i.e. that it may be a fad or fashion, engendering a bandwagon effect rather than a genuine and useful technical enhancement, (b) its decision-making relevance (Noreen, 1991; Bromwich and Hong, 1999), i.e. that several restrictive (and practically unlikely) conditions must apply before the ABC information can legitimately be used to generate relevant costs for decisions, and (c) the problematic and costly design, implementation and operation of the systems required for ABC