Activity Based Costing (ABC) as a costing tool is widely discussed in the academic and practitioners' circles for nearly two decades. There are theoretical and empirical accounts of ABC implementation processes and techniques in different studies. This study is a synthesis of past studies on ABC implementation in organizational contexts. Using a literature analysis of published papers over the last ten years, the study develops a typology of implementation issues by three major themes: types of organizations, methodologies used to explain the implementation processes, and the factors leading to the adoption or abandonment of an ABC system. The findings suggest that ABC is used in manufacturing, service, and even government sector organizations, organizational, economic and sociological theories are used to explain the implementation processes and finally, technical and human factors affect the implementation or abandonment of an ABC system in any organization. The comprehensive account of an ABC system implementation related major considerations reported in this paper will enhance the knowledge base of the interested academic researchers and practitioners. This research can be extended to a quantitative analysis of the themes reported here to improve the reliability and the validity of the conclusions reached in the paper
