Troxel and Weber (1990) say that ABC is not really a new concept and they suggest that it has undergone three phases of development. In the first, ABC was not formally recognized. It was merely seen as an advanced version of traditional cost accounting and indeed there is evidence to suggest that some firms were using ABC in the late 1960s. In the second phase of its development, which was led by academics such as Cooper, ABC became recognized as a costing system in its own right, but much cost accounting system in order to introduce it. Troxel and Weber (1990) argue that it was not until phase three that it was finally recognized that ABC was not an alternative to traditional cost accounting, but that it could be used as part of the strategic decision-making process. Hence they agree with Kaplan’s (1988) assertion that there should be a disconnection between external financial reporting and the systems used to gather information for strategic decision making.