V ol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Management Contr ol (2020) 31:275–328
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-020-00302-3
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ORIGINAL P APER
P sychology inmanagemen t accoun ting andcontr ol
resear ch: anov er view ofther ecent liter ature
Lisa‑Marie W ibbeke 1 · MaikLachmann 1
Published online: 21 July 2020
© The A uthor(s) 2020
Abstr ac t
For decades, manag ement accounting and control (MA C) researc hers ha v e
emplo y ed a div erse set of source disciplines to predict and e xamine beha vior , and
psyc hology is among the most freq uently dra wn upon. Although the literature con-
fir ms that psy chological theor ies are highl y relev ant to MA C researc h, the exis ting
kno w ledge on t his field r emains fragmented. Giv en t his bac kground, we e xamine
recent MA C researc h through a systematic re view of the different subfields of psy -
chology t o in v estigate the de v elopment of t his s tream of researc h. T o do so, we col-
lect 125 rele vant articles from nine leading accounting jour nals be tween 2000 and
2019 and anal yze their contents. On t his basis, w e provide a de tailed ov erview of the
use of psyc hological t heories in recent literature and identify links betw een specific
theor ies and MA C topics. W e find that the quantity and propor tion of psy chology -
based MA C researc h and the diversity of psy chology subfields all incr ease dur ing
our in vestig ation per iod, especiall y between 2015 and the first half of 2019. Ov er-
all, most studies addr ess per f or mance measurement and e valuation topics, and social
psyc hology concepts are t he mos t frequentl y applied. Ho we ver , we find considerable
differences in the application of psyc hological theor ies across different MA C top-
ics. Our re view pr ovides insights into the content of this researc h stream and, thus,
ser v es as a valuable source f or researchers seeking an o verview of pre vious in ves ti-
gations dra wing on different subfields of psyc hology .
Keywords Manag ement accounting· Management control· Psy chology· Literature
r evi ew
JEL Classification M41
* Lisa-Marie Wibbeke
[email protected]
Maik Lachmann
maik.lachmann@tu-ber lin.de
1 Depar tment ofA ccounting andManagement Control, T echnisc he Univ ersität Berlin, Straße des
17. Juni 135, 10623Berlin, Germany

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1 Introduction
For decades, manag ement accounting and control (MA C) researc hers ha v e
emplo y ed a div erse set of economic theor ies and sociological or or ganizational
approac hes to predict and e xamine beha vior and decision-making (Hesf ord et al.
2007 ; Hopper and Bui 2016 ; Lachmann e t al. 2017 ). Pre vious literature stud -
ies illuminate applications of specific subfields of psyc hology in MAC researc h.
These studies identify cognitiv e, motivational, and social psy chological theories
frequentl y used in pr ior researc h (Bir nber g et al. 2007 ) and e xamine researc h
anal yzing subjectiv e decision-making in MAC conte xts (Luft and Shields 2009 ) .
Fur ther , a recent study b y K aplan e t al. ( 2018b ) discusses f our social psyc hologi -
cal theor ies that ha ve been or could be applied to beha vioral accounting. T aken
tog ether , t hese s tudies indicate that psyc hology is highly rele vant to contempo -
rar y MA C research and spar k fur ther interest in its contents and c haracter istics.
Although the afor ementioned studies discuss psyc hological theor ies and, espe -
ciall y , the use of social psyc hology in MA C research, the literature lac ks a recent
comprehensiv e re view of applications of t heories and concepts be yond social psy -
chology in MA C studies. The pr ior s tudies are limited to par ticular psy chology
subfields or w ere conducted sev eral years ago, lea ving more recentl y published
researc h unanalyzed. Prior research, theref ore, remains fragmented, impeding
the agg reg ation of kno w ledge on ho w psyc hological theor ies ma y complement
economic or org anizational theor ies in MA C studies and a deeper unders t anding
of ho w MA C practices influence beha vior and decision-making. Recent trends in
psyc hology-based MA C researc h, such as the application of personality psyc hol -
ogy (Holder ness e t al. 2017 ; Nichol 2019 ), make a com prehensiv e revie w of this
topic especiall y valuable.
Giv en this back g r ound, we in v estigate recent MA C research emplo ying t he -
or ies and concepts fr om the field of psychology through a sy stematic literature
re view . Our r evie w aims to e xplore the main f oci of the use of psyc hological
theor ies in MA C research and intends to e xamine the links betw een psyc hologi -
cal theor ies and cer tain MA C topics. Our re vie w f ollo ws a multis tep approach in
which e very step of the systematic literature r evie w process is based on a synthe -
sis of appro v ed re view me thods (e.g., Cooper 1984 , 1988 ; Grant and Booth 2009 ;
Booth et al. 2012 ; Fink 2014 ; Ma yr ing 2014 ). W e identify the relev ant researc h
through a comprehensiv e, structured mater ial collection process in vol ving t he
de velopment and es tablishment of sev eral selection and inclusion criter ia. This
mater ial collection pr ocess identifies 125 relev ant ar ticles out of a total of 5247
ar ticles from nine leading accounting journals betw een 2000 and 2019. All of
these ar ticles are subject to in-depth content anal ysis that identifies the specific
researc h topics, methods, and psyc hology subfields dra wn upon and t he psy cho -
logical constructs and main findings of each rele vant r esearch s tudy . Fur ther more,
w e pro vide a comprehensiv e synthesis of t he topics e xamined by the rele v ant
studies and aim to present implications f or future researc h.
Reg arding recent de v elopments, we confirm t he trends indicated b y pr ior
studies (e.g., Hesf ord et al. 2007 ; Hopper and Bui 2016 ; Lachmann e t al. 2017 )

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and find that the number and share of psyc hology-based MA C studies increased
o v er the inv estigation period, especially be tween 2015 and the first half of 2019.
A dditionally , w e find t hat the div ersity in psy chology subfields increases o v er the
in vestig ation per iod and that this div ersity is especially high be tween 2015 and
the first half of 2019. Both findings indicate a gro wing interest in emplo ying psy -
chological theories and concepts to f oster a better unders tanding of t he conse -
quences and effects of MA C practices on beha vior . Reg arding MA C topics, most
ar ticles e xamine aspects of perf or mance measurement and e valuation, f ollow ed
b y aspects of compensation, re w ards, and incentiv es and aspects of budgeting.
Specificall y , subjectiv e per f or mance e v aluations and subjective measures (e.g.,
Kunz 2015 ; Bol and Leiby 2018 ), incentiv e contract framing and compensation
contract selection ques tions (e.g., T afko v 2013 ; Reic her t and W oods 2017 ), and
budge tar y slac k and honesty in budge ting (e.g., Bro wn et al. 2014 ; Bla y et al.
2019 ) are v er y freq uentl y in v estigated using psy chology -based t heore tical per -
spectiv es. Fur ther , we find that social psy chology is the predominant subfield of
psyc hology applied to MAC researc h.
Our findings and syntheses contr ibute to the literature in se v eral w a ys. W e com-
plement and e xtend exis ting discussions of psyc hology -based studies (e.g., Bir nber g
et al. 2007 ; Luft and Shields 2009 ; Kaplan et al. 2018b ) b y including ar ticles that
dra w upon t heories and concepts from f our distinctive subfields of psy chology . This
includes ar ticles emplo ying t heories or concepts from social psy chology , cognitiv e
psyc hology and motivation theor y . Fur ther more, w e significantly e xtend the scope
of pr ior s tudies by including articles t hat dr a w upon personality psyc hology , mul-
tiple subfields and se v eral smaller subfields. Moreo ver , we pr ovide a v er y detailed
anal ysis of the use of psyc hological theor ies and concepts in a multitude of MA C
subtopics, whic h allow s us to ev aluate the dev elopments regarding specific sub-
topics and topics, as w ell as psyc hology-based MA C research as a whole. T o our
kno w ledge, this re vie w is the first to sys tematically collect, anal yze, and synt hesize
such a br oad spectr um of psy chology -based researc h from the selected jour nals to
illuminate the characteristics and kno w ledge g eneration of this researc h stream dur -
ing this time per iod. Furt her , our revie w dra ws a picture of an e v ol ving research
landscape and sugges ts sev eral future research opportunities, as well as emer ging
ne w f acets in psyc hology -based MA C research.
Moreo v er , our synthesis and contextualization sho w , t here are specific domains,
where reactions to implemented MA C practices are significantly affected b y psy-
chological aspects. Among o thers, reactions to, e.g., PME systems, com pensation,
re w ards or incentiv es benefit from psyc hology -based explanations of beha vioral pat-
ter ns. For ins tance, designers of PME systems should be a w are that personality traits
like psy c hological entitlement can affect one’ s beha vioral response to perf or mance
f eedback (Holderness et al. 2017 ) or that compensation contract selection ma y be
affected b y one’ s need f or ac hiev ement (Fehrenbacher e t al. 2017 ). Thus, our re vie w
adv ocates the consideration of such aspects, and w e pro vide rele vant insights on
these mechanisms f or academics, practitioners, and designers of MA C practices and
sys tems.
The remaining sections of this revie w are str uctured as f ollow s. Section 2 pro -
vides a br ief o verview of predominant psy chology subfields in and the hist or y of

