Using Activity-Based Management to Achieve Excellence

Abstract:     
The Activity-Based Management (ABM) is a managerial accounting method based on an innovative cost determination as it attributes costs to the different activities performed within the company value chain for then sharing them between the different outputs. The ABM, in fact, is based on the principle according to which costs are determined by resource consuming activities and products meet these costs as a consequence of planning, production, selling and distribution activities.

The result of the ABM is the definition of a product full cost through the determination of indirect activities, offering a product cost determination system that differs from traditional criteria by cost dealing, since costs are not connected to output volumes.

Keywords: Activity-based management, Cost drivers, Performance measures

JEL Classification: L25, G30, M40

Accepted Paper Series