In this paper, we seek to provide empirical documentation of the effect of Activity-Based Costing (ABC) information on product and customer-related decisions made by managers in a company. Proponents of ABC argue that when an entity implements ABC, it reaps at least two important benefits:...

In recent years, an increasing number of organisations are obtaining accreditation offered by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). Although ISO accreditation may reflect an organisation's pursuit of a quality-focused business strategy and a commitment to quality management...

Using a sample of 140 managers, we investigate the use of various performance metrics in determining the periodic assessment, bonus decisions, and career paths of business unit managers. We show that the weight on accounting return measures is associated with the authority of these managers, and...

This study investigates whether increasing a superior's span of control reduces the effectiveness of capital budgeting in eliciting truthful reports. We conduct an experiment based on a modification of the capital budgeting setting described by Antle and Eppen (1985). This modification...

This paper empirically examines how changes in the hierarchical structure of a large organization can affect incentives. The empirical analysis exploits a change in the hierarchical structure of the Corporate Division of a private foreign commercial bank in Argentina between 1999 and 2001. Using...

Many firms issue stock options to all employees. We consider three potential economic justifications for this practice: providing incentives to employees, inducing employees to sort, and helping firms retain employees. We gather data on firms' stock option grants to middle managers from three...

Short-run maximization of firm profits provides the sole justification for transfers at marginal cost. This conclusion is based, however, on a theory of the firm that ignores precisely those information and agency costs that make transfer pricing necessary. An alternative approach is to...

This paper reports the result of an empirical study examining the role of accounting and non-accounting controls in a research and development setting. The paper draws on Perrow's (1970) model of technology and structure to explore the influence of task characteristics on the effectiveness of...

In this paper, I study how to best assign responsibilities and design reward structures to take advantage of available information for a two-stage production process. Two alternative assignments compete. One resembles the American style push assignment where the responsibility for initiating...