The Role of Standard Costs in Enhancing Cost Control Efficiency: An Applied Study on a Leading Libyan Telecommunications Company
Keywords:
: standard costing, cost control, variance analysis, telecommunications, Libyana, activity-based costing, digital management accounting, LibyaAbstract
Standard costing remains a potentially powerful but frequently under-designed element of management control. This study evaluates how standard costs can improve cost control at Libyana Mobile Phone Company by combining an integrative literature review, a secondary re-analysis of the 25-respondent survey contained in the supplied study document, current public evidence about Libyana and Libya's mobile market, and transparent numerical case scenarios. The literature indicates that standards are most useful when they represent causal resource consumption, are flexed for actual activity, are refreshed at an appropriate cadence, and are integrated with activity-based costing, service-quality indicators, and digital analytics. Re-analysis of the survey yields an overall weighted mean of 1.864 on a three-point scale, below the neutral midpoint of 2.000; 23.2% of all responses were favourable, 40.0% neutral, and 36.8% unfavourable. Respondents were most positive about comparing actual with planned financial performance (mean 2.28), but least positive about strategic costing (1.64) and pricing or cost-reduction decisions (1.56). These findings point to an implementation and decision-use gap rather than proof that standard costing is intrinsically ineffective. An illustrative telecom case decomposes LYD 133.0 thousand of unfavourable cost variance across energy, maintenance, and customer-care pools. Price and rate effects account for LYD 115.0 thousand, while net efficiency effects account for LYD 18.0 thousand, demonstrating why responsibility assignment and controllability matter. The study concludes that Libyana should use standard costing as a diagnostic spine—not as a stand-alone accounting routine—supported by site-, service-, and activity-level drivers, flexible budgets, monthly exception dashboards, quarterly standard reviews, quality guardrails, and a phased digital implementation
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