Effects of budgetary participation conflict on job performance of Mexican and US managers

This study extends the stream of participative budgeting literature by introducing a new variable, Budgetary Participation Conflict (BPC). BPC occurs when the level of budget participation experienced by a manager differs from a desired level. We propose a model where BPC is the independent variable to further evaluate the effect of budget participation on job performance. Using path analysis, we measure the direct effect of BPC on job performance, and the indirect effects between BPC and performance that run through job satisfaction and job tenure in two countries, Mexico and the US.While the results do not indicate that BPC either directly or indirectly affects the performance of US managers, the results indicate that BPC negatively affects the job performance of Mexican managers indirectly through the effects of BPC on job satisfaction and job tenure. The relationship between tenure and performance is much stronger among the Mexican managers than among their US counterparts, which is the largest single difference between the Mexican and US results.     

The impact of manager philosophy on knowledge management systems

This paper analyses how information about managers and technology can be used to provide those managers with a system that is congruent with their needs. In particular, using McGregor's Theories X and Y philosophies, managerial needs are elicited and then contemporary knowledge management technologies, including intelligent agents, and the way they are implemented, are analysed to determine how they meet those manager needs. Different knowledge management technologies are found to be important to manifesting the requirements of particular management philosophies. For example, ‘Theory X’ appears consistent with use of intelligent agents to ‘monitor’ behaviour. This leads to the concept of ‘technology congruence’, where the choice of the technology ultimately is tied to which view of the world the manager employs. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stock liquidity and managerial short-termism

We examine whether stock liquidity exacerbates or mitigates managerial short-termism. Utilizing earnings management as a proxy for managerial short-termism, we establish three major findings. First, firms with liquid stocks engage in less accrual-based and real earnings management. Second, the effect of stock liquidity on earnings management is amplified for firms with high levels of managerial pay-for-performance sensitivity. Third, the positive association between the intensity of earnings management and firm cost of capital is evident only for firms with low stock liquidity. Our findings are consistent with the threat of blockholder exit as the main governance channel through which stock liquidity discourages opportunistic earnings management and mitigates managerial short-termism.     

The moderating effects of hierarchy and control systems on the relationship between budgetary participation and performance

This study investigates the moderating effects that an organizational unit's hierarchical level and control systems have on the relationship between budgetary participation and performance. Using moderated regression analyses, we find a three-way interactive effect on performance between hierarchical levels, types of control systems, and budgetary participation. Further analyses reveal that at the high level of a hierarchy, budgetary participation has a positive relationship with performance and this relationship is stronger for organizational units that use output control than for those that use behavior control. By contrast, at the low level of a hierarchy, budgetary participation has a negative relationship with performance and this relationship is stronger for organizational units that use output control than for those that use behavior control.     

The relationship between managerial ownership and firm performance in high R&D firms

Several studies have examined the relationship between managerial ownership and firm performance/value (e.g., [Journal of Financial Economics 20 (1988) 293; Journal of Financial Economics 27 (1990) 595; Journal of Corporate Finance 5 (1999) 79]). Using different samples, these studies provide general support for the argument that increases in managerial ownership create countervailing interest alignment and entrenchment effects, leading to a nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership and firm performance. However, the actual form of this nonlinear relationship differs across the studies.The present paper examines the relationship between managerial ownership and performance for high R&D firms that are listed on the NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ. We find that Tobin's Q initially declines with managerial ownership, then increases, then declines again and, finally, increases again—a W-shaped relationship. The findings from our study point to the importance of industry effects in the relationship between managerial ownership and firm performance.     

Budget emphasis,participation, task difficulty and performance: the effect of diversity within culture

Recent research on the impact of national culture on control systems had overlooked two important aspects. First, while cross-cultural studies have saturated mainly Anglo-American and Asian nations, other important cultural regions, such as the Nordic cultural group, have largely been overlooked. More importantly, the impact of the diversity within national culture, brought about by the diversity of the population, in terms of ethnic background, religion, language and egalitarianism, has also not been considered. With a low power distance and moderate individualism culture, and relatively centralised and formalised industrial relations systems which emphasise democratic work environment, Norwegian managers' budgetary participation is expected to be high. More importantly, as the Norwegian culture is old and the society homogeneous in terms of ethnic background, religion and egalitarianism, the diversity within the Norwegian culture is likely to be much lower than those of the newer, and much more ethnically diverse, societies.such as Australia and Singapore. Consequently, Norwegian managers' participation is expected to range from medium to high, rather than from low to high. Since high participation situations are common in Norway, prior studies' findings pertaining to high participation situations are expected to be supported in Norway. In contrast, since low participation situations are rare in Norway, prior studies' findings pertaining to low participation are unlikely to be supported in Norway. These expectations are supported by the results of this study.     

