The Predictive Impact of Contextual Factors on Activity-based Costing Adoption

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship among six contextual factors and activity-based costing (ABC) adoption in the United States to determine what extent they predict ABC adoption. The contextual factors are: (1) intensity of competition, (2) organizational size, (3) cost structure, (4) importance of cost information, (5) strategy, and (6) and industry sector. A survey was sent to 480 large companies or strategic business units (SBU’s) (sales greater than $50 million). ABC adoption for is 41.75%, which is significantly higher than previous studies for similar countries. Only cost structure is determined to be a significant negative predictor of ABC adoption.