摘要：Peter Drucker (1986),in "Management:Tasks,responsibilities,and practices” states that business enterprises and public-service institutions,are organs of society which do not exist for their own sake,but to fulfil a specific social purpose and to satisfy need of society,community,or individual.To achieve the above objectives,managers of these institutions must plan,control and make decisions about the resources entrusted to their care.A key element of efficient organizational decision making is to use reliable information,both operational and managerial accounting data for analysis and decision support.This can be achieved by using activity-based costing (ABC) method.The underlying premise of ABC is that resources are consumed by activities to produce outputs or products and services (US General Services Administration,2006).It focuses on the allocation of indirect costs to products and services,which was traditionally done on arbitrary basis.ABC is useful in two situations:areas with large and growing indirect and support costs (Krumwiede,1998a;Becker,Bergener and Räckers,2010),and areas with a large variety in products,customers and processes (Cooper,1988a,1988b;Groot,1999).The unique characteristic of public sector organizations as overhead-intensive service entities,therefore,is amenable to the use of ABC methodology (Becker,Bergener,and Räckers,2009).Buttross and Schmelzle (2003) re-emphasize ABC adoption in the public sector and suggest that it can provide information on the cost of providing government services for strategic decisions.Despite its popularity in the literature,relatively little is known about the adoption of ABC,especially in South Africa’s public sector.The purpose of this study was to review the literature about the use of the ABC methodology to overcome shortcomings in traditional approaches to allocating costs to products and services in the public sector so as to promote effective financial management and concomitantly,efficient service delivery in the South Africa’s public sector.
关键词：Peter Drucker (1986),in "Management:Tasks,responsibilities,and practices” states that business enterprises and public-service institutions,are organs of society which do not exist for their own sake,but to fulfil a specific social purpose and to satisfy need of society,community,or individual.To achieve the above objectives,managers of these institutions must plan,control and make decisions about the resources entrusted to their care.A key element of efficient organizational decision making is to use reliable information,both operational and managerial accounting data for analysis and decision support.This can be achieved by using activity-based costing (ABC) method.The underlying premise of ABC is that resources are consumed by activities to produce outputs or products and services (US General Services Administration,2006).It focuses on the allocation of indirect costs to products and services,which was traditionally done on arbitrary basis.ABC is useful in two situations:areas with large and growing indirect and support costs (Krumwiede,1998a;Becker,Bergener and Räckers,2010),and areas with a large variety in products,customers and processes (Cooper,1988a,1988b;Groot,1999).The unique characteristic of public sector organizations as overhead-intensive service entities,therefore,is amenable to the use of ABC methodology (Becker,Bergener,and Räckers,2009).Buttross and Schmelzle (2003) re-emphasize ABC adoption in the public sector and suggest that it can provide information on the cost of providing government services for strategic decisions.Despite its popularity in the literature,relatively little is known about the adoption of ABC,especially in South Africa’s public sector.The purpose of this study was to review the literature about the use of the ABC methodology to overcome shortcomings in traditional approaches to allocating costs to products and services in the public sector so as to promote effective financial management and concomitantly,efficient service delivery in the South Africa’s public sector.