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psyc hology-based MA C researc h, as well as pre vious studies regarding this researc h
stream. N ext, Sect. 3 descr ibes our resear ch methods and e xplains our sys tematic
collection and re view of the rele v ant research. The categorization process and the
coding scheme de veloped f or this pur pose are also introduced in Sect. 3 . Subse-
quentl y , our findings are presented in Sect. 4 . In Sect. 5 our findings are synthesized
and discussed regarding possible im plications of t he r ecent dev elopments and future
researc h a v enues. W e conclude by reflecting on the contributions and limit ations of
our sys tematic revie w .
2 P sychology inMA C research
2.1 Brief ov er view ofpr edominant subfields
Owing to its role in f acilit ating and influencing decisions, MA C has a “beha vioral
function” (Caplan 1966, p . 496). It seems intuitiv e that some of t he beha vioral effects
and impacts of MA C practices can onl y be predicted, e xamined, and e v entually
understood if researc hers incor porate assumptions r egarding the intr insic processes
and psyc hological aspects deter mining beha vior into t he r esearch. 1 In the domain of
psyc hology , t he e xistence of individual differences in people’ s personalities, intel-
ligence le vels, and cognitiv e functions, such as perception or memory , is believ ed
to manif est in beha vioral differences (e.g., Anas t asi 1971 ; Bo yle 2004 ; Chamor r o-
Premuzic and Furhnam 2006 ; R oberson 2016 ). The field of psy chology is theref ore
descr ibed as “the scientific in ves tigation of mental processes (thinking, remember -
ing, f eeling, etc.) and beha vior” (W esten 2002, p . 2). Thus, psyc hology f ocuses on
subjectiv e phenomena, such as emo tional affectiv e reactions, motiv ations, or ment al
representations of inf or mation (Birnberg et al. 2007 ; Luft and Shields 2009 ). This
indicates a great number of possibly rele vant subfields of psy chology f or researchers
to dra w upon. Pr ior researc h by Birnberg e t al. (2007) finds that cognitive, mo ti-
v ational, and social psyc hological theor ies are freq uently used. The y conclude t hat
MA C researc hers employ a variety of different psy chological theor ies fr om these
subfields and that these t heories are commonly applied to e xplain t he mo tivational
(e.g., effects on the willingness to ex er t effor t) and inf or mational effects (e.g., influ-
ences on judgments and decisions) of MA C practices (Bir nber g et al. 2007 ). W e
descr ibe these three subfields in the f ollo wing parag r aph.
Social psyc hology addresses the interactions of individual psyc hology with group
phenomena b y ex amining “the influence of real or imagined others on the wa y peo-
ple beha ve. ” (W esten 2002, p . 24). This subfield, theref ore, aims to understand the
1 A subdiscipline of MA C, ref er red t o as behavior al management accounting, is substantiall y influenced
by sociological perspectives and psy chology (e.g., Hof stedt and Kinard 1970 ; Dunk 2001 ; Birnberg
2011 ; Hopper and Bui 2016 ; Charifzadeh and Tasc hner 2017 ). It addresses such t opics as t he (unin-
tended) effects of incentiv es, selected goals, and targets or appr opr iate design parame ters of control sys-
tems in org anizations (Char ifzadeh and T aschner 2017 ). Ho we v er, this re view is no t limited to research
that ref ers to itself as beha vioral management accounting but rather f ocuses on de veloping a holistic pic-
ture of an y MAC resear ch with a psyc hology back g r ound.

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Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
effects of social influences, such as attitudes, social inter actions, and relationships,
on individual beha vior (Bir nberg e t al. 2007 ). Cognitive psy chology , in contrast,
attempts to understand human cognition b y obser ving individual beha vior when per -
f or ming various cognitiv e task s and pr ocesses, such as attention, judgments, deci-
sions, or lear ning (Birnberg et al. 2007 ; Eysenc k and Keane 2010 ). In motiv ation
psyc hology , an individual’ s motivation ma y be descr ibed as a set of r easons, needs,
and goals initiating and directing individual beha vior (Maslow 1943 ; Deci and R yan
1985 ). Motiv ation theor ies in psy chology are theref ore plentiful and range from
dr iv e t heories, which ar gue that a number of phy siological dr iv es deter mine beha v -
ior , to theor ies of intrinsic motivation and self-de ter mination, whic h f ocus more on
psyc hologically -based motiv es (Deci and R yan 1985 ). Bir nber g et al. (2007) fur -
ther descr ibe motiv ation t heory as t he in v estigation of ar ousal, direction, intensity ,
and persistence of effort, f our beha viors that influence psyc hological processes. In
addition to these three subfields, our revie w identifies personality psyc hology as a
subfield that has recently dr a wn more attention from MA C researc hers. In contrast
to the other subfields, personality psyc hology “ex amines people ’ s endur ing w ay s
of responding in different kinds of situations and the w a ys individuals differ in the
w a ys the y tend to think, f eel and beha v e” (W esten 2002, p . 24). Personality psy -
chology , t heref ore, studies human univ ersals, individual differences, and individual
uniqueness (Cerv one and Pervin 2013 ). T able 1 pro vides a br ief o v er vie w and lists a
selection of the theor ies within t hese subfields. 2
2.2 Origins anddevelopment
The emplo yment of psyc hological theor ies is not ne w to MAC resear ch; it ma y be
traced bac k to the 1950s and t he seminal w ork b y Argyris (1952) (Bir nber g et al.
2007 ; Hall 2016 ). In his study , Argyris (1952) emplo ys concepts of human rela-
tions and group dynamics to e xamine the influence of budge ts and the budgeting
process on emplo yee ’ s minds, beha vior, mo tivations, and interpersonal relations
in a social conte xt. 3 His findings come from inter vie ws with operating and finance
super visors at f our production plants, highlight the influence of budge ts on employ -
ees ’ motivations and social r elations, and, t hus, are the first t o emphasize the impor-
tance of integ rating psy c hological f actors into MA C research. A ccording to Bir n-
berg e t al. (2007) , earl y research conducted after Argyris ’ s (1952) seminal wor k
fur ther strengthens the rele vance of psy chological e xplanations to understanding
MA C practices ’ effects on beha vior and decision-making. Earl y studies (e.g., Ste-
dr y 1960 ; Barefield 1972 ; Hopw ood 1972 ; Mock etal. 1972 ) f ocus on incor porating
2 In some cases, our assignment of psychological theories to specific subfields may differ fr om pr ior
studies (e.g., Birnberg et al. 2007 ). How ev er , these assignments do not contradict the pr ior literature,
as they are de ter mined b y consulting the psychology liter ature (e.g., Kanf er 1990 ; W esten 2002 ; T a ylor
et al. 2006 ; Eysenc k and Keane 2010 ; Cervone and P ervin 2013 ) and represent another perspective on
subfields that are not mutuall y ex clusiv e.
3 In the 1920 s and earl y 1930 s, human r elations was a researc h approac h f ocusing on inv estigating
morale, motiv ation, productivity , job satisf action and g r oup processes, and leadership or pow er in org ani-
zations ( Bir nber g etal. 2007 ).

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concepts from motiv ational t heory and social and cognitive psy c hology into the
MA C researc h domain (Bir nber g etal. 2007 ).
Se ver al studies find that psyc hology is one of the most common source disciplines
emplo y ed by resear chers to describe t he effects of MA C practices (Hesf ord etal. 2007 ;
Hopper and Bui 2016 ; Lachmann e tal. 2017 ). In 2007, Hesf ord etal. (2007) conducted
a bibliographic study in ves tigating e xpansions in ter ms of ne w researc h topics, meth -
ods, and theoretical perspectiv es in MA C researc h since t he 1980s. The y find t hat
although more studies dra w on economic or sociological perspectives, psy c hology is
among the most frequentl y used source disciplines employ ed in MAC r esearch studies
betw een 1981 and 2000 (Hesf ord et al. 2007 ). More recent studies confirm t his result
f or t he period from 1980 to 2012; Lachmann e t al. (2017) assess the dev elopment and
state of positivist MA C research regar ding diversity and v alidity and find t hat researc h -
ers betw een 1980 and 2012 most freq uently r elied on economic theor ies, psyc hological
theor ies, and theor ies of or ganizational beha vior . Fur ther more, their findings pro vide
e vidence that t he share and number of publications dra wing on psyc hological theor ies
T able 1 Overview of selected subfields of psy chology
Subfield Description
Social psyc hology Addresses the influence of individual or group phenomena on human beha vior .
Relies on suc h constructs as attr ibution, personal impressions, social interac-
tions, and relationships (T ay lor etal. 2006 ; Birnberg etal. 2007 )
Prior research identifies, f or ex ample, role theor y , social compar ison theory ,
social identity theor y , and g roup identity theory as being frequentl y employ ed
in MA C research (Birnberg etal. 2007 )
For an o verview of social psy chology , see, for e xample, T a ylor etal. ( 2006 )
Cognitiv e psyc hology Observes the beha vior of individuals per f or ming v ar ious cognitiv e t asks to
e xplore human cognition (Eysenc k and Keane 2010 ). Se veral internal pro-
cesses are in v olv ed in this beha vior, including attention, per ception, lear ning,
memor y , language, problem-sol ving, reasoning, and thinking (Eysenc k and
Keane 2010 ). This subfield f ocuses on how people perceiv e, process, and
retriev e inf or mation and mak e decisions (W esten 2002 )
Prior research identifies heuristics and biases, prospect theor y and framing,
mental representations (or ment al models), and outcome effects, f or exam ple,
as being frequentl y emplo yed in MA C research (Birnberg etal. 2007 )
For an o verview of cognitiv e psychology , see, for e xample, Ey senck and K eane
( 2010 )
Motiv ation psyc hology Describes t he man y reasons, drives, needs, and goals that initiate and direct
individual beha vior (Maslow 1943 ; Deci and R yan 1985 )
Prior research identifies, f or ex ample, lev el of aspiration t heory , goal-setting
theor y , and person-environment-fit theory as theor ies frequentl y used in MAC
research (Birnberg e tal. 2007 )
For an o verview of mo tivation theories, see, for e xample, Mitc hell ( 1982 ), Deci
and R yan ( 1985 ), and Kanf er ( 1990 )
Personality psy chology Often studies personality traits, which represent consis tent elements of human
beha vior and manners (Cer v one and Pervin 2013 ). W e identify , f or ex ample,
tolerance f or ambiguity , psyc hological entitlement, and the Dark Triad of
personality traits as being applied in recent MA C literature
For an o verview of personality psy chology , see, for e xample, W esten ( 2002 )
and Cervone and P er vin ( 2013 )

