IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/coacre/v23y2006i4p885-918.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Information Systems on Honesty in Managerial Reporting: A Behavioral Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • R. Lynn Hannan
  • Frederick W. Rankin
  • Kristy L. Towry

Abstract

This study examines the behavioral impact of an information system, and how that impact varies with the information system's precision, in an internal reporting environment. We propose that a manager's reporting decisions are affected by his or her trade†off of the benefits of appearing honest against the benefits of misrepresentation. The information system affects the manager's trade†off by improving the owner's ability to make an inference regarding the manager's level of honesty. Thus, to the extent that the manager perceives benefits to appearing honest, the presence of an information system can increase managerial honesty. As the information system becomes more precise, however, the manager must forgo greater benefits of misrepresentation in order to achieve the same appearance of honesty. For managers under a precise system, this will shift the trade†off decision toward the benefits of misrepresentation and away from the benefits of appearing honest. Notably, in our experiment, the only benefit of appearing honest is an intrinsically motivated desire for social approval. We find that, although the existence of an information system increases managerial honesty, honesty is lower under a precise than under a coarse information system. We also compare profit earned by the owners in our experiment, which relies on a behavioral role of an information system, with the maximum profit theoretically possible given a contractual use of the information system. This comparison suggests that, unless the available information system is sufficiently precise, the owner will obtain greater profits by not contracting on its output, even if that output is fully contractible.

