This study investigates the association between the accuracy of revenue forecasts and the accounting activities of budget preparation and internal accounting report preparation. While both budgets and internal reports are widely used, empirical evidence concerning their influence on the...

Investment decisions frequently require coordination across multiple divisions of a firm. This paper explores a class of capital budgeting mechanisms in which the divisions issue reports regarding the anticipated profitability of proposed projects. To hold the divisions accountable for their...

Vertical integration is often proposed as a way to resolve hold-up problems in connection with specific investments. However, decision-makers are generally compensated based on divisional (not firm-wide) profit. Hence, hold-up problems are bound to resurface in integrated firms. This paper...

We analyze the optimal behavior of an organization when its employees can manipulate the organization's accounting system to their private advantage. We find that the organization may benefit by helping its employees manipulate the system. This help can reduce the employees' private returns from...

We study a model in which future financing constraints leas firms to have a preference for investments with sorter payback periods, investments with less risk, and investments that utilize more pledgeable assets. The model also shows how investment distortions towards more liquid, safer assets...

This study considers the decision to impose a control system increasingly seen in practice, subcertification, and the resulting impact on the effort exerted by the controlled individual. I experimentally examine the interaction of subcertification with existing manager-subordinate relationship...

We examine the impact of the alignment of internal control mechanisms (governance and management control systems) with external control mechanisms on market valuation and operating performance for 1,693 firm observations over the period 2000-2006 in high versus low-growth industries. The...

Uncertainty is the core variable in any contingency theoretical framework (Chapman, 1997; Donaldson, 2001). Many reviews however have claimed that the accounting literature lacks a comprehensive framework for analysis of the relationship between uncertainty and MCS (Otley, 1980; Dent, 1990; Chapman, 1997;...