TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose This paper aims to report on a survey of medium and large Irish firms to ascertain reasons for not changing to more advanced costing techniques, namely, activity-based costing (ABC). Developments in technology and recent poor economic conditions would suggest that the technique could be adopted more by firms, as they make increased efforts to keep costs under control.Design/methodology/approach A survey instrument was used to gather data drawing from the top 1,000 Irish firms. From a useable population of 821 organisations, a response rate of 20.75 per cent was achieved.Findings Findings show a rate of adoption of ABC of 18.7 per cent, which is lower than previous studies in an Irish context. The level of information technology in firms is not a key factor for non-adoption. Instead, the main reasoning for non-adoption revolve around stable existing costing methods, which firms expressed satisfaction with.Originality/value This research suggests the adoption of ABC is not necessarily driven by external factors such as technology and economic shocks, at least in the context of Ireland. It also suggests that costing techniques may be deeply embedded within organisations and are less likely to be subject to change.
VL  - 1
IS  - 1
SN  - 2399-1747
DO  - 10.1108/PRR-12-2016-0017
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/PRR-12-2016-0017
AU  - Quinn Martin
AU  - Elafi Otman
AU  - Mulgrew Mark
PY  - 2017
Y1  - 2017/01/01
TI  - Reasons for not changing to activity-based costing: a survey of Irish firms
T2  - PSU Research Review
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 63
EP  - 70
Y2  - 2024/04/25
ER  -