Although these results suggest that the adoption of residual income based incentives alter
management decisions in ways that should contribute to shareholder wealth, several caveats are in
order. First, firms that adopt new incentive plans may simultaneously change other aspects of
their operations that also could influence management decisions (e.g., management realignments,
strategic repositionings, restructurings, etc.). Thus, observed changes in management behavior
could be due at least in part to these other effects. Second, our sample is not random since firms
choose voluntarily to adopt residual income-based plans. It could be, for example, that managers
opt for residual income based compensation when they forecast success unrelated to the incentives
in the plan.28 Finally, one should be careful not to interpret these results strictly as confirming
shareholder value creation. While they suggest changes in management behaviors that are
consistent with RI incentives, it remains for future research to confirm that resulting benefits have
been realized by shareholders.