IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/rqfnac/v47y2016i3d10.1007_s11156-015-0522-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The real option approach to adoption or discontinuation of a management accounting innovation: the case of activity-based costing

Author

Listed:
  • Shu Feng

    (Clark University)

  • Chun-Yu Ho

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Antai College of Economics and Management)

Abstract

This paper employs the real option approach (ROA) to study the investment decision of a management accounting innovation—the case of activity-based costing (ABC)—adoption or discontinuation under uncertainty. We argue that investing in ABC is analogous to having the option rights in a financial (American) call option. We propose a model taking the firm’s total annual production as primary decision variable and using the added annual net profits after establishing ABC to identify the optimal threshold for adoption or discontinuation. We find that the optimal adoption (resp., discontinuation) threshold is higher (resp., lower) when obtained by the ROA than by the net present value (NPV) method; thus, the ROA is more conservative than the NPV approach. Their difference stems mainly from the ROA’s option value of delay before implementing the adoption/discontinuation decision. Further, recent empirical researches based on survey found inconclusive results about the adoption of ABC. For instance, there are studies found that manufacturing sector having a higher adoption rate of ABC than non-manufacturing sector, but the other studies find the opposite. Our theoretical model explains the inconclusive results from the empirical researches can be driven by the variations in mean and volatility of sectoral output growth, which are omitted in those studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Shu Feng & Chun-Yu Ho, 2016. "The real option approach to adoption or discontinuation of a management accounting innovation: the case of activity-based costing," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 835-856, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:rqfnac:v:47:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s11156-015-0522-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11156-015-0522-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11156-015-0522-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11156-015-0522-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chuang-Chang Chang & Miao-Ying Chen, 2012. "Re-examining the investment-uncertainty relationship in a real options model," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 241-255, February.
    2. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    3. Askarany, Davood & Yazdifar, Hassan & Askary, Saeed, 2010. "Supply chain management, activity-based costing and organisational factors," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(2), pages 238-248, October.
    4. Sounderpandian, Jayavel & Prasad, Sameer & Madan, Manu, 2008. "Supplies from developing countries: Optimal order quantities under loss risks," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 122-130, February.
    5. Garvey, GT & Milbourn, TT, 2000. "EVA versus earnings: Does it matter which is more highly correlated with stock returns?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38, pages 209-245.
    6. Ingersoll, Jonathan E, Jr & Ross, Stephen A, 1992. "Waiting to Invest: Investment and Uncertainty," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(1), pages 1-29, January.
    7. Chia-Chi Lu & Weifeng Hung & Jyh-Jian Sheu & Pai-Ta Shih, 2011. "Investment with network externality under uncertainty," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 555-564, May.
    8. Robert McDonald & Daniel Siegel, 1986. "The Value of Waiting to Invest," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(4), pages 707-727.
    9. Mark Broadie & Jerome B. Detemple, 2004. "ANNIVERSARY ARTICLE: Option Pricing: Valuation Models and Applications," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(9), pages 1145-1177, September.
    10. Shih-Chuan Tsai, 2005. "Dynamic Models of Investment Distortions," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 357-381, December.
    11. Martzoukos, Spiros H, 2001. "Hysteresis Models of Investment with Multiple Uncertainties and Exchange Rate Risk," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 251-267, May.
    12. Sascha Mölls & Karl-Heinz Schild, 2012. "Decision-making in sequential projects: expected time-to-build and probability of failure," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 1-25, July.
    13. Adrian Lei & Martin Yick & Keith Lam, 2013. "Does tax convexity matter for risk? A dynamic study of tax asymmetry and equity beta," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 131-147, July.
    14. Alessandri, Todd M. & Ford, David N. & Lander, Diane M. & Leggio, Karyl B. & Taylor, Marilyn, 2004. "Managing risk and uncertainty in complex capital projects," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 751-767, December.
    15. Hogan, Chris E. & Lewis, Craig M., 2005. "Long-Run Investment Decisions, Operating Performance, and Shareholder Value Creation of Firms Adopting Compensation Plans Based on Economic Profits," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(4), pages 721-745, December.
    16. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R., 2001. "The theory and practice of corporate finance: evidence from the field," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2-3), pages 187-243, May.
