چکیده:
The major aim of this study is to extend Zhang and Isa’s (2011) study by investigating the moderating effect of the stages of ABC application on the firms’ performance. This study selects 106 Chinese manufacturing companies and employs multiple regression technique and structural equation modelling. It examines whether successful application of the ABC directly affects the firm’s performance, and tests whether the stages of ABC application could produce a moderating effect on the firms’ performance. Results indicate that successful application of ABC, significantly affects achievement of the costs and quality, while sales volume is only marginally affected by ABC application, and there is an insignificant effect of the relationship between ABC application and achievement of the targets pertaining to productivity, services, and profits. Moreover, this study reports that stages of ABC application would improve the strength of the relationship between ABC application success and firms’ performance. The findings emphasize the importance of cost, quality, and stages of ABC implementation issues for management, especially for the intention of the performance evaluation.
خلاصه ماشینی:
As a result, a number of researchers have been motivated to conduct studies to examine the impact of ABC application on companies’ financial performance such as obtaining superior Return On Investment (ROI), increasing shareholders’ value (Kennedy & Affleck-Graves, 2001; Cagwin et al.
More precisely, the main incentives of this research are: a) to examine whether there is a significant effect between the ABC application features and firms’ performance, that is, the achievement of productivity targets, costs targets, quality targets, service targets, profit targets, sales volume targets, as well as market share targets, and b) to empirically examine whether ABC application stages would play a moderating role in the process of investigating the effect of ABC application success on firms’ performance.
The significance of the current study is that it: a) empirically provides evidence regarding the effect of ABC on the firm’s operations in a non-Western country, that is China, b) explicitly considers contingent variables, financial and non-financial, affecting this relationship, c) considers the role of the ABC stages as a moderating variable, hence providing a more accurate and real research design in this sphere, and d) extends the knowledge and domain of the ABC literature by reporting more contemporary and complete theories and findings in this area.
From previous studies, it can generally be inferred that a moderate effect is present between the application of cost management accounting techniques and firms’ performance (Isa, 2004; Williams & Seaman; 2001; 2002).