Success in management accounting: lessons from the activity‐based costing/management experience

This paper addresses an important but neglected issue – the nature of and evidence for success in management accounting. The case of activity‐based costing/management (ABC/M) is used to explore how researchers have gathered evidence of this technique’s success. A variety of approaches have been adopted and all have shortcomings. The problems of obtaining reliable evidence of success suggest that a profile of evidence is likely to be the most appropriate basis on which to make success judgements about management accounting. Further research on this evidential profile is called for.