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Purpose – The aim of the study is to contribute to a better understanding of activity-based costing (ABC) implementation systems in the context of a developing country such as Jordan. The main objectives of the study were to determine the extent of ABC implementation within the Jordanian industrial sector and identify the factors that facilitate and motivate the decision to implement ABC. Additional objectives include determining the problems associated with ABC implementation and assessing the degree of success of ABC implementation.

Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was conducted during 2008 among 88 Jordanian industrial companies that are listed on the Amman stock exchange. Eighty-eight questionnaires were distributed and 61 were returned giving a rate of response of 69.3%.

Findings – The survey findings indicate that ABC implementation among the Jordanian industrial companies is quite satisfactory. The rate of ABC implementation is about 55.7%. The most cited factors that facilitate the decision to implement ABC were that adequate training was provided for designing ABC and operating data in the information system are updated in real time: followed by the fact that adequate training was provided for using ABC. The most influential factors that motivate the process of ABC implementation are among others the increasing proportion of overhead costs, growing costs, including product costs and administrative costs, and currently the increasing number of product variants. Further factors are identified in the paper.

Originality/value – Most previous studies focused only on the implementation of ABC in western developed countries. The results of this study make a contribution to existing knowledge in the area of the implementation of ABC, especially in eastern developing countries such as Jordan. In addition, the current study used a multi-attribute to measure success of ABC implementation within the Jordanian industrial sector. This multi-attribute was composed of satisfaction with ABC implementation, the degree of using ABC in decision making and the success of ABC implementation.

This study explores the implementation of sustainable finance in an Indonesian state-owned bank (“ABC Bank” or “ABC”). A case study approach is employed to deeply analyze the implementation using data collected through interviews and through a review of company documents. The frameworks from Soppe (2004) and Indonesia Regulation POJK 51 were used to examine the sustainable finance implementation. The findings show that ABC Bank exercises a sustainability commitment in implementing sustainable finance long before the government regulation is imposed on several banks as early adopters in Indonesia. The regulation requires selected banks to apply the eight principles of sustainable finance and prepare a sustainable financial action plan and sustainability report. ABC’s commitment is mainly driven by its status as a government-owned bank, thus facilitating the awareness of achieving public welfare while maintaining profitability. Social implication of this study is that developing countries often face more severe consequences of climate change than developed countries. Hence, the sustainable finance implementation can have a significant social impact to reduce the negative effect. This study contributes to the literature by exploring the initial adoption of sustainable finance by a state-owned bank attempting to balance the interests of the public and management. It also provides insights into other financial institutions adopting sustainable finance as mandated by the local obligation POJK 51.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive review of empirical research on performance management (PM) in former communist Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, to evaluate the state of knowledge in this area and suggest possible directions for future research.

An examination of the literature was undertaken to review the empirical studies treating on PM in ex-communist countries from CEE. A total of 96 journal articles, PhD thesis, and conference papers were identified, categorized, and analyzed according to research questions, methodology, and theoretical framework. Contributions are classified by countries, according to progress in transition process (post-transition/transition countries) and membership in the Soviet Union (Soviet/non-Soviet countries). The review examines publications in four languages (English, French, Romanian, and Russian).

The literature review identified various stages of development of PM research and practice in the different groups of CEE countries.

In post-transition CEE countries, PM research follows the trends settled up in the developed countries (quantitative studies examining the extent of usage of different PM tools, influence of contingent factors, relationship PM-strategy, and impact on company’s performance). Also, the findings illustrate the modernization of PM practices: increasing importance of nonfinancial indicators and integrated performance management systems (PMS), although financial indicators are prevailing.

On the contrary, in transition countries PM research and practices are at an early stage, the reviewed literature highlights some specific issues related to transition context: the dynamic aspect of PM, change management, importance of informal systems, cultural aspects, and business traditions.

Because of the large number of CEE countries and the diversity of their national languages, many studies conducted in native languages have not been addressed in this literature review, which is essentially based on publications in English and French. Only for three CEE countries (Russia, Romania, and Moldova) publications in national language were considered.

This literature review may be useful for practitioners, providing insights on the extent of diffusion and usage of different PM tools and identifying difficulties and pitfalls to avoid in their implementation.

The chapter represents one of the first contributions to the knowledge about PM research and practice in former communist CEE countries. The adopted framework for reviewing and classifying the literature allows identifying the differences in PM research and practices between post-transition/transition and Soviet/non-Soviet countries.