Share‐pledging and the cost of debt

We examine how corporate insiders pledging their equity stakes to collateralise personal loans influences firm cost of debt. Pledging enables managers to diversify personal holdings, potentially increasing risk‐taking incentives. However, exposure to contingent risks creates potentially stronger risk‐reducing incentives. Using hand‐collected data with OLS, difference‐in‐differences, and instrumental variables models, we find significant decreases in yield spreads associated with executive share‐pledging. Reductions in spreads surrounding share‐pledge disclosures suggest investors update their risk assessment to reflect pledging managers’ risk‐taking incentives. Consistent with risk‐reducing incentives, firms with share‐pledging executives subsequently reduce leverage.     

The unintended consequences of voluntary adoption of clawback provisions on managerial ability

I investigate the impact of the voluntary adoption of clawback provisions on managerial ability and predict that clawback provisions will motivate managers to exert more efforts following the adoption of clawback and these efforts will be in the form of an increased managerial efficiency. Using a propensity score matched sample of firms, I find a significant positive association between voluntary clawback adoption and the change in both rank and score of managerial ability. My study highlights the unintended consequences of clawback provisions on CEO's behavior and contributes to the on-going debate on the importance of proactively and carefully drafting clawback policies, further signifying the importance of the SEC's efforts (Rule 10D-1) to enforce clawback policies.     

The effect of management earnings forecast characteristics on cost of equity capital

This study uses a framework presented in Hirst, Koonce, and Venkataraman (2008) to assess how differences in management earnings forecast characteristics influence a firm's cost of equity capital. I find that less specific forecasts, pessimistic forecasts, and forecasts that predict a loss for the period are associated with higher cost of equity capital levels and more timely forecasts and forecasts with more information content are associated with lower cost of equity capital levels. Analysis interacting control variables and forecast antecedents with forecast characteristics indicates that the effects forecast characteristics have on cost of equity capital are either enhanced or moderated depending on firm beta, firm size, firm book-to-market ratios, analyst following, prior forecast bias, and earnings quality. The results highlight the importance of interacting key variables when interpreting the market effect of management earnings forecasts.     

Application of the controllability principle and managerial performance: The role of role perceptions

The controllability principle stipulates that the evaluation of a manager should be based only on elements that are under the manager's control. Arguments for and against its application are theoretically well understood, but empirical evidence based on the evaluation of the perceptions of managers and their implications for managerial performance is scarce. By empirically analyzing the effects on managerial performance, this paper explores managers’ responses to the application of the controllability principle. We draw on role theory and analyze how role ambiguity and role conflict mediate this basic relationship. Moreover, we test whether application of the controllability principle equally affects role perceptions of top-level managers and those of lower and middle-level managers. Empirical analysis of survey responses from 440 managers reveals that role perceptions completely mediate the effect of application of the controllability principle on managerial performance. This effect is insignificant in the group of top-level managers, who appear to cope with uncontrollable factors more effectively.     

The effect of causal knowledge on individuals' perceptions of nonfinancial performance measures in profit prediction

Although organizations commonly report nonfinancial performance measures (NFPMs) associated with profitability, prior research does not address the extent to which the provision of causal knowledge affects individuals' perceptions of the predictive content of such measures. This study examines how providing NFPMs together with different types of causal knowledge (i.e., strong, weak, or none) affects the perceived usefulness of the measures in a profit prediction context. Weak causal knowledge is defined as the direction of the relationship between an NFPM and earnings, while strong causal knowledge is a complete explanation underlying the relationship. The results provide evidence that providing weak causal knowledge increases individuals' perceptions of the predictive content of an NFPM compared to providing no causal knowledge; however, providing strong causal knowledge does not incrementally affect perceptions beyond providing only weak causal knowledge. These findings have implications for the type of information organizations report concurrently with NFPMs.     

The influence of managerial incentives on the resolution of financial distress

This study investigates the influence of managerial incentives on the resolution of financial distress. Our model predicts that when creditors and equityholders prefer different resolution methods, the likelihood of choosing Chapter 11 over private renegotiation is related to the ownership structure of the distressed firm. Empirical test results using a sample of 81 voluntary Chapter 11 firms and 65 private workout firms support the model’s prediction. We show that managerial ownership is positively related to the incidence of Chapter 11 filing when there is conflict between equityholders and creditors over the choice between Chapter 11 and a private renegotiation. Consistent with prior literature, we also find that the choice of resolution methods depends on the extent of creditor holdout problems and the level of economic distress. We also performed the analysis of a subsequent 5 years of post-distress performance for all sample firms. The majorities of firms that file for Chapter 11 lose their independence and are either acquired or liquidated. However, more than half of firms in private workouts survived as independent firms.

Assessing the interaction effect of cost control systems and information technology integration on manufacturing plant financial performance

The interface between management control and information technology is an under-developed research area with a knowledge gap concerning its implications for financial performance. This study contributes to bridging this gap by investigating the interaction effect of cost control systems and information technology integration on manufacturing plant financial performance. We surveyed a sample of 518 managers of U.S. manufacturing plants, approximately evenly distributed between those using activity-based costing and volume-based costing. Using hierarchical regression analyses, results indicate that while information technology integration and cost control systems do not provide significant independent effects on plant financial performance, they do interact to positively impact manufacturing plant financial performance. Thus, our findings suggest that manufacturing plants will reap the greatest financial performance benefits from investments in activity-based cost control systems when combined with information technology integration.     