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Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
increased dur ing the 2000s and 2010s. Ex amining contr ibutions to the jour nal Manag e -
ment Accounting R esearch (MAR) o ver the last 25 y ears, Hopper and Bui (2016) also
find an increase in the adoption of psyc hological theor ies in ar ticles published in MAR
betw een 2000 and 2014.
As noted in Sect. 2.1 , there are pr ior re view s tudies that provide an intr oduction to
the psyc hological theor ies that ha v e been frequentl y used in MA C researc h (e.g., Bir n -
berg e tal. 2007 ; Luft and Shields 2009 ). In compar ison to the re vie w by Birnberg e t al.
( 2007 ) mentioned abo ve, the re vie w by L uf t and Shields (2009) e xamines psyc hology -
based researc h descr ibing and anal yzing subjectiv e decision-making in MA C conte xts.
The y find that studies published from the 1970s to the 2000s concentrate on t he influ -
ence of subjectiv e cognitiv e phenomena on the per f ormance of subjective decisions.
Ne wer studies incorporate more social concepts, such as pref erences, individual valu -
ations of (non-monetar y) pa yoffs, and emotional r eactions (Luft and Shields 2009 ). A
similar recent study f ocuses on beha vioral accounting. Kaplan et al. ( 2018b ) discuss
f our social psychological theories t hat ha v e been or could be applied to beha vioral
accounting. The y pro vide an ov er vie w of the findings of selected beha vioral accounting
studies that encompass inter personal affect, accountability , attr ibution, and social com -
par ison, and the y e xpect that social psychological theories, in par ticular , will continue
to inspire beha vioral accounting research.
T aken tog ether , the findings of pr ior studies b y Bir nber g et al. (2007) , Luft and
Shields (2009) , and Kaplan et al. ( 2018b ) sho w a great diversity in the use of psy cho -
logical theor ies and psy chology subfields in beha vioral accounting and, specifically ,
MA C researc h. They also pr ovide e vidence t hat psy chology is emplo yed in a v ar iety of
MA C conte xts to f oster a be tter understanding of t he beha vioral consequences of MA C
practices. Ho we ver , t he af orementioned studies are either limited to a par ticular sub -
field of psyc hology or w ere conducted sev eral y ears ago. Thus, despite t he seemingl y
increasing impor tance of beha vioral aspects, t he MA C literature lac ks a systematic
re view of applications of psy chological theories and concepts in recent MA C studies.
Consequentl y , research results remain fr agmented, impeding the agg reg ation of know l -
edge of psy c hology’ s ability to contr ibute to addressing recent c halleng es and emerging
topics in MA C researc h.
Based on this reasoning, our study addresses the research q uestions of whic h psy -
chological theories and concepts are most intensiv el y applied in recent MA C research
and which tr ends in t he use of psy c hological theor ies and concepts are obser v able.
Theref ore, we conduct a sy stematic re view f ollo wing a multistep approac h based on
appro v ed re view me thods (e.g., Cooper 1984 , 1988 ; Grant and Boo th 2009 ; Booth etal.
2012 ; Fink 2014 ; Ma yr ing 2014 ). The f ollo wing section e xplains our revie w scope, t he
structured mater ial collection, and the descr iptiv e and content anal ysis.
3 Methods
3.1 Review sc ope, mat erial collection andar ticle selec tion
W e limit our revie w scope to psyc hology-based MA C research articles published
betw een 2000 and the first half of 2019 b y a selection of leading accounting jour nals.

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1 3
First, w e define psychology -based ar ticles as ar ticles that emplo y either psychologi-
cal theor ies or theor ies that originate from psyc hology ( e.g., r ole theor y in social
psyc hology ) or that concentrate on single phenomena within psyc hological theor ies
( e.g., the phenomenon of r ole ambiguity within role t heor y ). W e do so because MAC
researc hers ma y dev elop t heore tical models by em ploying entire theories or a spe-
cific single phenomenon associated with a psyc hological theor y .
Second, the per iod after 2000 is believ ed to be characterized by a br oad spec-
tr um of MA C research methods and theoretical perspectiv es, as well as an increase
in publications dra wing on psyc hology as a subdiscipline (Scapens 2006 ; Hopper
and Bui 2016 ; Lachmann e t al. 2017 ). As enumerated abov e, pr ior re view s ex am-
ined selected ar ticles, earlier y ears of this per iod, or are limited to a par ticular sub-
field of psyc hology (e.g., Bir nberg e t al. 2007 ; Luft and Shields 2009 ; Kaplan et al.
2018b ). Ho we ver , much of the kno w ledge g enerated b y research s tudies published
after Bir nber g et al. (2007) or Luft and Shields (2009) has remained fragmented.
Thus, to f oster the agg reg ation of know ledge, w e include ar ticles published betw een
2000 and the first half of 2019. Fur ther , w e extend the scope of pre vious studies b y
anal yzing ar ticles that emplo y psyc hological theor ies and concepts from a multitude
of subfields. W e include researc h dra wing upon social and cognitiv e psyc hology ,
motiv ation theor y , personality psyc hology , multiple subfields, and sev eral smaller
subfields.
Third, w e f ollo w pr ior literature s tudies (e.g., Hesf ord et al. 2007 ; Lachmann e tal.
2017 ) in selecting some of the most influential publication outlets. Thus, our journal
selection reflects leading accounting jour nals accor ding to accounting f aculty sur -
v e ys and jour nal r ankings as well as div erse outlets in ter ms of origins, publishing
authors, and topics. 4 Our selection includes the f ollowing nine journals (in alpha-
betical order): A ccounting, Or g anizations and Society (A OS), Behavior al Resear ch
in A ccounting (BRIA), Contempor ar y Accounting R esearc h (CAR), Eur opean
A ccounting Review (EAR), Journal of Accounting and Economics (J AE), Jour nal of
A ccounting Resear c h (J AR), Jour nal of Manag ement Accounting R esear c h (JMAR),
Manag ement Accounting R esearc h (MAR), and The Accounting R eview (T AR).
Follo wing the literature on efficient mater ial collection (e.g., Fink 2014 ), w e con-
secutiv el y per f or m the initial and final inclusion steps. The initial inclusion step aims
to identify potentiall y relev ant ar ticles b y e xamining titles, k eyw ords, and abstracts
(Booth et al. 2012 ). The f ollo wing cr iteria f or relev ant ar ticles are established to
operationalize the scope of our revie w:
4 All selected jour nals are ranked with a status ranging from A + to B according to the VHB-JOUR -
QU AL 3 of t he German Academic Association f or Business Research (V erband der Hochsc hullehrer
für Betriebswir tsc haft e.V . 2015 ) and ha v e high impact fact ors according to sev eral international jour nal
rankings.

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1. Must co v er MA C topics.
2. Must be an original research article.
3. Must emplo y an empir ical researc h method. 5
4. Mus t indicate t he use of psy c hological theor ies or related constructs in t he title,
abstract, or k e yw ords.
Consequentl y , we individuall y e xamine all the ar ticles published in the nine
selected jour nals during the in ves tigation period by visiting the jour nals ’ or cor re-
sponding jour nal publishers ’ websites and br o wsing their ar ticle arc hives s t arting
in 2000. T able 2 pro vides an o verview of the number of ar ticles re tr ie v ed after each
mater ial collection s tep.
First, w e read and screened t he titles, k e yw ords, and abstracts of all 5247 articles
f or indications of nonor iginal researc h ar ticles, researc h methods used, and ref er -
ences to MA C topics. Then, w e screened the titles, ke yw ords, and abstracts of all the
identified empir ical original r esearc h ar ticles addr essing MA C topics a second time
to detect indications of the use of psy chological theor ies or cons tr ucts. This sec-
ond screening procedure aims to identify terminology associated with psychology
in gener al, such as “cognitiv e, ” “attr ibution, ” or “motiv ation, ” and it deems ar ticles
that use this ter minology as potentiall y r elevant. The initial inclusion s tep identified
204 potentiall y rele vant articles to be fur ther e xamined in the final inclusion step. In
the final inclusion step, w e subjected the full texts of all 204 potentiall y relev ant ar ti-
cles to an e xtended screening procedure that v er ified the emplo yment of theor ies or
concepts from psy chology subfields. This final s tep, how ev er , requires the authors of
ar ticles to e xplicitly ref er to psyc hological theor ies or constructs in dev eloping t heir
studies ’ theoretical bac kgrounds or h ypotheses. 6 Owing to t he div ersity in research
strategies and the different f oci of t he articles, ref erences to psy chology are not nec-
essar il y equall y evident. F or most ar ticles, inclusion eligibility is rather clear o wing
T able 2 Number of included and ex cluded ar ticles per process step
Description Number
T otal ar ticles screened in the selected journals dur ing the in ves tigation period 5247
Thereof…
Ex cluded after initial inclusion check 5043
Ar ticles deemed po tentially rele vant after initial inclusion c heck 204
Thereof…
Ex cluded after final inclusion check 79
Ar ticles included in the re view after final inclusion c heck 125
5 Empirical research methods are assumed to offer instruments of choice to acq uire an in-depth under-
standing of decision-influencing and decision-f acilitating effects on people (Spr inkle 2003 ), which, in
tur n, ma y be associated wit h the emplo yment of concepts from subfields of psy chology .
6 Simpl y stating that t he researc h dra w s on psyc hology , wit hout naming a specific theory or related con-
struct, does not qualify an article for final inclusion.

