While studies can be designed in many different ways to approach some or all of these deficiencies in the management accounting knowledge base, we argue that cross-sectional field studies represent an under exploited means to focus specifically on credible theory refinement with high construct, internal, and external validity. This theory refinement payoff is achieved by combining the field-based, contextual, social treatment of management accounting with the science of cross-sectional replication. Such efforts may go some way to addressing persistent criticisms of definition ambiguity, mixed levels of analysis, and measurement anomalies (Chenhall 2003; Luft and Shields 2003 )