Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio as a bladder cancer biomarker: assessing prognostic and predictive value in SWOG 8710

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ABC at Insteel Industries

In this paper, we seek to provide empirical documentation of the effect of Activity-Based Costing (ABC) information on product and customer-related decisions made by managers in a company. Proponents of ABC argue that when an entity implements ABC, it reaps at least two important benefits: process improvements that promote more efficient use of resources and hence reduce costs, and a set of overhead cost numbers that, relative to traditional volume-based methods of costing, better represent the consumption of shared resources by the firm's products, and enable the firm to target a more profitable mix of products and customers. While there is much anecdotal evidence about the efficacy of ABC and ABM (Activity Based Management), there has been no systematic, statistical investigation of whether ABC really influences managerial decisions. An ABC analysis may not have any impact on a firm for two reasons. (1) It may not reveal any new information to the managers who intuitively know already what an ABC system formally captures. (2) Key managers may reject the ABC numbers and be unwilling to weather the organizational change and upheaval often required for effective ABM. In this study, we conduct a statistical analysis of firm-level data in order to shed light on whether ABC provides new information to managers and whether ABM significantly impacts product and customer-related decisions. We supplement this analysis with interviews with top managers in the company on whether and to what extent the ABC analysis influenced managerial decision making. We do not find much support for the hypothesis that product prices reflect all costs even when a company does not have ABC information. We find that after the ABC analysis, Insteel displayed a higher propensity to discontinue or increase prices of products that were found unprofitable in the ABC study and to discontinue customers that were found unprofitable in the ABC. The changes to the portfolio of customers served were similar but not as striking as the product mix and pricing decisions. This finding is consistent with senior managers' intuition that product level decisions can be made faster than customer level decisions.

General implementation stages of the ABC method in the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This article highlights the analysis and implementation stages of the ABC method in small and medium sized enterprises in Romania. It presents the historical development of the ABC method and its implementation issues identified in the economic entities. It stresses the importance of the ABC method to obtain relevant information to management decision-making entities. Emphasis is placed on the analysis type implementation issues: financial, behavioral, technical, informational, managerial, also performance and ownership. Also are proposed and shown the specific implementation stages of the ABC method adapted to small and medium-sized enterprises in Romania. To facilitate understanding of the ABC method implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises in Romania, have been submitted questions whose answers are accompanied by actions designed to enlighten all those involved in the implementation process. The article ends with the results of implementing the ABC method by internationally renowned experts and the author's conclusions about the stages of implementation of the ABC method in small and medium-sized enterprises in Romania. Author's vision is intertwined with visions of managerial accounting specialists offering a wide scope and successful implementation of the ABC method in small and medium-sized enterprises in Romania.Activity-Based Costing; implementation; SME; principles; management accounting

The activity-based costing model trajectory: A path of lights and shadows

Purpose: To present a literature review showing the trajectory of the ABC model. Design/methodology: Literature review. Findings: This paper analyzes the history of the ABC model and its dissemination process, in the form of articles published in the specialized press. Research limitations/implications: The bibliometric study has been carried out based on specialized journals. Practical implications: Before a new strategic management tool is adopted, its strategic or operational contribution to the organization should be analyzed. The adoption of new tools based on current trends or as part of mimetic processes, could imply financial investments that do not produce the desired effects. Originality/value: This work is an analysis of the trajectory of the ABC model from its appearance to the present time.Peer Reviewe

Activity-based Costing (ABC) and Activity-based Management(ABM)Implementation – Is This the Solution for Organizations to Gain Profitability?

Adherents of ABC/ABM systems claimed traditional management accounting systems generated misleading costs in a contemporary, tumultuous, often changing business environment and implementing ABC/ABM would remedy this. That is why activity-based costing (ABC) and activity-based management (ABM) represents the symbol of improved competitiveness and efficiency in every organization.The purpose of this article – after analyzing the existing literature in the field – is to emphasize that new cost systems such as ABC and ABM could be a strong couple that assures competitiveness and efficiency for each company. Another objective is to present that, besides its disadvantages, firms implement the ABC/ABM system because it permits better tracing of costs to objects, superior allocation of overheads to cost objects, financial and non-financial analysis and measures useful to managers and management accountants in the decision-making process.ABC,ABM,implementation process, profitability

On optimality of kernels for approximate Bayesian computation using sequential Monte Carlo

Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) has gained popularity over the past few years for the analysis of complex models arising in population genetics, epidemiology and system biology. Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) approaches have become work-horses in ABC. Here we discuss how to construct the perturbation kernels that are required in ABC SMC approaches, in order to construct a sequence of distributions that start out from a suitably defined prior and converge towards the unknown posterior. We derive optimality criteria for different kernels, which are based on the Kullback-Leibler divergence between a distribution and the distribution of the perturbed particles. We will show that for many complicated posterior distributions, locally adapted kernels tend to show the best performance. We find that the added moderate cost of adapting kernel functions is easily regained in terms of the higher acceptance rate. We demonstrate the computational efficiency gains in a range of toy examples which illustrate some of the challenges faced in real-world applications of ABC, before turning to two demanding parameter inference problems in molecular biology, which highlight the huge increases in efficiency that can be gained from choice of optimal kernels. We conclude with a general discussion of the rational choice of perturbation kernels in ABC SMC settings

ABC Analysis in an Internet Shop: A New Set of Criteria

This article presents a model of ABC analysis tailored for internet shops. The standard set of criteria is expanded to cover e-commerce specific characteristics, such as the number of product views, search engine rankings and product links via a recommendation system..The proposed new methodology is applied to real data from an internet bookstore in Poland. A comparison with the results of a standard, not internet-oriented ABC analysis shows the advantage of using the new set of criteria.ABC analysis, internet shop, inventory control