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to the w ording and explicit mentioning of theories related to psyc hology subfields. 7
The final inclusion chec k identifies 125 relev ant ar ticles to be analyzed in the f ol-
lo wing sections of this revie w .
3.2 Proc ess andmethods ofanalysis
All 125 included ar ticles w ere subject to content anal ysis. A ccording to Ma yr ing
(2014) , content anal ysis is a mix ed-methods approac h that combines the assignment
of categories to essential te xt points and the additional quantitative anal ysis of the
frequency of those categories. Thus, f ollo wing pr ior researc h (e.g., Shields 1997 ;
Scandura and Williams 2000 ; Hesf ord et al. 2007 ; Lac hmann et al. 2017 ), we per -
f or m descr iptiv e analy ses and ex amine the frequency of categories and subcatego-
r ies in our data set to identify cert ain patterns in the ar ticle contents. Moreo ver , we
appl y linear time-based regressions (Scandura and Williams 2000 ) to identify trends
in the use of the different psyc hology subfields in MAC r esearch to complement our
frequency anal ysis. Fur thermore, to ex amine the diversity in the applied psy chology
subfields o v er time and in cer tain content areas, we calculate “he terogeneity indi-
ces” (Scandura and Williams 2000 ; Harr ison and Klein 2007 ). These indices sho w
that homogeneity is greater when, f or inst ance, a lar g e propor tion of ar ticles em ploy
a par ticular psy chology subfield as opposed to a mor e equal application of a v ar ie ty
of subfields (Scandura and Williams 2000 ).
In assigning the categor ies, w e f ocus on determining MAC t opics, psyc hology
bac kground, and researc h methods f or each article. Thus, we (re)e xamine the titles,
abstracts, k e ywor ds, and full texts. Mos t of the content analy sis is conducted dur -
ing the initial and final inclusion stages of the str uctured material collection. This
approac h allo ws us to efficientl y collect all t he rele vant inf or mation but also mini-
mize the number of individual (re)ex aminations of each article. Initially , w e record
the topics, psyc hological theor ies and concepts, and researc h methods of all 125
ar ticles using eac h ar ticle ’ s ter minology . In a second step, these records are harmo-
nized (e.g., the ter ms per f ormance evaluation, per f or mance assessment, and per -
formance appr aisal are summar ized b y t he term per formance evaluation ) to allo w
f or precise and consistent categor ization. T o synthesize and contextualize the ar ti-
cles, w e design a categor y sc heme based on framew orks emplo yed in pr ior literature
re view s (e.g., Shields 1997 ; Scandura and Williams 2000 ; Hesf ord etal. 2007 ; Lac h-
mann et al. 2017 ). Ho we v er , these framew orks are extensiv ely modified to reflect
the contents of our included ar ticles. The categor y sc heme consists of the three
coding dimensions (codes 1–3) outlined in T ables 3 and 4 . Eac h coding dimension
consists of se v eral categor ies that ma y be fur ther divided into the subcategor ies.
7 Four concepts that are recur rentl y used in the MAC literature are e x cluded from this revie w: trust,
justice, honesty , and fairness. These specific concepts ma y be applied in sev eral w ay s and with various
underl ying assumptions from a number of different theoretical perspectiv es. These concepts ma y be used
within subfields of psyc hology , but t he y ma y also be employ ed for researc h that does not ref er to itself as
related to psyc hology . How ev er, if these constructs are used along wit h or in addition to concepts fr om
psyc hology subfields (e.g., as additional variables in an experimental setting) the ar ticle is eligible f or
final inclusion (e.g., Har tmann and Slapničar 2009 ; Br own etal. 2016 ).

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Thecategor ies r epresent the topics ex amined, t he r elev ant psy chology subfields, and
the research me thods employ ed.
The code 1 categor ies ref er to t he subfield of MA C t hat the primar il y ex amined
topics can be assigned to. The topic categories are dev eloped based on t he catego-
r ies emplo yed in prior studies (e.g., Shields 1997 ; Hesf ord et al. 2007 ; Lachmann
et al. 2017 ) and t he results of our content anal ysis. T able 3 depicts t he nine catego-
r ies of topics used in this re vie w . T o descr ibe the subjects in greater detail, the topics
of the included ar ticles w ere recorded in detail dur ing content anal ysis and har mo-
nized after w ard. Thereby , the identified topics ha v e been summar ized under se v eral
generic ter ms to furt her classify the ar ticles into the respectiv e categor ies.
The budg eting categor y comprises ar ticles f ocusing on, f or ex ample, budge tar y
slac k, par ticipativ e budge ting, or budget r epor ting. Ar ticles in the compensation,
r e w ards, and incentiv es categor y concentrate on the design of compensation con-
tracts or c hoices regarding re w ard types and incentiv es. The third categor y , costing
sys tems , comprises ar ticles on par ticipation in costing sy stem design or the effects of
T able 3 Overview of topic categories
A detailed description of our coding scheme is pro vided in “ Appendix 1 ”
Dimension Description Categories (in alphabetical order)
T opic (Code 1) Ref ers to the MAC contents of an article Budgeting
Compensation, re wards, and incentiv es
Costing sy stems
Decision-making
Org anizational control
Perf or mance measurement and e valuation
R oles in management control sy stems
Strategic MA C
T able 4 Overview of coding dimensions, categories, and subcategor ies
Dimension Description Categories ( subcategories in brac k e ts )
Subfield of psyc hology (Code 2) Ref ers to the psychol-
ogy subfield of an
ar ticle
Social
Cognitiv e
Motiv ation
Personality
Multiple
Researc h method (Code 3) Ref ers to the empir ical
research me thods of
an ar ticle
Surve y
Experiment ( laboratory experiment,
field experiment )
Field study
Archiv al study
Case study
Multiple

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costing sy stems. Ar ticles co vering fact ors t hat influence decision-making and deci-
sion quality are assigned t o t he decision - making category . Ne xt, t he or ganizational
contr ol categor y f eatures ar ticles that mainl y deal with project controls, creativity
controls, and other internal control systems no t cov ered by the other categories of
this revie w . The per formance measur ement and evaluation category compr ises arti-
cles that f ocus on the ev aluation process and its outcomes (e.g., the effects of sub-
jectivity in w eighting per f or mance measures on emplo y ee per f or mance) or on per -
f or mance measurement sys tem design (e.g., the choice of per f or mance measures).
Ar ticles on perceptions of the role of manag ement accountants are assigned to the
r oles in manag ement control sy stems category . Lastl y , t he s tr ategic MA C categor y
includes ar ticles f ocusing on strategic perf or mance measurement sys tems. In order
to conte xtualize the findings of our content analy sis, the code 1-categor ies are fur -
ther subdivided by subcategories that allow us to present freq uentl y ex amined topics
and applied psyc hological t heories and concepts in Sect. 4.2 .
The code 2 categor ies sho wn in T able 4 ref er to t he subfield of psy c hology that
the emplo yed psy chological theories and concepts or iginated from. The concepts
and theor ies w ere identified in the titles, ke yw ords, abstract or full te xt of the respec-
tiv e ar ticle. The basic frame w ork f or code 2 relies on the of ten-researc hed psyc ho-
logical theor ies and constructs from Bir nber g et al. (2007) ’ s comprehensiv e ov er -
vie w . As enumerated abo ve, w e added t he per sonality categor y because w e identify
this subfield in sev eral of t he 125 included articles. Fur ther , the multiple categor y
is used f or studies emplo ying at least tw o theor ies or concepts from different sub-
fields of psyc hology (e.g., a combination of social and cognitive concepts). Lastl y ,
the code 3 categor ies are derived fr om t he r esearch me t hod categorization scheme
de veloped b y Lachmann etal. (2017) , who use a modified v ersion of Hesf ord etal. ’ s
(2007) categor ization sc heme. In line with this research, w e distinguish betw een
sur v eys, e xper iments, ar c hival studies, case s tudies, and field studies. W e also dis-
tinguish betw een laboratory and field experiments. 8 This scheme is e xtended b y the
multiple categor y to allo w f or precise categor izations of articles employing more
than one empir ical researc h method.
T o ensure as f ew de viations as possible in t he coding of included articles, a sam-
ple of ar ticles w as precoded. Subsequentl y , t he categories and cor responding defini-
tions w ere fur ther clar ified and then reapplied to all included ar ticles. The recor ds of
all 125 ar ticles cons titute t he data set f or our anal yses.
8 Laborator y e xper iments are conducted under s tandardized conditions in a laborator y with a standard
subject pool (i.e., students). Harr ison and List (2004) identify six f actors that can be used to distinguish
betw een laborator y and field e xperiments: t he subject pool, the inf or mation the subjects br ing to the
e xper imental task, t he nature of the commodity , t he nature of the e xperiment al task, the nature of the
stakes, and the nature of the experimental envir onment (Floyd and Lis t 2016 ). W e follo w t he classifica-
tion scheme of Harr ison and List (2004) and the remarks of Flo yd and List (2016) and ref er to experi-
ments with, f or ex ample, managers in an or ganization as field experiments f or this revie w . Online experi-
ments with standard or not fur ther classified subject pools are categorized as laborator y e xperiments. The
term “field study” is not the same as field experiments. W e use “field studies” to ref er to in v estigations
of more than one org anization employing suc h techniq ues as inter vie ws, observations, and internal docu-
ments (Bir nber g and Shields 1990 ; Hesf ord etal. 2007 ; Lac hmann etal. 2017 ).

