The activity-based costing method developments: state-of-the art and case study

This paper analyses the management accounting applications which try to improve the Activity-based Costing method. In the first part, we describe them using the Strategic Management Accounting stream. Then, we present the main features of these applications. In the second part, we examine in details two of these features: The widening of the analysis perimeter and the relevant level of details to analyse the costs. Then, we analyse several proposals: Customer Profitability Analysis (CPA), Interorganizational Cost Management (IOCM), Resource Consumption Accounting (RCA) and Time-driven ABC (TDABC). Finally, we describe an experience observed in the IT supply European division of an international group. This group experiments what we call at the end a supply chain ABC tool to manage its interorganizational relations.