Prelims

Half Title Page

Advances in Management Accounting

Series Page

ADVANCES IN MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Series Editors:

Volumes 1–25: Marc J. Epstein and John Y. Lee

Volumes 26 and 27: Marc J. Epstein and Mary A. Malina

Volumes 28–30: Mary A. Malina

Recent Volumes

Volume 30 – Advances in Management Accounting

Edited by Mary A. Malina

Volume 31 – Advances in Management Accounting

Edited by Laurie L. Burney and Mary A. Malina

Advances in Management Accounting Volume 32

ADVANCES IN MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Edited by

Laurie L. Burney

Baylor University, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2020

Copyright © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited

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Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83982-913-0 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83982-912-3 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83982-914-7 (Epub)

ISSN: 1474-7871 (Series)

Contents

List of Contributors

Editorial Board

Christopher Akroyd

Oregon State University, USA

Shannon W. Anderson

University of California Davis, USA

Romana Autrey

Williamette University, USA

Jan Bouwens

University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Adriana Rejc Buhovac

University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Clara X. Chen

University of Illinois, USA

Martine Cools

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

Antonio Dávila

University of Navarra, Spain

Andrea Drake

Louisiana Tech University, USA

Eric G. Flamholtz

University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Dipankar Ghosh

University of Oklahoma, USA

Frank G. H. Hartmann

Erasmus University, The Netherlands

James W. Hesford

University of Lethbridge, Canada

Robert Hutchinson

Michigan Tech University, USA

Leslie Kren

University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA

Raef Lawson

Institute of Management Accountants, USA

Anne M. Lillis

University of Melbourne, Australia

Raj Mashruwala

University of Calgary, Canada

Ella Mae Matsumura

University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

Lasse Mertins

Johns Hopkins University, USA

Lorenzo Patelli

University of Denver, USA

Sean A. Peffer

University of Kentucky, USA

Mina Pizzini

Texas State University, USA

Arthur Posch

Universitat Bern, Switzerland

Frederick W. Rankin

Colorado State University, USA

Karen L. Sedatole

Emory University, USA

Lourdes F. White

University of Baltimore, USA

Sally K. Widener

Clemson University, USA

Marc Wouters

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

Statement of Purpose

Advances in Management Accounting (AIMA) is a publication of quality, applied research in management accounting. The journal’s purpose is to publish thought-provoking articles that advance knowledge in the management accounting discipline and are of interest to both academics and practitioners. The journal seeks thoughtful, well-developed articles on a variety of current topics in management accounting, broadly defined. All research methods including survey research, field tests, corporate case studies, experiments, meta-analyses, and modeling are welcome. Some speculative articles, research notes, critiques, and survey pieces will be included where appropriate.

Articles may range from purely empirical to purely theoretical, from practice-based applications to speculation on the development of new techniques and frameworks. Empirical articles must present sound research designs and well-explained execution. Theoretical articles must present reasonable assumptions and logical development of ideas. All articles should include well-defined problems, concise presentations, and succinct conclusions that follow logically from the data.

Review Procedures

AIMA intends to provide authors with timely reviews clearly indicating the acceptance status of their manuscripts. The results of initial reviews normally will be reported to authors within eight weeks from the date the manuscript is received. The author will be expected to work with the Editor, who will act as a liaison between the author and the reviewers to resolve areas of concern. To ensure publication, it is the author’s responsibility to make necessary revisions in a timely and satisfactory manner.

Manuscript Form Guidelines

1. Manuscripts should include a cover page that indicates the author’s name and affiliation.

2. Manuscripts should include a separate lead page with a structured abstract (not to exceed 250 words) set out under four to seven subheadings; purpose, design/methodology/approach, findings, research limitations/implications (if applicable), practical implications (if applicable), social implications (if applicable), and originality/value. Keywords should also be included.

3. The author’s name and affiliation should not appear on the abstract.

4. Tables, figures, and exhibits should appear on a separate page. Each should be numbered and have a title.

5. To be assured of anonymous reviews, authors should not identify themselves directly or indirectly.

6. Manuscripts currently under review by other publications should not be submitted.

7. Authors should email the manuscript in two WORD files to the editor. The first attachment should include the cover page and the second should exclude the cover page.