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4 F indings
4.1 Descriptive analy sis
W e find that eight of t he nine selected journals published ar ticles emplo ying psy -
chological theories and concepts dur ing our in ves tigation period. AOS published
the most ar ticles fulfilling all the inclusion cr iteria (22), f ollo wed b y T AR (21),
MAR (17), CAR (16), JMAR (15), BRIA (15), EAR (10), and J AR (9). Figure 1
sho w s t he dis tr ibution of articles ov er t he in ves tigation period. W e identified
betw een three to fiv e ar ticles in eac h year be tween 2000 and 2005, but w e could
not find an y ar ticles eligible f or inclusion in 2006.
The number of included ar ticles increased fr om zero to fiv e in 2007 and ev en -
tuall y reached its firs t peak (13) in 2012. These thir teen ar ticles account f or 15.7%
of all MA C-themed ar ticles identified in 2012. The y ears 2013 through 2015 con -
tain f ew er included publications (eight, sev en, and f our ar ticles, respectiv ely), and
the thir teen and twel ve articles published in 2017 and 2018, respectivel y , com -
pr ise a second peak. These articles constitute 16.8% and 14.6%, respectiv el y , of
MA C-themed ar ticles. Interestingl y , we identify nine articles employing psy -
chological theories and concepts in the first half of 2019, compr ising 18% of all
MA C-themed ar ticles in this year . A time-based regression analy sis re v eals a sig -
nificant increase in the number and share of psyc hology -based ar ticles o v er time
(both p < 0.01), indicating that psy chological theories and concepts are more fre -
quentl y applied in MAC s tudies in recent y ears. 9
Psyc hology-based MA C ar ticles ma y address sev eral different topics. How ev er ,
they mos t frequentl y e xamine perf or mance measurement and e v aluation (39), f ol-
lo wed b y aspects of compensation, rew ards, and incentiv es (36); budgeting (17); and
org anizational control (12). T able 5 pro vides an ov er vie w of t he freq uencies of all
topic categor ies. Mos t of the studies conduct e xper iments (83), especiall y laborator y
e xper iments (76). 10
T able 6 presents the frequencies of psy chology subfields acr oss t he t opic cate-
gor ies. Mos t ar ticles rel y on concepts from a single subfield (94) (i.e., the social,
4 3 4 33
5
0
55 4
6
8
13

8 7
4
9
13

12
9
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
2000 20 01 2002 2003 20 04 2005 2006 2007 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11 20 12 20 13 20 14 20 15 20 16 20 17 20 18 20 19

Ar ticles
Included articles (n = 125)
Fig . 1 Frequency of publication y ear
9 The time-based regression analy sis uses the year as the independent variable and the number of identi-
fied ar ticles in a y ear as t he dependent v ariable ( Scandura and Williams 2000 ).
10 These results are not tabulated. This and the follo wing untabulated results are a vailable from the cor -
responding author on reasonable request.

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1 3
cognitiv e, motiv ation, or personality categor ies) rather than emplo ying concepts
from multiple subfields simultaneousl y (31). Social psyc hology (44) is the most uti-
lized subfield, f ollow ed b y cognitive psy c hology (27). Most of the ar ticles dra w-
ing on social psy chology build their theoretical f oundations using social compar ison
theor y (e.g., Hannan et al. 2013 ; T afko v 2013 ; Knauer et al. 2017 ), social nor ms
(e.g., Fisher et al. 2000 ; Maas and van Rinsum 2013 ; Bla y et al. 2019 ), attr ibution
theor y (e.g., Coletti e t al. 2005 ; Har tmann and Slapničar 2009 ), or social identity
theor y (e.g., T owry 2003 ; Hiller etal. 2014 ; Tian etal. 2016 ).
Prospect theor y (e.g., Churc h et al. 2008 ; Oblak et al. 2018 ), ment al models
(e.g., Kadous and Sedor 2003 ; Hall 2011 ), and cognitiv e biases (e.g., Libb y et al.
2004 ; Fehrenbac her etal. 2018 ) are concepts fr om cognitiv e psyc hology that are fre-
quentl y employ ed. 11 Few er studies are built on mo tivation concepts (15) and person-
ality psyc hology (8) alone. When examining mo tivational issues, s tudies are often
built on self-determination t heory (e.g., Kunz and Linder 2012 ; Groen e t al. 2017 ),
T able 5 Frequency of MA C
topic categories Code 1 categor y Frequency
Perf or mance measurement and e valuation 39
Compensation, re wards, and incentiv es 36
Budge ting 17
Org anizational control 12
Decision-making 7
Strategic MA C 6
Costing sy stems 4
R oles in management control sy stems 4
To t al 125
T able 6 Frequency of psyc hology subfield by MA C topic
Social Cognitiv e Motivation P ersonality Multiple To t al
Perf or mance measurement and e valu-
ation
8 14 4 3 10 39
Compensation, re wards, and incentiv es 14 5 3 3 11 36
Budge ting 9 – 2 1 5 17
Org anizational control 5 2 4 1 – 12
Decision-making 2 3 – – 2 7
Strategic MA C 2 2 1 – 1 6
Costing sy stems 1 1 1 – 1 4
R oles in management control sy stems 3 – – – 1 4
To t al 44 27 15 8 31 125
11 These results are not tabulated.

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f ollow ed b y concepts of intr insic motiv ation (e.g., W ong-On- Wing et al. 2010 ;
Chr is t etal. 2012 ). W e identify a rat her div erse set of concepts from personality psy -
chology in the included articles, but t he concepts of tolerance f or ambiguity (e.g.,
Har tmann and Slapničar 2012 ) and psy chological entitlement (e.g., Nic hol 2019 ) are
both emplo y ed by se veral s tudies.
The 31 ar ticles emplo ying concepts from multiple subfields simultaneously
mostl y rel y on a combination of motiv ation and social psyc hology concepts (8), f ol-
lo wed b y a combination of cognitive and social psy c hology concepts (5). 12 Thus,
social psyc hology is also t he pre v alent theoretical f oundation when multiple sub-
fields are applied simultaneously . Interestingl y , personality psyc hology is used more
often in combination (10) wit h the other psy chology subfields (i.e., the social, cog-
nitiv e, or motiv ation subfields), than as a single subfield (8). 13 The remaining stud-
ies that dra w upon multiple subfields also incor porate concepts from indus tr ial and
org anizational psyc hology (e.g., Maas and Matějka 2009 ), neuropsy chology (e.g.,
Farrell etal. 2014 ), or positiv e psyc hology (e.g., Bur ne y and Widener 2013 ).
T o fos ter our understanding, we calculate he terogeneity indices t o measure the
div ersity of applications of psyc hology subfields within our topic categor ies. W e
find that the diversity of psy chology subfields is relativ ely high f or most topic
categor ies. The he terogeneity inde x is especially high within the costing sys tems
( h = 0.750) and per f or mance measurement and e valuation categories ( h = 0.747)
and is rather low in the roles in manag ement control sy stems categor y ( h = 0.375). 14
Ne vert heless, the specific psyc hology subfields and t he e xtent to whic h they are
emplo y ed both differ across topic categories and subtopics. For ex ample, on the
one hand, studies that e xamine aspects of perf or mance measurement and e v aluation
predominantl y emplo y cognitiv e concepts (14), f ollo wed b y concepts from multi-
ple subfields (10) and social (8), motiv ation (4), and personality (3) concepts. On
the other hand, studies of issues regarding com pensation, rew ards, and incentiv es
mostl y rel y on social psyc hology (14), f ollow ed b y concepts from multiple subfields
(11) and cognitiv e (5), motiv ation (3), and personality (3) concepts. According to
our anal ysis, the use of personality psyc hology , ev en in combination wit h o t her sub-
fields, is restricted to cer tain MA C topics and subtopics. W e do not identify ar ticles
emplo ying personality concepts to e xamine strategic MA C aspects, costing sys tems,
or roles in manag ement control sys tems.
The temporal distribution depicted in Fig. 2 illustrates that the range of subfields
used in MA C researc h has increased ov er t he y ears.
Whereas studies dre w upon f our subfields in 2000, t he y drew on onl y one to t hree
subfields in the years be tween 2001 and 2005. W e find t hat the use of psy chological
theor ies and concepts w as more diverse be tween 2015 and 2019. Fr om 2015 to the
12 These results are not tabulated.
13 These results are not tabulated.
14 The maximum v alue of t he he terogeneity inde x in this case is 0.8 ( h max = 1- 1/n). The heterog ene-
ity indices regarding the application of psy chology subfields f or the remaining categor ies are calculated
as f ollow s: strategic MAC ( h = 0.722); compensation, rew ards, and incentives ( h = 0.722); or ganizational
control ( h = 0.681); decision-making ( h = 0.653); and budge ting ( h = 0.616).

