I. Cost Management
Ittner et al. (2002) used a large cross-sectional sample of manufacturing plants to compare the operational and financial performance at plant level of ABC adopters with that of non-adopters. Results showed that extensive ABC usage was associated with higher quality level and decreases in cycle time, which indirectly led to significant manufacturing cost reductions compared to the non-adopters (Ittner et al. 2002).
Similarly, Kennedy and Affleck-Graves (2001) concluded that through better cost controls, firms that adopt ABC techniques outperform matching firms which use alternative costing methods by approximately 27% in terms of stock market returns. However, authors warn to read these results with caution since other factors might have led to these abnormal returns of the adopters, making it impossible to prove definitively the causal link between ABC adoption and increase in shareholder value (Ibid.).