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.”

The overall goal of the dissertation is to contribute to the growing literature on the activity-based framework by focusing on the modeling of choices that are influenced by land-use and travel environment attributes. An accurate characterization of activity-travel patterns requires explicit consideration of the land-use and travel environment (referred to as travel environment from here on). There are two important categories of travel environment influences: direct (or causal) and indirect (or self-selection) effects. The direct effect of travel environment refers to how travel environment attributes causally influence travel choices. This direct effect may be captured by including travel environment variables as exogenous variables in travel models. Of course, determining if a travel environment variable has a direct effect on an activity/travel choice of interest is anything but straightforward. This is because of a potential indirect effect of the influence of the travel environment, which is not related to a causal effect. That is, the very travel environment attributes experienced by a decision maker (individual or household) is a function of a suite of a priori travel related choices made by the decision maker. The specific emphasis of the current dissertation is on moving away from considering travel environment choices as purely exogenous determinants of activity-travel models, and instead explicitly modeling travel environment decisions jointly along with activity-travel decisions in an integrated framework. Towards this end, the current dissertation formulates econometric models to analyze multidimensional choices. The multidimensional choice situations examined (and the corresponding model developed) in the research effort include: (1) reason for residential relocation and associated duration of stay (joint multinomial logit model and a grouped logit model), (2) household residential location and daily vehicle miles travelled (Copula based joint binary logit and log-linear regression model), (3) household residential location, vehicle type and usage choices (copula based Generalized Extreme Value and log-linear regression model) and (4) activity type, travel mode, time period of day, activity duration and activity location (joint multiple discrete continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model and multinomial logit model (MNL) with sampling of alternatives). The models developed in the current dissertation are estimated using actual field data from Zurich and San Francisco. A variety of policy exercises are conducted to illustrate the advantages of the econometric models developed. The results from these exercises clearly underline the importance of incorporating the direct and indirect effects of travel environment on these choice scenarios. / text

One of the most common office designs is the traditional office. As the technology has developed, it has enabled a new office design to evolve, the activity-based office. The activity-based office is more flexible and the employees get greater freedom in terms of being able to decide where, when and how they want to perform their tasks. As the employees work largely independently and take own responsibility for their tasks, the leader has reduced control compared to the traditional office. To get a well-functioning activity-based workplace, trust must be created between the leader and employees as this is a presumption for good business relationships. The purpose of the study is to get a deeper understanding of how trust is created between a leader and the employees in the activity-based workplace. Trust is something that is created mutually, and our study is based on three trustbuilding qualities, ability, benevolece and integrity. To collect the empirical data two semistructured interviews with Skanska and Vasakronan were performed. The conclusion of our study is that trust in an activity-based workplace is created by the factors; Presence, independence and own responsibility, communication, responsiveness, attention, caring, openness and honesty, competence and respect. Trust does not differ at a traditional office compared to an activity-based, but trust gets a different meaning depending on which office design that is utilized. / Ett traditionellt kontor är en av de vanligaste kontorsutformningarna, där medarbetarna har en fast sittplats och kan utföra sina uppgifter koncentrerat. I takt med att teknologin utvecklats har nya kontorsutformningar växt fram. En av dessa kontorsutformningarna är det aktivitetsbaserade kontoret som är mer flexibelt och öppet än det traditionella kontoret. De anställda har inga fasta sittplatser utan väljer sittplats utifrån vilka uppgifter de har för dagen, det gör således att individerna har en stor frihet att bestämma var, när och hur de ska utföra sitt arbete. I och med denna frihet blir det svårare för ledaren att få samma kontroll och ledaren måste istället förlita sig på att medarbetarna utför sina uppgifter på ett korrekt sätt. Det aktivitetsbaserade arbetssättet innebär således att medarbetarna måste ta ett stort eget ansvar och kunna arbeta självständigt. Syftet med studien är att få fördjupad förståelse för hur förtroende skapas mellan ledare och medarbetare på en aktivitetsbaserad arbetsplats. Förtroende är något som skapas ömsesidigt och definieras som ett attribut för ett förhållande mellan två utbytespartners. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för hur detta förtroende skapas baseras på begreppen välvilja, integritet och förmåga. Välvilja handlar om lojalitet, att som medarbetare och ledare hjälpa varandra men också visa omtanke. För att kunna göra detta krävs det en närvaro från ledaren och detta underlättas på den aktivitetsbaserade arbetsplatsen då ledaren sitter ute bland medarbetarna. Integritet och andra sidan handlar om att en person gör det som den har sagt att den ska göra. På det aktivitetsbaserade kontoret betyder det att ledaren förväntar sig att medarbetarna utför sina arbetsuppgifter på ett korrekt sätt trots att ledaren har minskad kontroll. Den sista faktorn förmåga behandlar i vilken utsträckning en part uppfattas ha den kompetens som gör det möjligt för personen att ha inflytande inom ett visst område. Ledaren måste förvänta och förlita sig på att medarbetaren har den kompetens som krävs för att utföra sina uppgifter självständigt. Till vår studie har vi haft semistrukturerade intervjuer med två företag, Skanska och Vasakronan. Skanska är ett byggföretag som utvecklar, bygger och underhåller fysiska levnadsmiljöer. Vasakronan är inom fastighetsbranschen och äger, förvaltar och utvecklar kontor och butiksfastigheter. Slutsatsen av vår studie är att förtroende på en aktivitetsbaserad arbetsplats skapas genom närvaro, självständighet och eget ansvar, kommunikation, lyhördhet, uppmärksamhet, omtanke, öppenhet och ärlighet, kompetens och respekt. Förtroendet skiljer sig inte på ett traditionellt jämfört med ett aktivitetsbaserat men förtroendet får en annan innebörd beroende på vilken kontorsutformning som används.

