Attitudes towards ABC problems in its implementation in Polish and Lithuanian companies

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to examine attitudes of Polish and Lithuanian companies towards Activity-Based Costing implementation and in particular analysis of differences in assessing the level of implementation problems perceived by Polish and Lithuanian organizations using the system, considering its implementation, the ones which didn't considered it and those which rejected it. The research showed that there are differences in assessing the problems during ABC implementation between companies that have implemented ABC, the entities that are considering its implementation (or not considering it at all) and also those that rejected it. The problems with ABC implementation seen by adopters were considerably smaller then in view of other groups. A similar difference was noted between enterprises that were considering the implementation of the ABC system (and non-considering it at all) and those that rejected it. The last group (companies which rejected ABC) perceived implementation problems as bigger than it was the case in the group which still consider implementation or not consider it at all. The findings seem to support the view that companies are making ABC implementation decisions rationally. On one hand when the problems perceived during implementation are relatively small, company adopts ABC. On the other hand when a company perceives the implementation problems as relatively significant it rejects implementation. Somehow in the middle of the scale are companies considering implementation of ABC or just not thinking about it at all. They assess perceived problems as moderate and are not in the position yet to decide for or against ABC implementation. There could be also an alternative explanation for the research results. It maybe the case [...]