Conclusion
Firms are now relying on intangible resources to support their competitive advantage (Lev, 2001).
In fact, some firms are becoming virtual organizations with only human capital contained within the
nucleus of the firm itself (Wallman, 1995). With these changes in business practices and strategic intent,
management accounting questions become, “How does one align the reliance on an intangible asset not
captured in the financial statements with the measures that comprise an executive’s bonus compensation?”
and “How do human resource practices affect the use of non-financial performance measures in bonus
compensation?”
This study extends the literature and complements Ittner et al. (1997) and Bushman et al. (1996) by
providing evidence on two additional organizational constructs associated with the use of non-financial
measures in bonus compensation. The results showthat the likelihood of relying on multiple non-financial
and financial measures is increasing in labor intensity. In addition, firms that rely on human capital are
more likely to include human resource measures in their assessment of bonus compensation. The results
show that for firms that rely on human capital, the greatest likelihood of using both non-financial and
financial measures is when they employ a hierarchical pay structure (and there is a lower probability
that these firms will rely solely on financial measures). Thus, firms recognize that information needs are
more demanding (e.g., the need for non-financial information is stronger) when there is great distance
between the top and average groups of employees within the firm and the workforce may be characterized
by feelings of inequity. This result supports the argument that agency costs are higher in firms that rely
on human capital when there is a hierarchical pay structure and non-financial measures are used to
provide incremental information necessary to focus executives on strategic objectives and to help align
individual and organizational objectives. In addition, the results show that labor-intensive firms that
employ a hierarchical pay structure have a higher probability of relying on human resource measures and
a lower probability of relying solely on traditional financial measures. Taken together, the results show
that labor-intensive firms that employ a hierarchical pay structure are more likely to use both non-financial
and human resource measures than they are to rely solely on traditional financial measures.
The findings of this study are consistent with Kaplan and Norton (1996). Firms use the performance
measurement system to translate and communicate strategy throughout the firm. Thus, the firm’s performance
measurement system facilitates transparency within the organization. Finding that labor-intensive
firms rely more on the use of non-financial measures, and specifically human resource measures in incentive
schemes is consistent with this notion. By clearly including non-financial measures in the incentive
schemes the importance of human capital is communicated throughout the firm. Johanson et al. (2001,
p. 721) says “valuing intangible investments on the balance sheet is a symbol or narrative that reveals the
significant importance of investing for the future. The measurement practice is valued by the managing
director for its attention directing benefit . . .” Likewise, including non-financial measures, especially
human resource measures, in top executive’s bonus schemes, sends a message that human capital is
important.
In an economy where the workforce is becoming increasingly important these results have important
implications for research. It is well recognized that for many firms human capital is a critical resource.
Indeed, there is a long stream of research investigating the association between human capital and firm
performance (Hitt et al., 2001). Hitt et al. (2001) investigate the relations among human capital, strategy,
and firm performance in law firms and find support for direct effects between human capital and
performance—supporting the resource-based theory of the firm. The findings of this study suggest that
research exploring the relation between human capital and performance may be more complex than what
is normally modeled, since the design of the firm’s performance measurement system may affect the
performance implications associated with human capital.
In an earlier study set in two professional service firms, Morris and Empson (1998) investigate management
control practices within two firms and propose that the nature of the knowledge base influences a
firm’s organizational structure. Moreover, they contribute to the knowledge transfer literature. They propose
that cooperative behavior and incentives are necessary to motivate professional service employees
to willingly transfer knowledge to one another. The results of this study inform the literature stream on
knowledge transfer since one of the implications is that the design of the incentive system is important
in firms that rely on human capital. Thus, researchers studying knowledge transfer issues might need to
consider not only the type of incentive—monetary, prizes, recognition—but also the basis or measures
used to justify the incentive. One way to perhaps pursue this idea is to study the impact of performance
measurement systems on employee’s willingness to share knowledge. If the performance measurement
system clearly communicates the importance of human capital and makes known the value the firm places
on its human capital through its measurement system perhaps employees will be more likely to share
in the firm’s vision, align their actions with the firm’s objectives, and be more willing to give up their
competitive advantage through the sharing of knowledge. Furthermore, as shown in this study, this association
might depend on the firm’s contextual environment. One way to explore this idea in more depth
might be through a series of case studies that are able to take into account environmental complexity.
However, similar to most studies, this study does have its limitations. The analysis focuses solely
on bonus compensation and is based entirely on information found in public documents. Although two
independent persons coded each of the proxy statements, there will still be some unwanted noise in the
measures. In addition, the study cannot contemplate the actual weights placed on non-financial measures
versus financial measures, nor can it determine the true amount of compensation at risk, since it uses actual
amount of bonus paid. Furthermore, the study only has data for 1 year. To the extent that the data collected
from 1997 is not representative of other years, caution would need to be exercised in generalizing these
results. In addition, caution should be used in generalizing the results to other types of bonus plans. For
example, this study cannot take into account bonus plans that include some type of bonus bank and pay
out over the course of several years. However, this study does provide an initial look at firms that rely on
human capital. A natural extension of this study is to gather data directly from firms on both the specific
measures and weights on the measures used in bonus compensation. Another interesting extension is to
extend this study to different levels of the firm and/or to different types of compensation (e.g., options) and
investigate the relation between the strategic use of employee groups (e.g., sales force, middle managers,
hourly workers, etc.) and the importance of non-financial measures in motivation and reward systems.