New methodology for calculating cost-efficiency of different ways of voting: is internet voting cheaper?

ABSTRACT

New ways of voting in elections are being sought by electoral administrations worldwide who want to reverse declining voter turnouts without increasing electoral budgets. This paper presents a novel approach to cost accounting for multi-channel elections based on local elections in Estonia. By doing so, it addresses an important gap in the academic literature in this field. The authors confirm that internet voting was most cost-efficient voting channel offered to Estonian voters.     

马来西亚东海岸铁路运维成本的作业成本法测算研究

首先分析了铁路运维的成本体系,通过探讨作业成本法,使用其初步估算马来西亚东海岸铁路未来运营的运维成本,因项目特点暂只考虑生产运营及维护的成本,最后对运维成本的数据进行分析验证,为未来运营提供依据和支持,同时为未来更多的国内外轨道交通建设运营项目提供有经验、有价值的运营成本测算参考。     

小议作业基础成本会计核算方法的运作

在现代制造环境下,传统成本计算系统的局限以及作业基础成本会计对此的改善已是不争的事实。作业基础成本法在精确成本信息,改善经营过程,为资源决策、产品定价及组合决策提供完善的信息等方面,都受到了广泛的赞誉。在中国,作业成本法在理论上的研究比较深入,然而在具体应用上尚处于探索阶段。为此,本文将对成本基础作业会计的理论、计算程序及运行中存在的问题进行了简要探讨。     

Role of supply chain management in target costing

Standard costing is used as a control for product costing. But with life cycle becoming shorter, costing should be done at the design and development stage of a product. This is achieved through target costing.The implementation of target costing and target pricing is done with the ultimate purpose of cost reduction, cost understanding, continuous improvement, competitiveness, early purchasing and supplier involvement, and improved design and accountability by manufacturers. The study explores the participation of the purchasing and supply chain management＇s role in target costing and target pricing process. Supply management plays an active role in monitoring the ongoing cost and performance of suppliers during the early stages of product development. Implementation of target costing and target pricing in various organizations are also explored. Leading Japanese manufacturers have used target costing and target pricing systems to their advantage and the paper also examines the adaptation of the Western companies to these proactive cost management techniques to improve their product development processes.     

作业成本法在企业物流成本核算中的应用

传统的成本核算体系不能满足物流成本管理的需要。将作业成本法引入物流成本的核算及管理中,可以有效地控制物流成本,而且对作业成本法的普及起推动作用。     

基于ABC的企业环境成本控制体系研究

随着人们环保意识的增强,环境成本已成为企业决策所需的重要信息。本文在对环境成本特性进行深入分析的基础上,提出了基于ABC的企业环境成本核算方法及其控制体系,明确了每一环节的基本原则和方法,并以西安正大制药有限公司为例介绍了企业环境成本的核算、控制的具体运作过程。     

An investigation into the mixed reported adoption rates for ABC: Evidence from Australia, New Zealand and the UK

An accumulated body of the literature confirms that the adoption of activity-based costing (ABC) can lead to a substantial improvement in organisational performance, productivity and profitability, and therefore encourages further adoption of the technique. However, studies investigating the diffusion of ABC have reported inconsistent and mixed results. This could cause uncertainty for many potential adopters of ABC (especially for those who follow the fashion and fads approaches) and influence their tendencies towards the adoption of ABC in the future. Addressing the diffusion process as a contextual factor, this study simultaneously investigates the adoption of ABC from the perspectives of different diffusion processes. Using two commonly adopted diffusion processes (the stages of adoption and the levels of adoption), this study examines the relationship between the reported adoption rates for ABC and the diffusion process approaches chosen to measure its adoption rates in three western countries: Australia, New Zealand and the UK. A similar questionnaire was used and more than 2000 qualified CIMA members (via a survey study and follow-up interviews) were targeted. The findings suggest a significant association between the reported adoption rates for ABC and the diffusion process approaches chosen to measure the adoption rates. The findings further suggest that the lack of a common understanding of ABC systems may have also contributed to the mixed reported adoption rates for ABC, as many ABC adopters have considered themselves adopters of traditional accounting systems by mistake (especially when they are dealing with ‘facility costs’ as one of the main cost hierarchies under ABC systems).     

Applying activity-based costing in a supply chain environment

Traditional intra-firm cost accounting tools are not appropriate in the context of supply chain management, as there are no standards for the definition and composition of costs. This prohibits exchange and comparison of cost data among different supply chain members. Against this background, several activity-based costing models for inter-firm cost accounting have been proposed. Evaluating these models, a conceptual framework for activity-based costing in a supply chain has been developed. This also forms the basis for a single case study conducted at Europe's largest company for façade components. This demonstrates how significant inter-firm cost saving opportunities can be identified and offers a first step in assessing the suitability of the proposed model.     

Assessing the interaction effect of cost control systems and information technology integration on manufacturing plant financial performance

The interface between management control and information technology is an under-developed research area with a knowledge gap concerning its implications for financial performance. This study contributes to bridging this gap by investigating the interaction effect of cost control systems and information technology integration on manufacturing plant financial performance. We surveyed a sample of 518 managers of U.S. manufacturing plants, approximately evenly distributed between those using activity-based costing and volume-based costing. Using hierarchical regression analyses, results indicate that while information technology integration and cost control systems do not provide significant independent effects on plant financial performance, they do interact to positively impact manufacturing plant financial performance. Thus, our findings suggest that manufacturing plants will reap the greatest financial performance benefits from investments in activity-based cost control systems when combined with information technology integration.     

Modem Cost Management in the Transport Company Through the Activity-Based Costing （ABC） Method

Road transport is a flexible mode of transport and its importance in era of globalization increases. Management of road transport companies is, in this turbulent environment, exposed to many technical, legislative, and economic problems. Especially, the growing economic pressure leads to an urgent requirement of the manager and control system improvement. Activity-based costing （ABC） method is a very powerful tool to improve products, services, processes, and market strategies. ABC allows company management to understand what causes costs and how to manage them. Company under this scheme may get a glimpse of how efficiently a company converts the source value. The main objective of our research was to assess the possibility of application of the ABC method in a transport undertaking. ABC method as a fundamentally different view on the cost in the transport business helps to find the reasons of cost and thereby influences their levels to make better use of resources.. New managerial accounting methods aim to show management what information is needed, how and where this information can be obtained, and how they can be useful for the management of the company＇s proper planning, decision-making, and control. Information provided by management accounting is often a key factor in the analysis of alternative ways of solving problems. This article focuses on the transport enterprise management and helps to decide on the use of this method in business practice.