This study examines two questions: when do firms make greater use of subjectivity in awarding bonuses, and what are the effects of subjectivity on employee pay satisfaction and firm performance? We examine these questions using data from a sample of 526 department managers in 250 car...

This paper presents an effort to construct a measurement instrument to capture tight budgetary control. While there is not a strong tradition of publishing articles of this nature in the accounting literature, there is a role for this for constructs for which there are no ready-made instruments...

We provide a list of Points to Consider (PTCs) to help researchers self-assess whether they have addressed certain common issues that arise frequently in accounting research seminars and in reviewers' and editors' comments on papers submitted to journals. Anticipating and addressing such issues...

We examine how employees respond to bonuses and penalties using a proprietary data set from an electronic chip manufacturer in China. First, we examine the relative effects of bonuses and penalties and observe a stronger effect on subsequent effort and performance for penalties than for bonuses....

During the Journal of Management Accounting Research (JMAR) 25th Anniversary Panel at the AAA Management Accounting Midyear Conference in Orlando, January 2014, the panelists were asked by JMAR Editor Ranjani Krishnan to reflect on the following three questions: (a) In what management accounting...

We examine how management control systems combine with the organizational context, particularly strategy, to result in firm performance, and introduce fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to accounting research as an alternative empirical tool for testing and building contingency...

We examine the relationship between quality-based manufacturing strategy and the use of different types of performance measures, as well as their separate and joint effects on performance. A key part of our investigation is the distinction between financial and both objective and subjective...

This paper discusses issues related to establishing causal relationships in empirical survey research. I adopt a manipulationist view of causality because it matches the context of (management) accounting research where we are commonly interested in studying the effects of changes. Strictly...

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...

We examine the effects of performance measure properties on incentive system design, using data on incentive contracts for auto dealership managers. The data include information on five properties: two indicators of risk; two indicators of distortion; and one indicator of potential manipulation....