the replacement cost principle when evaluating the value of enterprise culture, so that the impact caused by the time difference can be more objectively revealed.
When applying cost-benefit to weigh enterprise culture, we should comprehensively consider various factors. At present, few enterprises have seriously calculated the cost of corporate culture and the benefits it brings. The benefits of corporate culture are long-term, and there are two ways of expression: quantitative and non quantitative. After clearly determining the role of enterprise culture, we can only calculate its cost and invest less energy in the measurement of income and profit. This is similar to the role of science and technology in the progress of enterprises. It is only necessary to control the investment cost to ensure that it is reasonable and scientific. The establishment of a company's corporate culture and the beginning of cost input will bring little benefit. To measure the cost input with a long-term perspective, the benefits generated by the cost are continuous and abstract. This requires each operator to reasonably control the cost of corporate culture during the growth process of the enterprise, focusing on the prediction of the future.