Cost-system choice in a multidimensional knowledge space: traditional versus activity-based costing

Abstract

The coopetition members in a virtual enterprise still have many aftereffects to be studied. Several questions mentioned by Mishira and Vaysman are resolved in this paper. Considering R&D and Marketing members in a virtual enterprise, the cost system choice for the R&D members is explored. The main results are (i) the expected profits of R&D members are likely to be higher when all members adopt the ABC system for whatever knowledge interval, (ii) the ABC system is likely to induce less benefits when the intra and intermember knowledge rents exceeds the gross benefits of R&D members with better knowledge provided by ABC if the marketing members are adopting the traditional cost system and (iii) given the cost system choice of marketing members and the knowledge space, adoption of the ABC system will moderate Knowledge Asymmetry (KA) and further generate higher expected profits for R&D members. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate our results.