Suggested Citation

  • R. Lynn Hannan & Frederick W. Rankin & Kristy L. Towry, 2006. "The Effect of Information Systems on Honesty in Managerial Reporting: A Behavioral Perspective," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(4), pages 885-918, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:23:y:2006:i:4:p:885-918
    DOI: 10.1506/8274-J871-2JTT-5210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1506/8274-J871-2JTT-5210
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1506/8274-J871-2JTT-5210?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antle, R & Fellingham, J, 1995. "Information rents and preferences among information systems in a model of resource allocation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33, pages 41-58.
    2. E. Gundlach & D. Rudman & L. Wossmann, 2002. "Second thoughts on development accounting," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(11), pages 1359-1369.
    3. Chow, Chee W. & Cooper, Jean C. & Haddad, Kamal, 1991. "The effects of pay schemes and ratchets on budgetary slack and performance: A multiperiod experiment," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 47-60.
    4. Nouriel Roubini & Paul Wachtel, 1997. "Current Account Sustainability in Transition Economies," Working Papers 97-03, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    5. Ijiri, Y & Kinard, Jc & Putney, Fb, 1968. "Integrated Evaluation System For Budget Forecasting And Operating Performance With A Classified Budgeting Bibliography," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(1), pages 1-28.
    6. Thomas Ahrens & Christopher S. Chapman, 2004. "Accounting for Flexibility and Efficiency: A Field Study of Management Control Systems in a Restaurant Chain," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 271-301, June.
    7. Bonner, Sarah E. & Sprinkle, Geoffrey B., 2002. "The effects of monetary incentives on effort and task performance: theories, evidence, and a framework for research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(4-5), pages 303-345.
    8. Günther G. Schulze & Björn Frank, 2003. "Deterrence versus intrinsic motivation: Experimental evidence on the determinants of corruptibility," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 143-160, August.
    9. Baiman, Stanley, 1990. "Agency research in managerial accounting: A second look," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 341-371.
    10. Martin L. Weitzman, 1976. "The New Soviet Incentive Model," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(1), pages 251-257, Spring.
    11. Young, Sm, 1985. "Participative Budgeting - The Effects Of Risk-Aversion And Asymmetric Information On Budgetary Slack," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 829-842.
    12. Waller, William S., 1988. "Slack in participative budgeting: The joint effect of a truth-inducing pay scheme and risk preferences," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 87-98, January.
    13. Harvey James, 2002. "The Trust Paradox: A Survey of Economic Inquiries Into the Nature of Trust and Trustworthiness," Microeconomics 0202001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. E. A. Lowe & R. W. Shaw, 1968. "An Analysis Of Managerial Biasing: Evidence From A Company'S Budgeting Process," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(3), pages 304-315, October.
    15. Adrian Furnham & John Taylor, 2004. "The Dark Side of Behaviour at Work," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-51010-4, October.
    16. Arya, A & Glover, J & Sivaramakrishnan, K, 1997. "Commitment issues in budgeting," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 273-278.
    17. Sprinkle, Geoffrey B., 2003. "Perspectives on experimental research in managerial accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 287-318.
    18. Somanathan, E. & Rubin, Paul H., 2004. "The evolution of honesty," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 1-17, May.
    19. Baiman, S & Lewis, Bl, 1989. "An Experiment Testing The Behavioral Equivalence Of Strategically Equivalent Employment Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 1-20.
    20. James Jr., Harvey S., 2002. "The trust paradox: a survey of economic inquiries into the nature of trust and trustworthiness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 291-307, March.
    21. Webb, R. Alan, 2002. "The impact of reputation and variance investigations on the creation of budget slack," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(4-5), pages 361-378.
    22. Baiman, S, 1975. "Evaluation And Choice Of Internal Information-Systems Within A Multiperson World," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15.
    23. Anil Arya & John Fellingham & Jonathan Glover & K. Sivaramakrishnan, 2000. "Capital Budgeting, the Hold-up Problem, and Information System Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(2), pages 205-216, February.
    24. Tomkins, Cyril, 2001. "Interdependencies, trust and information in relationships, alliances and networks," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 161-191, March.
    25. Steven J. Kachelmeier, 1996. "Discussion of “Tax Advice and Reporting Under Uncertainty: Theory and Experimental Evidence†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 81-89, March.
    26. Libby, Theresa, 1999. "The influence of voice and explanation on performance in a participative budgeting setting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 125-137, April.
    27. John Waterhouse & Michael Gibbins & Alan J. Richardson, 1993. "Strategic Financial Disclosure: Evidence from Labor Negotiations," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 526-550, March.
    28. Rick Antle & Gary D. Eppen, 1985. "Capital Rationing and Organizational Slack in Capital Budgeting," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 163-174, February.
    29. anonymous, 1998. "Individual development accounts spur savings," Banking and Community Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, issue 2, pages 1-7.
    30. Chee W. Chow & Mark K. Hirst & Michael D. Shields, 1994. "Motivating Truthful Subordinate Reporting: An Experimental Investigation in a Two†Subordinate Context," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(2), pages 699-720, March.
    31. Gibbins, M & Richardson, A & Waterhouse, J, 1990. "The Management Of Corporate Financial Disclosure - Opportunism, Ritualism, Policies, And Processes," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 121-143.
    32. Michael C. Jensen, 2003. "Paying People to Lie: the Truth about the Budgeting Process," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 9(3), pages 379-406, September.
    33. Healy, Paul M., 1985. "The effect of bonus schemes on accounting decisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1-3), pages 85-107, April.
    34. Demski, JS & Frimor, H, 1999. "Performance measure garbling under renegotiation in multiperiod agencies," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37, pages 187-214.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christian Daumoser & Bernhard Hirsch & Matthias Sohn, 2018. "Honesty in budgeting: a review of morality and control aspects in the budgetary slack literature," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 115-159, August.
    2. Arleta Rasmußen, 2015. "Reporting behavior: a literature review of experimental studies," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 23(2), pages 283-311, June.
    3. Pascal Langevin & Gérald Naro, 2003. "Controle Et Comportements : Une Revue De La Litterature Anglo-Saxonne," Post-Print halshs-00582794, HAL.
    4. Arnold, Markus & Artz, Martin, 2019. "The use of a single budget or separate budgets for planning and performance evaluation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 50-67.
    5. Susanna Gallani & Ranjani Krishnan & Eric J. Marinich & Michael D. Shields, 2019. "Budgeting, Psychological Contracts, and Budgetary Misreporting," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(6), pages 2924-2945, June.
    6. Brink, Alisa G. & Coats, Jennifer C. & Rankin, Frederick W., 2018. "Who’s the boss? The economic and behavioral implications of various characterizations of the superior in participative budgeting research," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 89-105.
    7. Thomas Liessem & Ivo Schedlinsky & Anja Schwering & Friedrich Sommer, 2015. "Budgetary slack under budget-based incentive schemes—the behavioral impact of social preferences, organizational justice, and moral disengagement," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 81-94, April.
    8. Kilfoyle, Eksa & Richardson, Alan J., 2011. "Agency and structure in budgeting: Thesis, antithesis and synthesis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 183-199.
    9. Schreck, Philipp, 2015. "Honesty in managerial reporting: How competition affects the benefits and costs of lying," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 177-188.
    10. Sprinkle, Geoffrey B., 2003. "Perspectives on experimental research in managerial accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 287-318.
    11. Christoph Feichter & Isabella Grabner, 2020. "Empirische Forschung zu Management Control – Ein Überblick und neue Trends [Empirical Management Control Reserach—An Overview and Future Directions]," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 72(2), pages 149-181, June.
    12. Lambert, Richard A., 2001. "Contracting theory and accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 3-87, December.
    13. Susanna Gallani & Ranjani Krishnan & Eric J. Marinich & Michael D. Shields, 2015. "Budgeting, Psychological Contracts, and Budgetary Misreporting," Harvard Business School Working Papers 16-017, Harvard Business School, revised Jan 2018.
    14. Webb, R. Alan, 2002. "The impact of reputation and variance investigations on the creation of budget slack," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(4-5), pages 361-378.
    15. Parker, Robert J. & Kyj, Larissa, 2006. "Vertical information sharing in the budgeting process," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 27-45, January.
    16. Dutta, Sunil & Fan, Qintao, 2012. "Incentives for innovation and centralized versus delegated capital budgeting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 592-611.
    17. Chee W. Chow & Mark K. Hirst & Michael D. Shields, 1994. "Motivating Truthful Subordinate Reporting: An Experimental Investigation in a Two†Subordinate Context," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(2), pages 699-720, March.
    18. Fisher, Joseph G. & Frederickson, James R. & Peffer, Sean A., 2006. "Budget negotiations in multi-period settings," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 511-528, August.
    19. Arnold, Markus C. & Artz, Martin, 2015. "Target difficulty, target flexibility, and firm performance: Evidence from business units’ targets," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 61-77.
    20. Church, Bryan K. & Hannan, R. Lynn & Kuang, Xi (Jason), 2012. "Shared interest and honesty in budget reporting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 155-167.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:23:y:2006:i:4:p:885-918. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1911-3846 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.