The adoption and implementation of activity‐based costing in Thailand

While a number of studies relating to activity‐based costing (ABC) have been conducted, relatively few have been conducted in the South East Asia region. This paper reports the results of a survey of firms in Thailand regarding issues associated with ABC adoption and implementation. The study finds that the rate of ABC adoption in Thailand was relatively high (58% of all respondent firms having ABC knowledge and adopting ABC as an idea; 35% of respondents overall) compared with other Asian countries. In particular, firms with greater variation in product complexity, complexity of production service processes and intensity of capital equipment were more likely to adopt ABC. In line with previous studies, top management support was identified as a key criterion influencing the success of ABC.