Activity-based management : En begreppsprecisering

Sammanfattning: Background: In the eighties the debate concerning the declining relevance of the traditional calculation started. The reason was that the method of calculating not had been changed despite that the costs and manufacturing had changed in many companies. This led to the development of activity-based costing. Management by means of activity information is called activity-based management, but there is no general accepted definition of what the term com- prises. Neither are there any studies which describe within which areas activity information is used as a base for decisions. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe in which situations activity information is used as a base for different decisions, and to define the term activity-based management. Method: The approach taken is qualitative. A total of 13 telephone interviews with four different companies, three producers and one wholesale firm, have been carried out. Results: Activity information is used as a base for decisions principally in situations that concerns changes in the operational work through management of processes, price and product changes and costumer profitability. Changes within these areas may concern increases in efficiency and effectiveness, and changes in price, assortment and focus on different costumers. In a long perspective these changes may lead to an increase in the profitability. From the studied empirical applications we formulated the following definition of the ABM- term: “The use of activity information as a support for decisions, which concerns securing the companies profitability and to make activities and processes visible and in that way make improvements possible.”