Seminar

Contemporary Topics in Empirical Management Accounting Research

Winter term 2021

Prof. Dr. Sara Bormann

I. Objective and Course Introduction

Learning Goals

 Students learn to analyse empirical research questions and problem sets in management
accounting and control.
 Students develop methodological competencies.
 Students will improve their written and verbal communication skills through writing the
seminar paper, seminar presentations, and joint discussions.

Module Description

The course introduces students to academic literature on the complementarities in organi-

zations. (Monetary) incentives don’t work in isolation, rather, they are part of an incentive
system, where different elements influence each other. Furthermore, studies have also
found that incentive systems vary depending on contexts such as organizational and task
characteristics.
In the seminar, we will discuss some of these different choices and how they interact. Spe-
cifically, we will explore the interactions of monetary and non-monetary incentives both
non-context and context dependent.

II. Assessment

The final grade consists of two individual assessments:

1. Seminar Paper (60%)

Students are required to write a seminar paper of no more than 20 pages in total (13-15
pages in text). The formal requirements of the paper can be found here. The seminar
paper should summarize the assigned paper followed by a critical discussion. The fol-
lowing points can be used as a starting point when assessing the paper:

 What is the research question? Is it relevant/ interesting/important? Why / how

does the study contribute or link to the literature?
  Is the theory convincing? Are the hypotheses based on sound logic and theory?
Are there alternative explanations?

 Are data and research design appropriate for analyzing the research question?

 What are the weaknesses of the study? What are particular strengths?

 Are the findings generalizable?

 Are there any implications for further research? Any suggestions for improve-
ment or further research?

Please note that the above points are recommended discussion areas and are not the
required flow or structure of the paper. Therefore, students should think of their own
structures and students are free to decide on the focus of the discussion.

2. Presentation (40%)

Students are required to do a presentation of 15 minutes followed by a class discussion

of approximately 10 minutes. In the presentation, students are expected to briefly but
clearly introduce the assigned paper and present discussion areas they find particularly
important, interesting, and remarkable.

Please bear in mind that each partial examination needs to be passed with at least a grade
of 4.0 in order to pass the seminar.

III. Schedule and Deadlines

Events Date Time Place

Kick – off Session Tuesday, 02.11.2021 10:00 – 12:00 RuW - RuW 3.201
Preferences Form
Monday, 15.11.2021 By 12 pm intan@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de
Submission
Paper Allocation Wednesday, 17.11.2021 - OLAT
Hardcopy to RuW 3.234
(if possible)
Paper Submission Friday, 17.12.2021 By 12 pm
Softcopy to respective
supervisors
Monday, 10.01.2022
OR
Feedback Session By appointment with supervisors
Tuesday, 11.01.2022

Presentation
Friday, 14.01.2022 By 12 p.m. via email
Slides Submission

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 Monday, 17.01.2022 08:00 – 18:00 RuW - RuW 4.201
Presentation Days
Tuesday, 18.01.2022 08:00 – 18:00 RuW - RuW 4.201

IV. Papers

1. Monetary Incentives and Relative Performance Information

1.1. Tafkov, I. D. (2013). Private and public relative performance information under
different compensation contracts. The Accounting Review, 88(1), 327-350.

1.2. Gjedrem, W. G. (2018). Relative performance feedback: Effective or dismay-

ing?. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 74, 1-16.

1.3. Hannan, R. L., Krishnan, R., & Newman, A. H. (2008). The effects of disseminat-
ing relative performance feedback in tournament and individual performance com-
pensation plans. The Accounting Review, 83(4), 893-913.

2. Monetary Incentives and Recognition

2.1. Bradler, C., & Neckermann, S. (2019). The magic of the personal touch: Field ex-
perimental evidence on money and appreciation as gifts. The Scandinavian Journal
of Economics, 121(3), 1189-1221.

2.2. Kosfeld, M., Neckermann, S., & Yang, X. (2017). The effects of financial and
recognition incentives across work contexts: The role of meaning. Economic
Inquiry, 55(1), 237-247.

2.3. Lourenço, S. M. (2016). Monetary incentives, feedback, and recognition—Com-

plements or substitutes? Evidence from a field experiment in a retail services com-
pany. The Accounting Review, 91(1), 279-297.

3. Monetary incentives and task design

3.1. Fessler, N. J. (2003). Experimental evidence on the links among monetary incen-
tives, task attractiveness, and task performance. Journal of Management
Accounting Research, 15(1), 161-176.

3.2. Bailey, C. D., & Fessler, N. J. (2011). The moderating effects of task complexity
and task attractiveness on the impact of monetary incentives in repeated tasks. Jour-
nal of Management Accounting Research, 23(1), 189-210.

3.3. Newman, A. H., Tafkov, I. D., & Zhou, F. H. (2020). The Effects of Incentive
Scheme and Task Difficulty on Employees' Altruistic Behavior Outside the
Firm. Contemporary Accounting Research, 37(3), 1512-1535.

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4. Incentive Design and Organizational strategies

4.1. Grabner, I., Renders, A., & Yang, L. (2020). The complementarity between CSR
disclosures and the use of CSR-based performance measures in CEO annual incen-
tive contracts. Available at SSRN 3670738.

4.2. Grabner, I. (2014). Incentive system design in creativity-dependent firms. The

Accounting Review, 89(5), 1729-1750.

4.3. Abernethy, M. A., Dekker, H. C., & Schulz, A. K. D. (2015). Are employee selec-
tion and incentive contracts complements or substitutes?. Journal of Accounting
Research, 53(4), 633-668.