Title: ABC, Balanced Scorecard, EVA™: an empirical study on the adoption of innovative management accounting techniques

Authors: Marika Arena, Giovanni Azzone

Addresses: Politecnico di Milano – Dipartimento di Ingegneria Gestionale, 32, Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci, 20133 Milano, Italy. ' Politecnico di Milano – Dipartimento di Ingegneria Gestionale, 32, Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci, 20133 Milano, Italy

Abstract: This paper reports on the findings of a survey on management accounting systems in 289 Italian organisations. The research studied the adoption of three specific techniques: ABC/ABM, Balanced Scorecard and EVA™, analysing the key success factors of companies which claimed to adopt them, their objectives and the effects on the control system|s performances. The analysis indicates that innovative techniques have been increasingly adopted by many companies, which further showed a higher attention to new competitive dimensions. The study also highlighted positive benefits in using accounting techniques; new practices have a significant impact on the control system and respondents associate their use with cost reduction, make or buy decisions, attribution of specific responsibility and budgeting.

Keywords: ABC; activity-based costing; balanced scorecard; EVA; survey; perceived benefits; Italy; management accounting; key success factors; cost reduction; make-or-buy decisions; budgeting.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAAPE.2005.007673

International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, 2005 Vol.2 No.3, pp.206 - 225

Published online: 01 Sep 2005 *

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