The effect of innovation characteristics on activity-based costing adoption

This paper contributes to the analysis of the factors influencing the adoption of ABC by assessing the contribution of the characteristics of an innovation on adoption, which has not been carried out in prior research. Specifically, the paper applies innovation diffusion theory to examine the impact of five characteristics of an innovation, and organisation size, industry and location on the decision to adopt activity-based costing (ABC). The data for the study was obtained from a questionnaire survey of management accountants in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The relationships with ABC adopted were tested using logistic regression analysis. The best model specification arises when organisations that have adopted ABC are compared with those that have rejected it. The results reveal that organisations are more likely to adopt ABC when they attach a high level of importance to the relative advantages offered by innovations, are large and located in Australasia.