This project investigated the implementation of activity-based costing (ABC) at Xu Ji Electric Co. Ltd (Xu Ji), a large Chinese manufacturing company. Xu Ji is a state-owned enterprise (SOE), turned public limited company (PLC). The company piloted ABC implementation in one of its main production divisions in December 2001, when ABC concepts were at a theoretical level in China (Liu and Pan, 2007). Two more attempts to extend the use of ABC in one of its subsidiaries and sales functions took place in 2005 and 2008. Major events took place during the latter research endeavour, including two major acquisitions – first by a pension fund and later by the national grid and recent decision to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. These events provided a unique opportunity to unveil factors pertinent to organisational decisions towards information system implementation, to extract ‘real-life’ interactions between personnel at various organisational hierarchies; and to evaluate complex relationships between changes, organisational and individual learning. (PDF 213KB)