Master thesis "Customer Profitability Analysis Based on Activity Based Costing" describes opportunities of customer profitability analysis and activity based costing management. Theoretical part of the thesis is focused on description of activity based costing, advantages and disadvantages, implementation and use for customer profitability analysis. In the practical part of the thesis I have used theoretical background in trade company E-centrum, a. s. For the company I prepared complete customer profitability analysis and activity based costing model. Based on the analysis I suggested many recommendations for the company.

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study shows how child and youth care professionals understand and apply activity-oriented interventions with children aged 6 to 11. Thirteen child and youth care professionals who employ activity-oriented interventions with children participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using an inductive content analysis approach. Eighteen emergent themes describe the participants’ perceptions of how activity-oriented interventions engage children, build therapeutic relationships and aid children’s learning. The findings in this study show how activity-oriented interventions fit with children’s development and are seen to be helpful in facilitating self-awareness and promoting change. Further, the findings highlight the lack of activity-oriented core training in Canadian undergraduate and graduate child and youth care programs. These finding suggest that there is a need for increased core curriculum in activity-oriented approaches, and also for future research in the effectiveness of activity-oriented interventions. / Graduate

Globaliseringen och omvärldens påverkan av de moderna organisationerna har skapat nya krav och mål för våra svenska arbetsgivare. Flexibilitet och snabba förändringar måste dagens arbetsgivare vara väl anpassad för. Detta i sin tur innebär att även arbetstagaren måste vara redo att klara av liknande krav. Ny teknik och nya sätt att arbeta på har givit den moderna kontorsarbetaren en vardag som kan vara helt papperslös och inte heller knuten till en och samma plats. Det centrala för det nya arbetssättet är självfallet att öka lönsamheten, men fördelar som ökad kreativitet och ökat samarbete medarbetarna emellan lyfts fram som fördelar från arbetsgivarens sida. Denna studie utgår från en kvalitativ ansats. Målet med studien var att fånga medarbetarnas upplevelser av att arbeta aktivitetsbaserat. Studien har inte som avsikt att förklara om detta nya arbetssätt är bra eller dåligt för arbetstagaren utan enbart som för avsikt att fånga deras upplevelse. Studien visar att den generella upplevelsen av att arbeta aktivitetsbaserat är god, men att upplevelserna varierar mellan olika individer. Slutsatsen är att de anställda behöver ha en känsla av att kunna kontrollera sin vardag och möjligheter att välja rätt plats för rätt arbetsuppgift för att detta arbetssätt skall upplevas bra. Studien anser vi har ett värde på grund av att den mäter medarbetarnas upplevelse. Det är något som inte har forskats mycket om tidigare i detta allt mer förekommande sätt att utforma moderna kontor på. Om vi fångar medarbetarnas upplevelse av att arbeta i denna miljö kan vi enklare förstå hur den upplevs och med bättre förutsättningar förbättra arbetsmiljön på sikt i ett samhälle som löpande ställer nya krav på organisationerna och de anställda. / Globalization and the outside world's influence on modern organizations have created new demands and goals for our Swedish employers. Flexibility and rapid changes demand that today's employers must be well-suited for change. This in turn means that the employee must also be ready to meet similar requirements. New technology and new ways of working have given the modern office worker a daily life that can be completely paperless and because of this the employee isn't linked to one specific workstation. The key reason for to the new way of working is to increase profitability, but benefits such as increased creativity and increased cooperation among employees are highlighted as benefits from the employer. This study is based on a qualitative approach. The aim of the study was to capture the employees experiences of working activity-based. The study does not intend to explain whether this new way of working is good or bad for the employee, but only for the purpose of capturing their experience. The study shows that the overall experience of working activity-based is good, but that experiences vary between different individuals. The conclusion is that employees need to have the feeling of being able to control their everyday lives and opportunities to choose the right place for the right task for this work method to be experienced well. The value of this research lies in the fact that because employee experience is something that has not been the center of the research before, and we need to know more about the effects of this increasingly popular way of designing modern offices. If we capture the employee's experience of working in this environment, we can more easily understand how it is perceived and better conditions improve the working environment in the long term in a society that continually places new demands on organizations and employee's.