8. Inquiries concerning Advances in Management Accounting should be directed to:

Laurie Burney

Laurie_Burney@Baylor.edu

Introduction

This volume of Advances in Management Accounting (AIMA) represents the diversity of management accounting topics, methods and author affiliations, which form the basic tenets of AIMA. Included are papers on traditional management accounting topics such as employee performance, control and managerial decision-making, as well as those on broader topics of interest to management accountants of trust, environmental uncertainty and sustainability; issues of importance to academics regarding appropriateness of performance measures are also included. The articles in this volume employ a wide variety of methods including interviews and archival data analysis. Finally, the diversity in authorship is apparent with affiliations from Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States.

This volume begins with a study by van Veen-Dirks and Giliam that uses semi-structured interviews to investigate the vertical management control packages between local governments and public sector joint ventures. Specifically, the authors test alliance level determinants of control and perceived risk. The effects of parent size, diversification and output measurability on control are included in this examination of behavioral uncertainty, environmental uncertainty and asset specificity on perceived risk.

In the second article, Golden, Kohlbeck and Rezaee examine whether environmental, social and governance (ESG) sustainability factors are associated with cost stickiness. Primary findings are that sticky corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are associated with cost stickiness, but non-sticky CSR attributes are not. In addition, CSR strengths and concerns are both associated with sticky selling, general and administrative (SG&A) costs; however, only CSR strengths are associated with sticky operating costs. The study also finds that ESG sustainability disclosure scores are high when both CSR and costs are sticky.

In a further investigation of cost stickiness, in the next article, Gray investigates an existing research gap in the cost stickiness literature. Namely, the study examines whether lease costs, in the setting of retail firms, are sticky and behave similar to other operating expenses. Cost stickiness implies that costs do not decrease as fast when revenues decline compared to cost increases relative to revenue increases. Several early studies have shown that SG&A costs as a whole, or components of SGA costs, exhibit stickiness in relation to revenues; however, this study examines a unique perspective regarding whether the same follows for leasing costs.

Loy and Hartlieb continue our learning about cost stickiness by exploring the role of sunlight-induced mood on managerial resource adjustment decisions. A distinguishing feature of this premise is that weather and mood are transitory phenomena, whereas the determinants of sticky costs established in the prior literature are largely persistent. The results support that daily sunlight is associated with sticky costs, in a large sample spanning many years, geographical areas and industries. The choice of control variables and error clustering by industry are thoughtful and appropriate elements of the analysis. Happier managers are less likely to make cuts when the firm is experiencing a downturn. The authors attribute this result to a managerial “status quo bias,” which is in line with the “mood-maintenance” and “affect-as-information” hypotheses from social psychology.

Malina and Tucker address a critical dilemma in academia that has become particularly sensitive in the past two decades. The increased competition among universities (business schools in particular), driven by accreditation bodies and rankings, has put the measurement of research quality and efficiency at the forefront of academic interests. However, as the authors rightly note, the extent to which various research performance measures truly reflect the relevance or impact of academic research efforts is questionable. Dysfunctional metrics employed by universities have led to manipulations in building academic citation counts, not to mention the growth in the number of specialized journals with self-citation requirements. University tenure criteria have further spurred the short-termism of academics trying to demonstrate their research productivity (more than the relevance). This discussion is therefore highly relevant.

In the final article, Ghosh, Huang and Sun hypothesize and find that managerial ability is positively associated with employee productivity. They further find that managerial ability has the greatest impact on employee productivity for firms in financial distress and those operating under high environmental uncertainty. The authors’ proxy for managerial ability was developed by Demerjian et al. (2012) using data envelope analysis.

The six articles in Volume 32 represent relevant, theoretically sound and practical studies that extend our knowledge within the management accounting discipline. These articles manifest the journal’s commitment to providing a high level of contribution to management accounting research and practice.

Laurie L. Burney

Editor