Past research on activity-based costing (ABC) success factors has predominantly
focused on establishing relationships between known success factors and ABC
implementation success. According to the researcher, there is a lack of exploratory
studies to establish ABC implementation factors especially in a South
African context. This study has explored these factors from literature and
attempted to identify any other factors of importance with the use of semistructured
interviews. A total number of 13 interviews were conducted with
participants from manufacturing organisations in the Nelson Mandela Bay
Metropole using some form of ABC. The findings suggested that ABC may be
more beneficial at larger, more diverse organisations but that smaller organisations
may also benefit from ABC if product costing accuracy could be
significantly improved with ABC and if no major pressure on company resources
is incurred. In addition it seems that ABC should be utilised to the fullest extent
that is practical for the manufacturing organisation and that the use of
supplementary cost-saving mechanisms with ABC may be beneficial. Finally it
is recommended that users be fully trained at ABC and that careful consideration
of an appropriate ABC software package may increase the likelihood of ABC
implementation success.Management AccountingM. Phil. (Management Accounting
