While a single in-depth field study could have provided similar data on the rationale underlying target setting, it would not have provided the evidence of cross-case patterns that significantly enhance the internal and external validity of MM's findings. Similarly, survey approaches (without interviews) could not have provided contextual explanations from multiple respondents on the distinctions in meaning that are critical to MM's contribution. Specifically, MM suggested that the previously undefined construct "highly achievable budget targets" could be operationalized in future studies as "challenging, but very likely to be achieved ... if [managers] exert a consistently high effort" (MM, 547). Such preciseness could not easily have been captured by structured research instruments. Because they start with such an unambiguous construct definition and then document the causal reasoning of participants and provide cross-case repetition, the internal validity of their expressed relations between target setting, incentives, and organizational outcomes is high. The study provides strong insights into the motivations of individual organizational actors and the influence of these theory-defined motivations in changing the relationship between psychological attributes (goal difficulty) and events (organizational outcomes) (Luft and Shields 2003). For example, both levels of management recognized that sustaining individual-level commitment requires some slack in target levels (goal difficulty), which then results in targets that are quite likely to be met (organizational outcomes). Thus, MM's choice of method enabled them to refine an important construct and to develop the empirical interpretation of the theoretical relation between target difficulty and individual and organizational outcomes with a degree of combined internal and external validity that would not be achievable through a single case study or survey.