Several pervasive problems in the modeling or execution of management accounting research questions are acknowledged to inhibit the development of a complete and coherent knowledge base (Chenhall 2003; Luft and Shields 2003 ). These include simplified modeling of management accounting relationships (e.g., linear and unidirectional), the failure to identify important intervening variables in the relationships studied, the absence of linkages between areas of study, and a lack of understanding as to how organizational-level attributes are linked with outcomes via perceptions and actions at an individual level (Luft and Shields 2003). While these are "technical problems in the way management accounting research studies are modeled, they also reflect the difficulties of studying scientifically phenomena that are essentially social (Otley 2001). Other authors refer to ambiguity and disagreement about the precise nature of management accounting constructs, which also affects our ability to build a cohesive body of literature (Chapman 1997; Ittner and Larcker 2001; Chenhall 2003). Like modeling problems, these issues with construct definition and measurement are also partly attributable to the social, highly contextualized nature of organizational and management accounting concepts, and a lack of research tradition addressing the refinement of concepts and measures (Otley 2001; Chenhall 2003).