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1 3
first half of 2019, w e identify ar ticles emplo ying concepts from social, cognitive,
and motiv ation psyc hology and multiple subfields simult aneousl y . Fur ther more, fiv e
out of the sev en ar ticles emplo ying personality psyc hology wer e published in 2017
and 2019 (Fehrenbac her et al. 2017 ; Holder ness et al. 2017 ; W ang 2017 ; Da vid-
son 2019 ; Nichol 2019 ). Moreo v er , three ar ticles that rely on a combination of per -
sonality psyc hology and other subfields were published in 2017, 2018, and 2019
(Reic her t and W oods 2017 ; Kaplan etal. 2018a ; Chong and W ang 2019 ). The heter -
ogeneity inde x f or psyc hology subfields is v er y high at the end of the ex amined time
span, indicating that researchers ha v e tended to apply a greater div ersity of subfields
in more recent y ears ( h 2015–2019 ≥ 0.722). 15 The time-based regression anal yses pro-
vide fur ther e vidence that social ( p = 0.013), motivational ( p = 0.076), and personal-
ity concepts ( p = 0.039) increase in import ance o ver time, whereas t he use of cogni-
tiv e concepts remains relativ el y stable ov er t he e xamined time span ( p = 0.209). The
number of ar ticles that appl y more than one psyc hological theor y or concept also
significantl y increases betw een 2000 and 2019 ( p = 0.014).
T o fur ther illuminate t hese de v elopments, we conte xtualize selected ar ticles that
allo w us to present frequentl y ex amined topics and applied psyc hological theor ies
and concepts in the f ollo wing section.
4.2 Con tent analysis
4.2.1 P er f ormance measurement andev aluation
Subjectiv e per f or mance ev aluation and subjective measur es The research s tream
sho wn in T able 7 addresses subjective elements in perf or mance e v aluations. W e find
that cognitive psy chology , par ticularl y the effects of heur istics (e.g., Baile y et al.
2011 ; Dai et al. 2018 ) and biases (e.g., Bol and Smith 2011 ; Fehrenbac her et al.
2018 ), is a f ocal point of t his researc h.
Although heur istic reasoning ma y simplify comple x cognitiv e judgment t asks,
it is associated with systematic judgment errors ref er red to as biases (Kahneman
15 The maximum value of the he terogeneity inde x in this case is 0.8. .
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
2000 20 01 20 02 2003 2004 20 05 2006 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11 20 12 20 13 20 14 20 15 20 16 20 17 20 18 20 19

Ar ticles
Soci al Cognitiv eM otiv at ion
Personalit yM ultipl e
Fig . 2 Frequency of psyc hology subfields by y ear

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and T versky 1982 ). Subjectiv e per f or mance ev aluations are of ten based on a
star ting point, suc h as a specific per f or mance measure or inf or mation in a report.
Different star ting points ma y result in different outcomes, and the cognitive
anc horing heur istic describes a decision being biased to w ards this st arting point
(Kahneman and T versky 1982 ). Baile y et al. (2011) in ves tigate this phenomenon
and find e vidence f or anchoring in the presence of contractible and non-contract -
ible inf or mation. Their results sugges t that anchoring ev entuall y leads to less
incor poration of non-contractible inf or mation in supervisors ’ bonus pool allo -
cation decisions, and, thus, such allocations ma y be biased (Bailey e t al. 2011 ) .
Ne wer researc h ex amines heur is tic reasoning in per f or mance measure w eighting
and finds measures that are perceiv ed as more scientific influence ev aluation deci -
sions more strong ly (Dai e tal. 2018 ).
A dditionally , cognitiv e psyc hology is used to illuminate the tendency to o ver -
w eight t he im plications of specific per f or mance measures in performance ev alua-
tions, a bias ref er red to as the outcome effect (Ghosh and Lusch 2000 ; Ittner e t al.
2003 ). U nder the outcome effect, ev aluators tend to e valuate positiv e outcomes posi-
tiv el y and negativ e outcomes negativ ely , ignor ing whe t her the actions that led to
the outcomes were appr opr iate (Mitc hell and Kalb 1981 ; Ghosh and Lusc h 2000 ;
Ittner et al. 2003 ). Ghosh and Lusc h ’ s (2000) field study pro vides e vidence f or the
outcome effect in subjectiv e per f or mance e v aluations of retail store manag ers. They
find that these ev aluations are impacted b y the outcome effect, as failing to mee t a
store ’ s t ar ge t leads to a less positiv e ev aluation of a manager . A similar study pro-
vides e vidence that t he subjectiv e weighting of performance measures allo ws super -
visors to ignore man y of them and ov er w eight financial outcome measures (Ittner
et al. 2003 ). Fur thermore, researchers address spillo ver effects, a bias that potentiall y
ar ises through kno w ledge about (prior) ev aluation outcomes or ambiguous per f or -
mance inf or mation (Mur ph y et al. 1985 ; Huber et al. 1987 ; Bol and Smith 2011 ).
T able 7 Ar ticles on subjectiv e per f or mance e valuation and subjectiv e measures
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Ghosh and Lusc h ( 2000 ) Field study Cognitiv e Outcome effect
Ittner etal. ( 2003 ) Case study Cognitiv e Outcome effect
Krishnan etal. ( 2005 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Mental models
Baile y etal. ( 2011 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Anchoring heur is tic
Bol and Smith ( 2011 ) Laborator y e xperiment Cognitive Spillov er effect
Kunz ( 2015 ) Laboratory experiment Motivation Self-de ter mination theory
Luft etal. ( 2016 ) Laboratory experiment Personnel psyc hol-
ogy; Indus tr ial
and org anizational
psyc hology
Multiple biases
Bol and Leiby ( 2018 ) Multiple Cognitiv e Cognitiv e schema
Dai etal. ( 2018 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Heuristics
Fehrenbac her etal. ( 2018 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Spillo ver effect

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Bol and Smith (2011) use this ter m to descr ibe kno w ledge about perf or mance on
one task influencing a super visor ’ s subjectiv e ev aluations of an emplo y ee’ s per f or -
mance on a separate task. They sho w t hat subjectiv e ev aluations are directionall y
influenced, indicating spillo v er effects betw een per f or mance on different tasks (Bol
and Smith 2011 ). A similar laborator y e xper iment finds that spillo v ers betw een sub-
jectiv e and objectiv e measures also exis t b y showing that subjectiv e per f or mance
e valuations are directionall y biased tow ards the valence of objectiv e per f or mance
measures (Fehrenbac her etal. 2018 ).
Pr ovision of r elativ e per formance information and r elativ e per formance evalu-
ation Another stream of researc h considers t he pro vision of relative perf or mance
inf or mation (RPI) and relativ e per f or mance e v aluation (RPE). An ov er vie w of this
researc h is pro vided in T able 8 . Our analy sis sho w s that some t he psy chology -based
researc h on RPI and RPE dra w s upon social compar ison theory (e.g., Hannan et al.
2013 ; Eyr ing and N aray anan 2018 ; Har tmann and Sc hrec k 2018 ). Social compar i-
son theor y is based on the assumption that individuals ev aluate their abilities by
comparing t hemsel v es to others, a process that e ventuall y influences t heir self-imag e
and beha vior (Festinger 1954 ; Hannan e t al. 2013 ). The studies that we e xamine
pro vide e vidence that RPI induces compar ison processes and, thus, has both effor t
motiv ation and effor t dis tor tion effects and ma y tr igg er positiv e or negativ e affective
reactions (Hannan etal. 2013 ; Mahlendor f etal. 2014 ; Eyr ing and N ara yanan 2018 ;
Har tmann and Sc hrec k 2018 ).
When not dra wing upon social compar ison theor y , researc hers incor porate
aspects of personality into their research, suc h as the three personality traits of
Machia v ellianism, narcissism, and psyc hopathy , whic h are also ref er red to as the
Dark T r iad of personality traits (Paulhus and W illiams 2002 ; W ang 2017 ). All t hree
are rather negativ e character traits that are associated with strategic manipulation, a
sense of super iority , high impulsiv eness, or lo w empathy (W ang 2017 ). In t he con-
te xt of recognition programs, W ang’ s (2017) laborator y e xper iment e xamines the
Dark T r iad of personality traits and sugges ts that t he pro vision of RPI can ha v e
T able 8 Ar ticles on the pro vision of RPI and RPE
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Kaplan etal. ( 2012 ) Laboratory experiment Social/personality Neg ativity bias
Hannan etal. ( 2013 ) Laborator y e xper iment Social Social comparison t heory
Mahlendorf etal. ( 2014 ) Surve y Social Social identity t heory;
self-ev aluation mainte-
nance model
W ang ( 2017 ) Laboratory experiment Personality Dark triad
Eyring and Nara yanan
( 2018 )
Field e xper iment Social/motiv ation Social comparison
theor y ; expectancy
theor y ; goal theor y
Har tmann and Sc hrec k
( 2018 )
Laboratory experiment Social Social comparison t heory
Kaplan etal. ( 2018a ) Laboratory experiment Social/personality Neg ativity bias