Multinational corporations (MNCs) are converging world cultures by creating common consumer lifestyles across countries through standardized products. However, little is known about how consumers’ exposure to foreign cultures affects their purchase experience from the country. This study explores this gap in the literature by investigating how consumers’ exposure to foreign cultural source (e.g., entertainment) shapes their attitude toward its country. This attitude is conceptualized to influence the perceived product quality and corporate ability of the country’s MNCs, which are further hypothesized to influence consumers’ purchase experience with products offered by the MNCs. Furthermore, the impact of product quality and corporate ability on consumer purchase experience is expected to be moderated by consumer ethnocentrism. The study framework is tested in the context of the Korean Wave (or “Hallyu”) using data consisting of 533 Indonesian consumers. The results support most of the study hypotheses. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

The Austrian theory of the business cycle (henceforth ABC) frequently has been a target for critics of Austrian economics. In particular, a number of economists who are generally appreciative of other Austrian themes have singled out ABC as being, in one such critic's words, an “embarrassing excrescence” marring the otherwise generally sound body of modern Austrian thought.¹ Despite such criticisms, many Austrian economists persist in forwarding ABC as the best available, or perhaps even the only valid, explanation for the cycles of boom and bust regularly occurring in most modern, national economies.

Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior of E-payment systems that employ smart card technology becomes a research area that is of particular value and interest to both IS researchers and professionals. However, research interest focuses mostly on why a smart card-based E-payment system results in a failure or how the system could have grown into a success. This signals the fact that researchers have not had much opportunity to critically review a smart card-based E-payment system that has gained wide support and overcome the hurdle of critical mass adoption. The Octopus in Hong Kong has provided a rare opportunity for investigating smart card-based E-payment system because of its unprecedented success. This research seeks to thoroughly analyze the Octopus from technology adoption behavior perspectives.

Cultural impacts on adoption behavior are one of the key areas that this research posits to investigate. Since the present research is conducted in Hong Kong where a majority of population is Chinese ethnicity and yet is westernized in a number of aspects, assuming that users in Hong Kong are characterized by eastern or western culture is less useful. Explicit cultural characteristics at individual level are tapped into here instead of applying generalization of cultural beliefs to users to more accurately reflect cultural bias. In this vein, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is adapted, extended, and tested for its applicability cross-culturally in Hong Kong on the Octopus. Four cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede are included in this study, namely uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and Confucian Dynamism (long-term orientation), to explore their influence on usage behavior through the mediation of perceived usefulness.

TAM is also integrated with the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) to borrow two constructs in relation to innovative characteristics, namely relative advantage and compatibility, in order to enhance the explanatory power of the proposed research model. Besides, the normative accountability of the research model is strengthened by embracing two social influences, namely subjective norm and image. As the last antecedent to perceived usefulness, prior experience serves to bring in the time variation factor to allow level of prior experience to exert both direct and moderating effects on perceived usefulness.

The resulting research model is analyzed by partial least squares (PLS)-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The research findings reveal that all cultural dimensions demonstrate direct effect on perceived usefulness though the influence of uncertainty avoidance is found marginally significant. Other constructs on innovative characteristics and social influences are validated to be significant as hypothesized. Prior experience does indeed significantly moderate the two influences that perceived usefulness receives from relative advantage and compatibility, respectively. The research model has demonstrated convincing explanatory power and so may be employed for further studies in other contexts. In particular, cultural effects play a key role in contributing to the uniqueness of the model, enabling it to be an effective tool to help critically understand increasingly internationalized IS system development and implementation efforts. This research also suggests several practical implications in view of the findings that could better inform managerial decisions for designing, implementing, or promoting smart card-based E-payment system.

Purpose – To analyze the diffusion of management accounting tools in Italian manufacturing firms and the impact of contingency factors with a particular focus on internationalization.

Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on a qualitative statistical analysis and two quantitative data analyses focusing on the effects of contingency factors. In particular, 274 questionnaires were analyzed. A questionnaire-based e-mail survey was used to collect data.

Findings – The results confirm positive relationships between management accounting systems and traditional contingency factors such as company size, organizational structure, and operational complexity. In addition, a positive correlation was found between the internationalization and implementation of activity-based costing and target costing.

Research limitations/implications – In the context of internationalization, this exploratory study considers only the impact of foreign customers. Further research could include other factors such as foreign suppliers, joint ventures, and technological exchanges.

Originality/value of paper – This paper contributes to the analysis of the impact of internationalization, a contingency variable not yet fully investigated in management accounting system research.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which potential factors affect the use of activity-based costing (ABC) in a service context.

Design/methodology/approach – An empirical survey was conducted on a sample of 112 leading hotels enterprises in Greece.

Findings – Results show that the use of ABC is positively associated with business strategy and with chief financial officer's (CFO) educational background. In addition, ABC is negatively associated with CFO age. No association was found between the use of ABC and the quality of information technology, membership of multinational chain, and CFO tenure.

Research limitations/implications – This research was limited to the Greek hotel sector. Cross-sectional studies as the work presented here can establish associations, but not causality.

Originality/value – This paper adds to the limited body of knowledge of the design of cost systems in a service context (service cost system design). Specifically, this paper adopted a contingency approach and used empirical analysis to identify the influence of specific organizational variables and CFOs characteristics on the use of ABC in service firms. The operational homogeneity of hotels enables powerful tests of the research hypotheses.