Abstract This paper provides exploratory empirical evidence on 143 firms' degree of success with ABC and on implementation variables that are associated with ABC success. There are four primary results. First, there is considerable variation in the degree of success firms have with ABC. Second, several behavioral and organizational variables are important to explaining cross-sectional variation in ABC success, particularly top management support, link to competitive strategies, link to performance evaluation and compensation, training, ownership by nonaccountants, and adequate resources. Third, these implementation variables are used in patterns that can be interpreted as behavioral and organizational implementation strategies. Fourth, ABC success is not significantly associated with the use of four technical implementation variables, specifically canned software, custom software, external consultants, and stand-alone vs. integrated system. Finally, this paper offers several suggestions for future research.
Michael D. Shields (1995) studied this question.