Abernethy et al. (2013). The Role of Performance Measures in the
Intertemporal Decisions of Business Unit Managers
What is the main research question? What is the practical problem that the author starts from?
We examine the impact of specific performance measures, used in contracting with business unit
managers, on the allocation of effort between actions with a short-term and with a long-term time
horizon. Research question: do accounting measures result in managerial myopia? (and does it
depend on the choice of the measure?)
Accounting researchers have usually concluded that all accounting-based measures distort the attention
of managers by overweighting the short run (Merchant 1989, 1990; Chow, Kato, and Merchant 1996;
Van der Stede 2000).
Problem: Why accounting performance measures continue to be used in contracting if they do not
provide business unit managers with incentives to make value-maximizing decisions and to refrain from
making intertemporal choices that dissipate wealth.
What are the exact issues of the paper? What theories does the author use to derive his hypotheses?
Issues:
1) We argue that the use of accounting return measures signals to the manager that senior
management cares about investment returns. Our focus is more broadly on any kind of managerial
action with long-term impact. Previous literature is about how accounting return measures motivate
long-term investments.
2) It is unclear to what extent nonfinancial measures deliver improvements in practice; indeed, it is
likely that the efficacy of these measures varies by type and by organizational setting. Findings
suggest that the close link between nonfinancial measures and senior management’s
conceptualization of the underlying business process “brings the future forward”.
3) How sensitive are intertemporal decisions to accounting return and nonfinancial measures? Four
potential problems with nonfinancial measures to support this argument: (a) incongruity, (b) lead
times that do not extend beyond the one-year horizon, (c) nonlinearity, and (d) nonverifiability. The
degree to which nonfinancial measures suffer from these problems will vary from firm to firm and,
more importantly, from one nonfinancial measure to another.
In sum, while nonfinancial measures can be useful in promoting actions with longer term impact by
providing a timely signal about the effect of an action on firm value, there is no guarantee that
improving performance based on a particular measure benefits firm value.
Theories to support the hypotheses (also see notes on the paper at the end of the summary):
Multi-action agency models – which lend themselves to interpretations of intertemporal choice and
emphasize the role of performance measures.
In a typical multitask agency problem, the agent’s allocation of effort over short- and long-run activities
follows directly from the compensation contract design choice of incentive weights placed on different
performance measures.
1
Voordelen van het kopen van samenvattingen bij Stuvia op een rij:
Verzekerd van kwaliteit door reviews
Stuvia-klanten hebben meer dan 700.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet je zeker dat je de beste documenten koopt!
Snel en makkelijk kopen
Je betaalt supersnel en eenmalig met iDeal, creditcard of Stuvia-tegoed voor de samenvatting. Zonder lidmaatschap.
Focus op de essentie
Samenvattingen worden geschreven voor en door anderen. Daarom zijn de samenvattingen altijd betrouwbaar en actueel. Zo kom je snel tot de kern!
Veelgestelde vragen
Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?
Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.
Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?
Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.
Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?
Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper CardinM. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.
Zit ik meteen vast aan een abonnement?
Nee, je koopt alleen deze samenvatting voor €4,68. Je zit daarna nergens aan vast.