bResidual income divided by operating assets.
At first, it is tempting to claim that Division A outperforms Division B, since its residual income is three times higher. Notice, however, that Division A used six times as many assets to produce this difference. If anything, Division B is more efficient.
One possible way to correct this disadvantage is to compute a residual return on investment by dividing residual income by average operating assets. This measure indicates that Division B earned 4 percent while Division A earned only 2 percent. Another possibility is to compute both return on investment and residual income and use both measures for performance evaluation. ROI could then be used for interdivisional comparisons.
The second disadvantage of residual income is that it can encourage a short-run orientation. Just as a manager can choose to cut maintenance training, and sales force expenses when being evaluated under ROI, the manager being evaluated on the basis of residual income can take the same actions. The problem of myopic behavior is not solved by switching to this measure. A preferable method of reducing the myopic behavior problem of residual income is the economic value added method, discussed next.