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موجز عن البحث:
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Since
most costing system studies concentrate on the manufacturing industry, the
costing systems in Saudi Arabian hospitals are an important area to be
investigated given a current lack of focus in this field. In this context,
this article highlights the cost systems in 50 Saudi Arabian hospitals in
both the public and private sectors. The participants in the study were asked
about the costing systems used and which one they would prefer to use, along
with the factors influencing ABC adoption. The main findings show that only
28% (14) of the surveyed hospitals adopt ABC. The adoption of ABC was much
higher in public hospitals than private hospitals. In addition, general
hospitals considered using ABC more often than specialised hospitals. There
were some variables which could affect the ABC adoption, such as the
education and qualifications of the accounting and management staff, the
level of overhead costs and the size of hospitals. The greatest benefit of
ABC adoption, which is agreed to by the participants, was the improvement in
the quality of service. On the other hand, the participants also agreed that
the biggest challenge of ABC adoption was the lack of staff expertise.
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ملخص المشاركة:
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Previous
studies into costing systems have focused on activity-based costing (ABC);
but few researchers have focused on activity management (AM) levels. ABC
adoption means that companies adopt or decide not to adopt ABC, whereas AM
relates to how ABC is practiced. This has been defined in terms of three
different levels of intensity, which are activity analysis (AA),
activity-cost analysis (ACA), and ABC. In addition, some researchers have
focused on the design of cost systems by measuring of cost system sophistication
(CSS). CSS takes a much broader approach to analysing cost systems so that
cost systems can range from simple costing systems to highly sophisticated
ones. Given the lack of research into
AM, the current research aims to examine the relationships between business
units’ experience of ABC and AM, and CSS and AM.
Accurate
costing systems can enhance business units’ performance, but costing systems
studies did not provide consistent results regarding the impact of contingent
factors on costing systems and the latter is impact on performance. In
response to the limitation in costing systems literature, this research aims
to develop more comprehensive models to test the influence of contingent
factors on ABC adoption, AM levels and CSS, and the influences of ABC
adoption, AM levels, and CSS on both non-financial and financial performance.
By doing so, the current research uses the mediation form of fit from
contingency theory to explain: (1) how contingent factors influence costing
systems, (2) how some of contingent factors can mediate the relationship
between other contingent factors and costing systems, and (3) how
non-financial performance can mediate the relationship between costing
systems and financial performance.
Financial
directors and management accountants are in the best position to complete the
research study because they can provide relevant information about the cost
accounting system used in their business unit. This study uses a mixed
methods approach based on a questionnaire and follow up interviews. The
questionnaires were distributed to 2,000 UK non-manufacturing companies.
There were 202 usable responses to the survey (10.1% response rate). The
quantitative data from the questionnaires will be analysed by using
structural equation modelling (SEM) to test several hypotheses relating to
the research models described above. Following this, semi-structured
interviews will be used to collect qualitative data. The aim of the
interviews is to enhance the internal validity of the questionnaire results
by obtaining the interviewees’ opinions about the significant and
non-significant relationships found and to provide explanations for any
unexpected relationships between the variables.
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