The Integrated Activity-Based Costing and Economic Value Added System as a Strategic Management Tool: A Field Study

This paper describes a field study which examines the implementation of an integrated ActivityBased Costing and Economic Value Added System in two small manufacturing firms. The results of this study suggest that this integrated approach outperforms both traditional cost accounting and standard Activity-Based Costing methods. Furthermore, the findings from two small companies show that the reliability of cost information obtained by this integrated system increases substantially when differences in capital usage exist. Factors that could create these differences in capital usage and lead to distorted cost information are discussed. Using actual data from the field study, possible distortions to product cost as a result of a homogenous capital cost allocation are also examined. Finally, the impact of this integrated approach on the decision-making, strategic planning, and long-term business performance of the two participating companies is discussed.