The interactive effect of budgetary participation and budget favorability on attitudes toward budgetary decision makers: A research note

Referent cognitions theory predicts that employees who receive unfavorable budgets will have less negative attitudes toward budgetary decision makers if they participated in the budgetary process than if they did not participate. Questionnaire data from international managers were analyzed with regression to test for this predicted interaction between budgetary participation and budgetary outcome favorability. The results indicated that budgetary participation and budget favorability had the predicted interactive effect on the managers' attitudes toward their supervisor and their organization.     

Governance and firm value: The effect of a recession

This paper examines the relationship between the firm's governance structure and its value during different economic conditions. We show that both relative industry turnover and CEO entrenchment increase during economic downturns. We also find that relative industry turnover and managerial entrenchment have opposite impacts on the value of the firm throughout the recessionary period. While industry turnover leads to an appreciation in firm value, managerial entrenchment reduces shareholders’ wealth. The negative impact of managerial entrenchment on firm value, however, outweighs the positive impact of industry turnover. Accordingly, we propose that a recession provides managers with a good opportunity to camouflage their behavior and extract more private benefits and, thus, blame the poor performance on bad economic conditions.     

The international effect of managerial social capital on the cost of equity

We examine the effect of managerial social capital on the firm's cost of equity capital. We argue that social ties alleviate information asymmetry and agency problems, which in turn leads to a decrease in the cost of equity. Using a large panel of companies from 52 countries over the period 1999–2012, we document that social capital inversely affects the cost of equity. Our evidence suggests that the association between social capital and the cost of equity capital is stronger in underdeveloped financial markets and those characterized by weak legal protection. The marginal effect of social capital is also stronger for constrained firms with profitable investment opportunities. Our results are robust to alternative model specifications and tests for endogeneity.     

The effect of increased disclosure on cost of capital: Evidence from China

This study examined the relationship between disclosure and the cost of capital. Prior studies empirically testing this relationship provided mixed findings, and also raised several concerns, such as the endogeneity of disclosure, the information disclosure environment, and the sample size. This study investigated this relationship based on data from the Chinese capital market where a unique institutional arrangement makes the disclosure exogenous. This unique characteristic, in conjunction with a less stringent information environment and a big sample size, helped address these concerns. Our findings confirmed the negative relationship between disclosure and cost of capital.     

Non-performing loans and the cost of deleveraging: The Italian experience

The massive stock of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) in Europe has forced regulatory and supervisory authorities to promote debate on their management and timely disposal. Simultaneously, the transition to IFRS 9 created the need for higher provisioning and for weighting sale scenarios in the assessment of NPLs. This study, using a scenario analysis based on the Italian experience of the NPL resolution process, focuses on the cost of deleveraging by comparing the alternative strategies of direct sale and securitization. The study highlights the impact of the assumptions derived from the portfolio assessment and the additional cost arising from the uncertainties surrounding the appropriate recovery procedure. It demonstrates that securitization minimises this cost, while estimating the benefit derived from the support of State-backed guarantees. These findings provide useful insights for policy makers, suggesting the promotion of further measures that aim to reduce the transfer of value from banks to third parties.     

The mediating effect of REM on the relationship between CEO overconfidence and subsequent firm performance moderated by IFRS adoption: A moderated-mediation analysis

The present paper is pursuing a new direction in the analysis of behavioral finance based on examining whether future performance of the firm is related to overconfidence displayed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). We suggest two channels for this relationship, real earnings management (REM) and the mandatory IFRS adoption. First, examining the impact of IFRS adoption on firms’ future performance, we find that overconfident CEOs who do not adopt IFRS exhibit poorer future performance. Other interactions related to overconfidence and IFRS are not significant. Second, examining the relationship between overconfidence and IFRS adoption on REM, we find that overconfident CEOs indulge in higher REM than non-overconfident CEOs. Further, overconfident CEOs who adopt IFRS display greater REM than do those who not adopt IFRS. Therefore, we prove that the indirect effect of CEO overconfidence on the subsequent firm performance through REM is contingent on the mandatory IFRS adoption.     

The association between performance appraisal systems,work‐related attitudes and academic performance

This study examines the association between Brown et al.’s (2010) four dimensions of the quality of the performance appraisal system (the clarity, communication, fairness and trust) with the work‐related attitudes [job‐related stress, employee organisational commitment (EOC) and propensity to remain] of Australian accounting academics. Furthermore, the study examines the influence of such work‐related attitudes on academic performance in respect to research, teaching and community service. Data were collected from a mail survey distributed to accounting academics within Australian universities. The results indicate that all four dimensions of the quality of the performance appraisal system were associated with work‐related attitudes. Specifically, communication, fairness and clarity were positively associated with the level of EOC, trust was negatively associated with job‐related stress and fairness was positively associated with the propensity to remain. With respect to the effect on academic performance, job‐related stress was found to be negatively associated with research performance, while the level of EOC was positively associated with both teaching and community service. The findings highlight the importance of improving the quality of performance appraisal systems within the Australian higher education sector.