An Empirical Investigation of Adoption Issues Relating to Activity‐Based Costing

Abstract

This paper provides empirical evidence relating to the characteristics of firms adopting ABC compared to those not adopting ABC. The empirical evidence is based on responses received from 120 manufacturing companies. The characteristics explored relate to what are referred to as firm characteristic and business environment variables which are defined as those relating to: cost structure, production complexity, production diversity, firm size and the level of competitive intensity. Five hypotheses are developed from a discussion of the literature relating to adoption issues. The results suggest that there would appear to be significant differences between firms adopting ABC and those not adopting ABC in relation to production complexity, firm size and level of competitive intensity, while there would appear to be no significant differences in relation to the proportion of overhead costs in total manufacturing costs and production diversity.