    17. Askarany, Davood & Yazdifar, Hassan, 2012. "An investigation into the mixed reported adoption rates for ABC: Evidence from Australia, New Zealand and the UK," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 430-439.
    18. McDonald, Robert L & Siegel, Daniel R, 1985. "Investment and the Valuation of Firms When There Is an Option to Shut Down," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 26(2), pages 331-349, June.
    19. Kevin Baird, 2007. "Adoption of activity management practices in public sector organizations," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 47(4), pages 551-569, December.
    20. Kuo-Jung Lee & David S. Shyu & Miao-Ling Dai, 2009. "The Valuation of Information Technology Investments by Real Options Analysis," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(04), pages 611-628.
    21. Leggio, Karyl B., 2004. "Managing uncertainty and risk," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 633-635, December.
    22. Foster, Benjamin P. & Ward, Terry J., 1994. "Theory of perpetual management accounting innovation lag in hierarchical organizations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(4-5), pages 401-411.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lin, Tyrone T. & Huang, Shio-Ling, 2011. "Application of the modified Tobin's q to an uncertain energy-saving project with the real options concept," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 408-420, January.
    2. Chia-Chi Lu & Weifeng Hung & Jyh-Jian Sheu & Pai-Ta Shih, 2011. "Investment with network externality under uncertainty," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 555-564, May.
    3. Lin, Tyrone T. & Huang, Shio-Ling, 2010. "An entry and exit model on the energy-saving investment strategy with real options," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 794-802, February.
    4. Akamatsu, Takashi & Nagae, Takeshi, 2011. "A network of options: Evaluating complex interdependent decisions under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 714-729, May.
    5. Chen, Yu-Fu & Funke, Michael, 2003. "Option Value, Policy Uncertainty, and the Foreign Direct Investment Decision," HWWA Discussion Papers 234, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA).
    6. Driouchi, Tarik & Leseure, Michel & Bennett, David, 2009. "A robustness framework for monitoring real options under uncertainty," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 698-710, June.
    7. Paolo M. Panteghini, 2012. "Corporate Debt, Hybrid Securities, and the Effective Tax Rate," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 14(1), pages 161-186, February.
    8. Bolton, Patrick & Wang, Neng & Yang, Jinqiang, 2019. "Investment under uncertainty with financial constraints," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    9. Paolo M. Panteghini & Sergio Vergalli, 2016. "Accelerated depreciation, default risk and investment decisions," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 113-130, October.
    10. Paolo Panteghini, 2004. "Wide vs. Narrow Tax Bases under Optimal Investment Timing," CESifo Working Paper Series 1246, CESifo.
    11. Laarni T. Bulan, 2005. "Real options, irreversible investment and firm uncertainty: New evidence from U.S. firms," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(3-4), pages 255-279.
    12. repec:dau:papers:123456789/1046 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Wang, Tan, 2001. "Equilibrium with new investment opportunities," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 25(11), pages 1751-1773, November.
    14. Bulan, Laarni T., 2005. "Real options, irreversible investment and firm uncertainty: New evidence from U.S. firms," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3-4), pages 255-279.
    15. Lindstrom, Tomas, 1998. "A fuzzy design of the willingness to invest in Sweden," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 1-17, July.
    16. Drobetz, Wolfgang & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Janzen, Malte, 2018. "Policy uncertainty, investment, and the cost of capital," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 28-45.
    17. Lander, Diane M. & Pinches, George E., 1998. "Challenges to the Practical Implementation of Modeling and Valuing Real Options," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(3, Part 2), pages 537-567.
    18. Manfred Fruhwirth & Paul Schneider & Markus S. Schwaiger, 2007. "Timing Decisions in a Multinational Context: Implementing the Amin/Bodurtha Framework," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 11(3-4), pages 157-178, September.
    19. Wu-Lung Li & Kenneth Zheng, 2017. "Product market competition and cost stickiness," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 283-313, August.
    20. Han T.J. Smit & Lenos Trigeorgis, 2006. "Real options and games: Competition, alliances and other applications of valuation and strategy," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(2), pages 95-112.
    21. Jan Vlachý, 2009. "Strategie podniku a finanční teorie [Corporate strategy and financial theory]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2009(2), pages 147-162.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Activity-based costing; Management accounting innovations; Real option theory; Investment under uncertainty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:rqfnac:v:47:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s11156-015-0522-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.