Obstacles and Reasons for Non-adoption of Activity-Based Costing/Management at Saudi Universities

摘要

Despite the global trend of upgrading costing systems in higher education institutions (HEIs), Saudi universities have not yet planned to adopt activity-based costing/management (ABC/M) to provide reliable information that would support decisions. Hence, it will be interesting to research the obstacles and reasons for Saudi universities not adopting the ABC/M. In this research, Majmaah University (MU) was used as a case study and data were collected by mailing questionnaires to employees working in the financial affairs unit. The study found various obstacles to adopting ABC/M at MU, among which the technical issues were the most dominant. The authorities' lack of interest in updating current costing systems and the lack of awareness of ABC/M by academic units were the unique reasons for MU not adopting ABC/M. Therefore, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) authorities should pay much attention to improving already existing costing systems in universities. In addition, this study discusses the limitations and future prospects.