AN OVERVIEW ON THE ADOPTION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIVITY - BASED COSTING IN PRACTICE

In recent years activity - based costing has attracted the interest of both academics and management accountants since its emergence. Researchers and academics believe that activity - based costing (ABC) is a new managerial accounting technique which could enhance the business orientation of managerial accounting and help business decisions and taking control in an increasingly sophisticated way (Jarvenpaa, 2007). Despite the great interest coming from researchers, companies seem to be reluctant to adopt ABC. A great number of surveys show that the dissemination of ABC has not been as intense as expected. The objective of this paper is to examine how ABC was adopted and implemented worldwide and within Romanian companies; what were the major challenges identified when adopting and implementing ABC; what are the main advantages and disadvantages of such a cost system. To achieve this objective we begin with the analysis of the existing literature in the field and previous studies made at international level, followed by a questionnaire - based empirical study and analysis of ABC implementation within Romanian companies.