This study examines the impact of control systems on corporate innovation. Innovation is key to firm performance and growth, allowing corporations to stay competitive in their industry. We expect control systems to improve information flows within the firm by allowing managers to better identify and patent their most valuable intellectual property. Despite our prediction that control systems positively impact innovation, a priori, this relation is unclear as these same control systems may create an overly restrictive bureaucratic environment that may mitigate the benefits of effective controls for innovation. Using various measures of control system quality, we find evidence that effective control systems are associated with more innovation. Overall, the results of our study suggest effective control systems are associated with the ability of a firm to leverage its innovative projects. Our results suggest that corporations with effective control systems are more likely to be able to react to market and technology changes by ensuring their best ideas are patented.

This study documents a spillover effect of accounting fraud by showing that after the revelation of accounting misconduct, there is an increase in financially motivated neighborhood crime (robberies, thefts, etc.) in the cities where these misconduct firms are located. We find that more visible accounting frauds (e.g., greater media attention and larger stock price declines) are more strongly associated with a future increase in financially motivated neighborhood crime. We also find that the association between fraud revelation and increased future financially motivated crime is strongest when local job markets are shallower and where local income inequality is high, consistent with adverse shocks from fraud putting pressure on local communities. Combined, our study provides evidence that the societal ramifications of corporate accounting misconduct extend beyond adversely impacting a firm's capital providers and industry peers to negatively influence the daily life of the residents in the firm's local community.