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productiv e or counter productiv e effects depending on an individual’ s score on those
traits. A second social and personality construct ex amined in t his r esearch is neg a-
tivity bias. Neg ativity bias ref ers to an individual’ s tendency to place more weight on
negativ e inf or mation than on neutral or positiv e inf or mation (Baumeis ter etal. 2001 ;
Kaplan et al. 2012 ). T wo s tudies in our sample in v estigate this bias. Firs t, Kaplan
et al. (2012) conduct tw o laboratory experiments on RPE. They find that e valua-
tors e xhibit negativity bias and, thus, tend to w eight measures with negativ e per f or -
mance differences more than those wit h positiv e per f or mance differences (Kaplan
et al. 2012 ). Kaplan et al. ( 2018a ) not only r eplicate these findings in another labo-
rator y e xper iment but also find that the negativity bias is enhanced when negativ e
per f or mance differences e xist f or strategicall y linked measur es. Fur ther more, the y
find that relativ e self-assessments are also prone to negativity bias.
Other influences on per f ormance evaluations and evaluation outcomes W e iden-
tify nine ar ticles in v estigating influences on perf or mance e v aluations not addressed
b y the preceding subtopics. T able 9 pro vides an o v er vie w of these ar ticles.
W e find that personality characteristics and social phenomena seem to be espe-
ciall y relev ant f or these topics. For ex ample, Liedtka et al. (2008) and Ding and
Beaulieu (2011) both identify the effects of balanced scorecard (BSC) design on
per f or mance e v aluation using social concepts and a combination of personality and
cognitiv e concepts. Incor porating prospect theory , Liedtka et al. (2008) ex amine
ho w an ev aluator’ s tolerance f or ambiguity influences e valuation outcomes. A ccord-
ing to prospect theor y , individuals e xhibit different r isk beha viors when f acing gain
and loss situations (T versky and Kahneman 1979 ; Liedtka e t al. 2008 ). The person-
ality trait of tolerance f or ambiguity ref ers to individuals ’ tolerances f or different
le vels of ambiguity in the inf or mation the y receive, and individuals mak e judgments
according to those tolerances (Budner 1962 ; Liedtka et al. 2008 ). They find that
this trait applies to ev aluations based on BSCs and t hat v ar iation betw een measures
within BSC categor ies can affect the ev aluation outcomes of ambiguity-intolerant
T able 9 Ar ticles on other influences on performance ev aluations
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Libby e tal. ( 2004 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Cognitiv e biases
Farrell etal. ( 2007 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Mental representations
Liedtka etal. ( 2008 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive/P erson-
ality
Prospect theor y ; toler -
ance f or ambiguity
Har tmann and Slapničar
( 2009 )
Surve y Social Attribution t heory
Har tmann e tal. ( 2010 ) Surve y Motiv ation Goal theor y
Burkert etal. ( 2011 ) Surve y Social Role theory
Ding and Beaulieu ( 2011 ) Laboratory experiment Social Mood; affectiv e reactions
Har tmann and Slapničar
( 2012 )
Surve y Personality Tolerance f or ambiguity
Thor noc k ( 2016 ) Laboratory experiment Social Cognitiv e dissonance
Holder ness e tal. ( 2017 ) Laborator y e xper iment P ersonality Psyc hological entitlement

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individuals. Fur ther more, Ding and Beaulieu ’ s (2011) laborator y e xper iment results
sugges t that t he occurrence of affective reactions and mood congr uency biases are
associated with BSC comple xity . When such biases occur , judgments and decisions
relate to the ev aluator’ s mood and ma y not be hindered e ven b y t he implementation
of incentiv es to a v oid suc h beha vior (Ding and Beaulieu 2011 ). Moreo v er , personal-
ity traits, suc h as tolerance f or ambiguity (Har tmann and Slapničar 2012 ), and social
concepts, suc h as leadership style (Hartmann and Maas 2010 ), are f ound to be asso-
ciated with an individual’ s perceiv ed f air ness of e valuations. Interes tingl y , reactions
to per f or mance f eedbac k are also affected by personality c haracter istics. For e xam-
ple, the effect of f eedbac k on individual per f or mance depends on the degree of t he
recipient ’ s personality trait of psyc hological entitlement, which is a sense of deserv-
ing more than others (Campbell etal. 2004 ; Holderness etal. 2017 ).
P er f or mance measur ement syst em design Choices regarding perf or mance meas-
urement sys tem (PMS) design are addressed b y sev en ar ticles, as sho wn in T able 10 .
Our anal ysis indicates that psyc hology-based researc h on PMS design is pr imarily
influenced b y cognitiv e psyc hology .
For instance, mental models are emplo yed in the in ves tigations of perf or mance
measure div ersity b y Hall ( 2008 , 2011 ). Mental models are subjectiv e, cognitiv e
representations of concepts or relations that can be dra wn upon to make judgments
and decisions (Markman 1999 ; Birnberg et al. 2007 ; Hall 2008 , 2011 ). Hall (2008)
pro vides e vidence that comprehensive PMSs influence social-psy c hological aspects,
cognition, and motiv ation, whic h, in tur n, are linked t o managerial per f or mance.
Fur ther more, com prehensiv e PMSs suppor t the cognitive pr ocesses of f or ming
ne w ment al models and confirming exis ting mental models, which both positiv el y
affect per f or mance (Hall 2011 ). Furt hermore, decision-makers ’ beha vioral heur is-
tics or cognitiv e biases are affected b y PMS design. For e xample, as the findings
of a field study sugg est, the incor poration of beha vioral nudges into perf or mance
measurement models can ser v e to exploit or mitig ate managers ’ heur is tics or cogni-
tiv e biases (Malina and Selto 2015 ). Recent resear ch emplo ys cognitiv e psyc hology
T able 10 Ar ticles on PMS design
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Kominis and Emmanuel
( 2007 )
Surve y Motiv ation Expectancy-v alence
theor y
Hall ( 2008 ) Sur v ey Social/cognitiv e R ole clar ity ; psycho-
logical empo werment;
Mental models
Hall ( 2011 ) Sur v ey Cognitiv e Mental models
Farrell etal. ( 2012 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Melioration theor y
Marginson e tal. ( 2014 ) Case study Social/motiv ation Goal theor y ; role ambigu-
ity; psy chological
empo werment
Malina and Selto ( 2015 ) Field study Cognitiv e Nudg es; anchoring heu-
ristic; framing
Bedf ord etal. ( 2019 ) Surve y Cognitiv e Cognitiv e conflict

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Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
to in ves tigate the decision-f acilit ating r ole of PMSs using the concept of cognitive
conflict (Bedf ord et al. 2019 ). Bedf ord et al. ( 2019 ) e xplain that cognitive conflict
is tr igg ered b y the perception of differences in opinions or judgments of appropr iate
actions or procedures to ac hie ve an objectiv e. They find that firms choose per f or -
mance measures that induce cognitiv e conflict, allowing them to translate ambide x-
trous strategies int o innov ation.
P ar ticipation in PMS design Fiv e ar ticles on par ticipation in PMS design are
depicted in T able 11 . W e find that researchers highlight the motiv ational effects of
this par ticipation.
One theor y used in this regard is self-de ter mination theor y (e.g., Groen e t al.
2017 ; Groen 2018 ). This theor y dis tinguishes betw een autonomous and controlled
motiv ation (R yan and Deci 2000 ; Gagné and Deci 2005 ; Groen et al. 2017 ). Autono-
mousl y motiv ated individuals f eel that they ma y choose to act and beha ve to satisfy
their personal needs, whereas, under controlled motiv ation, individuals f eel rat her
pressured to take actions that satisfy e xter nal demands (Gagné and Deci 2005 ;
Groen et al. 2017 ). Groen e t al. (2017) emplo y t he self-de ter mination theor y to
in vestig ate the effects of employ ee par ticipation in de veloping perf or mance meas-
ures. Although they do not dir ectly measure mo tivation, the y find an indirect effect
of this par ticipation on emplo y ee per f or mance when manag ers use the co-dev eloped
per f or mance measures f or subsequent e v aluations (Groen et al. 2017 ). Groen ’ s
(2018) sur v ey e xtends this kno w ledge on the effects of par ticipation. She comple-
ments the self-deter mination theory wit h the social e x chang e and goal-setting the-
or y . Social e xc hang e t heory f ocuses on the social phenomenon of offer ing some
benefit f or reciprocation (Blau 1964 ; Groen 2018 ). Con v ersel y , goal-setting theor y
relates to defining effectiv e goals in w ork settings and posits that goals affect moti-
v ation and per f or mance (Loc ke and Latham 2002 ). Groen (2018) finds a relation
betw een par ticipation and goal coherence and pr ovides e vidence that perceptions of
f air ness mediate the relation betw een par ticipation and goal commitment. The rela-
tion betw een par ticipation and goal coherence is furt her confirmed by combining
goal-setting theor y and mental models theor y (de Haas and Alg era 2002 ).
T able 11 Ar ticles on participation in PMS design
Ar ticle Researc h method Psychology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Shields etal. ( 2000 ) Case study Social/industrial and
org anizational
T ask -demands-per f or-
mance capability model
de Haas and Algera ( 2002 ) Case s tudy Cognitive/motiv ation Mental models; goal
coherence and goal
congr uence
Groen etal. ( 2012 ) Field study Social Theor y of planned
beha vior
Groen etal. ( 2017 ) Surve y Motiv ation Self-determination t heory
Groen ( 2018 ) Surve y Social/motiv ation Social e xc hange theory;
goal-setting; self-deter -
mination theor y

