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The Accounting Review Vol. 90 No. 1 2015

The Effect of Superiors' Exogenous Constraints on Budget Negotiations

Markus C. Arnold

University of Bern

Abstract

In a world characterized by increasing pressure from financial and product markets, the question of how exogenous constraints affect internal coordination and control processes has become increasingly important. This experiment investigates how two exogenous constraints that superiors can face in budget negotiation settings, increased opportunity costs and financial pressure to meet unit targets, affect budget negotiations and subordinate effort. The results show that both constraints induce more cooperation, but in different ways. Financial pressure on the superior leads to more cooperative negotiation behavior by superiors and subordinates than increased opportunity costs. Specifically, subordinates do not take advantage of the superior's increased financial pressure to enforce lower budgets. After negotiation, both constraints strongly mitigate the negative effects of superior budget imposition on subordinate effort because exogenous constraints eliminate the effect of procedural fairness considerations on subordinate effort.

DOI
10.2308/accr-50864
Volume
90
Issue
1
Pages
31-57
Language
en
Sources
openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref

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