The empirical managerial accounting literature has failed to produce a substantive cumulative body of knowledge. This literature has not matured beyond describing practice to developing and testing theories explaining observed practice, like other areas of accounting research. While the lack of publicly available data is a popular reason for this literature's underdeveloped state, it is not the only one. Other conjectures include: its inductive approach, researchers’ incentives, its use of non-economics-based frameworks, the lack of empirically testable theories, and its emphasis on decision making, not control.

This study focuses on changes in incentives at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration in the early 1990s to redirect effort from academic research to classroom teaching. We find a substantial and almost immediate jump in teaching ratings following the changes in incentives. Longer-run learning and turnover effects are present. Evidence also suggests that research output fell. This case illustrates the power of organizational incentives to redirect effort in a multitask environment, even in the presence of apparent human–capital constraints.