Ittner and Larcker (1995) focused on firms using advanced quality programs (TQM).
Their sample consisted of 249 firms from the automobile and computer industries in four
countries. Using data from a consulting firm, they found ‘‘no support for the proposition
that, holding other determinants of performance constant, the highest performance levels
should be achieved by organizations making the greatest use of both TQM practices and
nontraditional information and reward systems’’ (Ittner and Larcker 1995, 2). On the contrary,
among firms with extensive use of advanced quality programs, those with a strong
reliance on nontraditional performance measures had lower performance than those with
less extensive use of such measures. In another study based on the same sample, Ittner and
Larcker (1997) examined the relation between quality-focused strategies and strategic control
practices, including the importance placed on quality performance in determining managerial
compensation. The performance effects (on ROA, ROS, sales growth, and selfreported
performance) of a match between the two were generally insignificant.