Activity$-$based costing

is an accounting system that assigns a company's expenses to whichever activity in a company's value chain is responsible for creating the cost.

involves using benchmarking techniques to develop cost estimates for the value chain activities of each major rival.

involves determining which value chain activities represent variable costs and which represent fixed costs.

is a powerful tool for identifying the different pieces of a company's value chain and classifying them as primary activities and support activities.

is a tool for identifying the activities that cause a company's product to be strongly differentiated from the products of rivals.