When residual income is used as the performance measure, both projects are clearly profitable and would be chosen. Mangers are encouraged to move beyond a focus on the percentage return on investment to look at the absolute dollar value of the additional profit.
Disadvantages of Residual Income Two disadvantages of residual income are that it is an absolute measure of return and that it does not discourage myopic behavior. Absolute measures of return make it difficult to directly compare the performance of divisions. For example, consider the residual income computations for Division A and Division B, where the minimum required rate of return is 8 percent.