Title: An activity-based costing for a university consultancy centre for entrepreneurship

Authors: Natasha Khandakar; Fethi Saidi; Bilal Ahmad Elsalem

Addresses: Department of Accounting and Information Systems, College of Business and Economics, Qatar University, Qatar ' Department of Accounting and Information Systems, College of Business and Economics, Qatar University, Qatar ' Department of Accounting and Information Systems, College of Business and Economics, Qatar University, Qatar

Abstract: The motivation to implement activity-based costing (ABC) in services and academia-oriented institutions is identical to other institutions: to assign indirect costs to products and services based on activities. This study presents an attempt to develop an ABC simulation model applicable at the Centre for Entrepreneurship, which is an advisory and consultancy unit at Qatar University. The proposed ABC model is intended to assist the managers computing the operational costs of four operational activities of the centre: research, training, consultation, and incubation. The study relies on a qualitative research method, including data collected from both primary and secondary sources. Secondary data is a based on reviewing literature sources; whereas primary data is based on a survey. The findings confirm the appropriateness of ABC in gaining better insights into the cost structure of the activities of the centre.

Keywords: activity-based costing; ABC; centre for entrepreneurship; traditional costing; cost analysis; Qatar University.

DOI: 10.1504/AAJFA.2018.093469

Afro-Asian Journal of Finance and Accounting, 2018 Vol.8 No.3, pp.296 - 316

Received: 26 May 2017
Accepted: 30 Sep 2017
Published online: 26 Jul 2018 *

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