Effects of EVA® based management on intertemporal decisions: a study with sales managers

Abstract

This study investigates the use of residual income for incentive purposes and the influence of this measure on managerial behavior, specifically in regard to long-term oriented (LTO) intertemporal decisions. A questionnaire was answered by 97 sales managers from two companies that use EVA® to evaluate managerial and organizational performance. The answers were evaluated to assess the relative importance of three types of performance indicator evaluations (EVA® indicators, accounting-financial indicators and non-financial indicators) for LTO. The results of the empirical tests do not confirm the hypothesis that performance evaluations based on EVA®, used for incentive purposes, affect inter-temporal decisions positively. Nevertheless, when analyzed together, the three performance indicators categories explain LTO with statistical significance. Additional results show that the lower the managerial perception of their performance evaluation by accounting and financial indicators, the higher their LTO, which is in line with the literature.