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / Activity-based costing (ABC) has been widely adopted by the Marine Corps to organize cost management information. The primary focus of ABC is to provide accurate information on the cost of providing a good or service. This thesis presents the application of the ABC methodology to the operations of the Substance Abuse Counseling Center (SACC) aboard Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH). Activities have been examined for a three-year period from fiscal years 2000-2002. The ABC analysis identifies average total resource consumption over the three-year period of $747,099. Detailed information is provided for determining the cost to counsel a Marine, which is $85.84 for a clinical evaluation, $60.57 to provide substance abuse prevention, and $495.35 for a professional consultation. Additional information is provided on SACC value-added and non-value-added activities and how these activities ranked in terms of resource consumption. Finally, the core competencies of the SACC are discussed and a comparison of counseling costs to outside vendors was used to determine if outsourcing of certain SACC processes or activities is an option. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

by Tang Wai Yin, Kerry. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-55). / abstract --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / CHAPTER / Chapter I --- introduction --- p.1 / Purpose --- p.1 / Scope --- p.3 / Methodology --- p.4 / Revision of Original Plan --- p.5 / Chapter II --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.7 / Introduction --- p.7 / Brief History of ABC --- p.8 / Definition of ABC --- p.19 / abc Model --- p.20 / Chapter III --- ASIAN PACIFIC FORUM --- p.23 / Western Environment: --- p.23 / Asian Pacific Environment --- p.26 / Organization Behavioral Contrast --- p.28 / Chapter IV --- CASE STUDY --- p.33 / The Company --- p.33 / Management Strategy --- p.35 / Product Costing --- p.35 / Pricing --- p.37 / Implementation : The Struggle --- p.38 / The Customer --- p.38 / Opportunities and Threats --- p.39 / The Human Factor --- p.41 / The Stalemate --- p.43 / The What-if Scenario --- p.44 / Chapter V --- LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS --- p.46 / Limitation --- p.46 / Conclusion --- p.48 / APPENDIX / Chapter I --- Product Cost Comparison / Traditional and ABC Approach --- p.50 / Chapter II --- Process Re-engineering Through ABC --- p.52 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.53

Esse estudo tem por finalidade contribuir para a discussão e o aprimoramento da gestão econômica e do desenvolvimento de ferramentas de apoio à decisão estratégica para empresas de serviços de saúde suplementar. Com base nos fundamentos teóricos sobre serviços, serviços de saúde suplementar, gerenciamento estratégico de custos e sistemas ABC/ABM, o estudo propõe um modelo de sistema de gestão de custos indiretos em planos de saúde sob a óptica do ABC/ABM, que visa proporcionar aos gestores uma visão ampla sobre o desempenho econômico dos planos e dos clientes. Assim, este estudo pretende colaborar com o desenvolvimento desse setor, que tem sofrido nos últimos anos o impacto da evolução da tecnologia e da medicina, provocando a constante elevação dos custos da assistência à saúde. Com a finalidade de justificar o estudo, o modelo é testado com a sua implementação em uma operadora de planos de saúde, possibilitando a discussão sobre as conclusões obtidas em relação ao problema abordado. / The purpose of this study is to contribute towards the indirect cost management discussion and betterment of supplementary health care services companies as well as to strategic decision supporting tools development. On the basis of the theoretical beddings on services, supplementary health care services, strategic management of costs and ABC/ABM systems, this study proposes an indirect costs management model for health insurance based on the ABC/ABM optics that provide managers a wide vision on the economic performance of medical insurance plans and customers.Thus, this study intends to contribute towards this sector development that has been suffering in the last years the impact of the technology medicine evolution provoking constant rise on health care costs. In order to justify this study, the model is tested by its implementation in a medical insurance operator making possible the discussion about conclusions obtained from the approached problem.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo demonstrar a importância da utilização de instrumentos adequados para mensurar o retorno obtido através do relacionamento com os clientes. Inúmeras são as tentativas de buscar alguma forma de diferenciação com relação aos concorrentes, visando obter o reconhecimento e a preferência desses clientes, seja através de produtos diferenciados, em tamanhos, embalagens, estrutura, seja no nível de serviços ofertados desde a venda, passando por entrega, pós venda, entre outros. Além de demonstrar que a utilização de metodologias tradicionais de custeio pode gerar informações inadequadas, e como consequência, decisões distorcidas, será sugerida uma abordagem diferenciada, através da aplicação do conceito de gestão estratégica de custos, mais especificamente, da metodologia Time Driven Activity Based Costing (TDABC). O trabalho sugere a construção de um instrumento que viabilize a identificação de informações mais precisas sobre a real rentabilidade dos clientes, mediante os diferentes produtos e níveis de serviços ofertados. / This final paper has the objective of demonstrating the importance of the correct usage of some tools to measure the response obtained through the relationship built with customers. The attempts to reach, somehow, the differentiation towards the competitors are countless, always trying to obtain the acknowledgment and preference of these customers. This can be through differentiated products, in terms of size, packaging, structure or in terms of the service level offered from sale, going through delivery, after sales, among others. Besides demonstrating that the usage of traditional methodologies can generate inadequate information, and as a consequence, distorted decisions, a differentiated approach will be suggested, through the application of the concept of strategic cost management, more specifically, Time Driven Activity Based Costing (TDABC). This paper suggests the development of a tool that makes the identification of more precise information possible about the real profitability of clients, concerning the different products and levels of services offered.