Preface -- Acknowledgements -- The control function of management -- Management and control -- Management control alternatives and their effects -- Results controls -- Action, personnel, and cultural controls -- Control system tightness -- Control system costs -- Designing and evaluating...

We examine the extent to which firms use past performance as a basis for setting earnings targets in their bonus plans and assess the implications of such targets for managerial incentives. We find that high-profitability firms commonly reduce earnings targets when their managers fail to meet...

This study examines how two important situational factors (corporate diversification and business unit strategy) and two elements of a firm’s administrative system (accounting‐based budgetary controls and associated incentives) affect the presence of slack in business unit budgets in...