The effect of strategy and organizational structure on the adoption and implementation of activity-based costing

Abstract

This study examines the effect of strategic posture and organizational structure on the adoption and implementation of general forms of activity management (AM) approaches. To explain the decision to adopt and implement AM, theories of strategy and of innovation in organizations are drawn upon. Employing a survey methodology, a questionnaire was used to collect data on the organizational determinants and business strategies of a sample of strategic business units in Canadian manufacturing firms. The questionnaire also collected data on the AM approaches these SBUs had adopted and implemented in the last two years. The results show that strategy influences the extent to which SBUs adopt an AM approach. As expected, organizations with high vertical differentiation are positively associated with the adoption of activity-based costing (ABC) over other forms of AM. Furthermore, centralization and formalization are associated with organizations that actually implement ABC after adopting it. This study provides some insight into the apparent paradox, in the part that despite the theoretical benefits of ABC, relatively few companies employ it and that a material number of those that adopt ABC do not actually implement it. It demonstrates that activity-based costing consists of a series of decisions and that managers have several opportunities to revise their initial choice during the innovation process. It also shows that organizations that adopt and implement ABC are bureaucracies.