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4.2.2 C ompensation, rew ards, andinc entives
Incentiv e contr act fr aming and compensation contr act selection T able 12 pro vides
inf or mation about the ar ticles that address contract framing and contract selection
topics. Our anal ysis re veals a f ocus on cognitiv e psyc hological theor ies, especiall y
prospect theor y and related concepts (e.g., Churc h et al. 2008 ; Hales and William-
son 2010 ; Hirsch e t al. 2017 ; Oblak et al. 2018 ). As pre viously e xplained, prospect
theor y deals with decision-making under r isk (T v ersky and Kahneman 1979 ). W e
find that researchers emplo y prospect theor y to, f or ex ample, in v estigate the effects
of implicit emplo yment contracts on fir m pr oductivity (Hales and Williamson 2010 )
or to e xamine the effects of cla wback pro visions on inf or mation processing and
in vestment beha vior (Hirsch e tal. 2017 ).
Moreo v er , tw o studies also use prospect theor y to e xamine the influence of contract
framing on w ork effort (Church et al. 2008 ; Oblak et al. 2018 ). Church et al. (2008)
compare the effects of budge t-based incentiv e contracts framed in ter ms of bonuses
and penalties. Consistent with prospect theor y , they find that individuals e x er t more
effor t to a v oid penalties than to receive bonus pa yments. Fur ther more, pr ospect t heory
is applied to compare the effects of f air and unf air outcome distributions in differently
framed contracts. Oblak et al. (2018) extend Chur ch et al. ’ s (2008) findings by sho w -
ing that when the distr ibution is unf air, risk -t aking beha vior and effor t are the same f or
bonus and penalty contracts. When pa yment is f air , ho we ver , penalty contracts ha v e
strong positiv e effects on individual r isk -t aking and effort (Oblak etal. 2018 ).
T able 12 Overview of articles on incentive contract framing and compensation contract selection
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Sprinkle ( 2000 ) Laborat or y e xper iment Mo tivation Intrinsic motivation
Church e tal. ( 2008 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Prospect theor y
Sprinkle etal. ( 2008 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitiv e Security-potential/aspira-
tion theor y
Hales and Williamson
( 2010 )
Laboratory experiment Cognitive Prospect theor y ; cer tainty
effect
T afk ov ( 2013 ) Laboratory experiment Social Social comparison t heory
Farrell etal. ( 2014 ) Laboratory experiment ;
functional magnetic
resonance imaging
Social/cognitiv e/neu-
ropsy chology
Dual process theor y ;
affect
Fehrenbac her etal. ( 2017 ) Laboratory experiment Personality Need f or achie vement;
locus of control
Hirsch e tal. ( 2017 ) Laboratory experiment Social/cognitive Motiv ated reasoning;
prospect theor y
Reic her t and W oods ( 2017 ) Surve y Personality/neu-
ropsy chology/
motiv ation
Biopsyc hological theor y
of personality
Christ and V ance ( 2018 ) Laboratory experiment Social/industr ial and
org anizational
Leader -member -ex chang e
theor y
Oblak etal. ( 2018 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Prospect theor y ; framing

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Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
There are interactions betw een personality factors and incentiv e contract design
choices (e.g., F ehrenbacher e t al. 2017 ; Reic her t and W oods 2017 ). Fehrenbac her
et al. ( 2017 ) in ves tigate the effects of task -related skills, r isk pref erences, and per -
sonality traits on emplo y ees ’ compensation contract selections. Specificall y , t he y
e xamine the personality traits of need f or ac hiev ement and locus of control. The per -
sonality trait of need f or achie v ement can be subsumed wit hin an ur ge to continuall y
impro ve, whereas locus of control r ef ers to whether individuals belie ve that the y can
control e v ents (R otter 1966 ; Fehrenbac her et al. 2017 ). Fehrenbacher e t al. ’ s ( 2017 )
findings indicate that choosing a perf or mance-based contract is not onl y associated
with an individual’ s skill lev el and r isk pref erences but also with t hat individual’ s
need f or achie vement and locus of contr ol.
Pr ovision of f eedback and r ewar d types As sho wn in T able 13 , the motiv ational
aspects of the pro vision of f eedbac k and rew ards are strongl y emphasized. Researc h
on these topics mostl y emplo ys self-determination theor y (e.g., Drake e t al. 2007 ;
Stone e t al. 2010 ; Kunz and Linder 2012 ). These studies e xtend the use of self-
determination t heory to, f or e xample, e xamine the reliability of financial incentiv es
(Stone e t al. 2010 ) or illuminate t he effects of non-mone tar y re w ards relativ e to those
of financial re w ards (Kunz and Linder 2012 ). Drak e etal. (2007) combine aspects of
self-determination t heory with t he social concept of psy chological empo werment.
Drake e t al. (2007) e xamine the impacts of per f or mance-based re w ard types
and types of per f or mance f eedbac k on psyc hological empo werment, a multidimen-
sional concept that can be split into the dimensions of perceived impact and com-
petence and self-de ter mination (Drak e et al. 2007 ; Spreitzer 1995 ). The y pro vide
e vidence that t he types of f eedback and r ew ards affect different dimensions of the
empo werment constr uct. Furt hermore, financial f eedbac k is positiv ely associated
with perceiv ed impact, whereas per f or mance-based re w ards negativ ely impact self-
determination and perceived com petence (Drak e et al. 2007 ). Other researchers
use goal-setting and goal conflict theor y to s tudy the effects of rew ard types. For
instance, Presslee et al. (2013) find differences in goal setting, goal commitment,
and per f or mance acr oss t angible and cash re war ds. Receiving tangible re w ards is
associated with the selection of less challenging goals and more commitment to
T able 13 Overview of articles on t he pr ovision of f eedback and re w ard types
Ar ticle Researc h method Psychology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Drake e tal. ( 2007 ) Laborator y e xper iment Social/motiv ation Psyc hological empo wer -
ment; self-determina-
tion theor y
Stone e tal. ( 2010 ) Sur v ey Motiv ation Self-deter mination theory
Kunz and Linder ( 2012 ) Laboratory experiment Motiv ation Self-deter mination theory
Presslee etal. ( 2013 ) Field e xper iment Cognitive/mo tivation Mental accounting
theor y ; goal-setting
theor y
Bro wn etal. ( 2016 ) Laboratory experiment Social Attribution t heory
Christ etal. ( 2016 ) Laborator y e xper iment Cognitive/motiv ation Goal conflict theor y

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1 3
achie ving self-selected goals. How e ver , a v erage perf or mance is be tter when receiv -
ing cash re w ards o wing to the selection of more challenging goals (Presslee e t al.
2013 ). Chr is t etal. (2016) , in contrast, dra w upon goal conflict t heory in t he conte xt
of multidimensional tasks. Goal conflict t heory suggests that individuals ha ve dif-
ficulty responding to multiple and conflicting goals at the same time (K ehr 2003 ;
Chr is t et al. 2016 ). Chr ist et al. (2016) incor porate this theor y and find that com-
pensation on multiple task dimensions decreases ov erall per f or mance, as emplo y ees
commit to multiple goals and divide their attention betw een these goals. The conflict
can be reduced through a combination of compensation and (non-monetar y) f eed-
bac k on different task dimensions.
T our nament incentiv e sc hemes The sev en ar ticles depicted in T able 14 address
tour nament incentiv e schemes. W e find that this research is predominantl y based on
social comparison t heory (e.g., Hannan et al. 2008 ; Knauer e t al. 2017 ; Ber ger e t al.
2018 ).
For instance, social comparison t heory is employ ed to explore whe ther and how
the propor tion of tournament winners and tour nament hor izons influence em ploy ee
effor t (Knauer e t al. 2017 ; Berg er et al. 2018 ). Knauer et al. (2017) find positive
effects of higher propor tions of t our nament winners on effor t and sugg est that psy-
chological aspects ha v e a decisiv e impact, as par ticipants e x er t more effort not only
to ear n mone y but also to preser v e a positiv e self-image. Ber ger e t al. (2018) find
that higher propor tions of winners are more effectiv e at sustaining effor t in repeated
tour naments and that long er tour nament horizons result in better per f or mance o wing
to more engag ement in social comparison processes. The effect of the propor tion
of winners on tour nament perf or mance is also e xamined based on the t heories of
group identity and psyc hological costs (K ell y and Presslee 2017 ). Other researchers
in vestig ate the effects of rew ard types in tour naments based on mental accounting
theor y (K elly e t al. 2017 ). T w o studies integrate social compar ison theor y and goal-
setting theor y (Hannan e tal. 2008 ; Ne wman and T afko v 2014 ). Hannan etal. (2008)
researc h the combination of tour nament incentiv e schemes and RPI pr ovision. Their
T able 14 Overview of articles on tour nament incentiv e schemes
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Hannan etal. ( 2008 ) Laborator y e xper iment Social/mo tivation Social comparison
theor y ; goal-setting
theor y
Chen etal. ( 2012 ) Laboratory experiment Social Group cohesion
Ne wman and T afk ov ( 2014 ) Laborat or y e xper iment Social/mo tivation Social com par ison
theor y ; goal-setting
theor y
Kell y etal. ( 2017 ) Field e xper iment Cognitiv e Mental accounting
Kell y and Presslee ( 2017 ) Laboratory experiment Social Group identity; psy cho-
logical costs
Knauer etal. ( 2017 ) Laboratory experiment Social Social comparison t heory
Berg er etal. ( 2018 ) Laboratory experiment Social Social comparison t heory

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Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
laborator y e xper iment is designed to e xamine the effects of the presence and con-
tent of RPI and compensation based on a tournament or individual incentive sc heme
on individual per f or mance. The y find that RPI pro vision has opposite effects under
the tw o incentive sc hemes. RPI pro vision increases per f or mance under an individual
incentiv e scheme but decreases perf or mance under a tournament incentiv e scheme
(Hannan et al. 2008 ). Ne wman and T afko v (2014) extend Hannan et al. ’ s (2008)
findings b y ex amining whether the tour nament ’ s pr ize structure has an influence
on the identified per f or mance effect. The pro vision of RPI has a detriment al effect
on per f or mance in re w ard tour naments, but it has a positiv e effect on per f or mance
when the tour nament ’ s pr ize structure is based on rew ards and punishments (Ne w -
man and T afko v 2014 ).
Incentiv e syst em design c hoices in teams W e identify six studies on the effects of
incentiv e sys tem design choices on beha vior in teams. T able 15 presents an ov er -
vie w . Our anal ysis re v eals that t his subtopic is pr edominantly in v estigated using
social psyc hology .
W e find that social identity t heory is employ ed par ticularl y frequentl y (e.g.,
T owry 2003 ; Sedatole etal. 2016 ; Tian e t al. 2016 ). Social identity theory considers
the psyc hological processes behind an individual’ s identification wit h a team, inter -
group relations, and team identity (T ajf el and T ur ner 1986 ; T owry 2003 ). T o wr y
(2003) e xamines the differences betw een mutual monitoring in vertical and hor i-
zontal incentive sy stems and their influence on effor t. She finds that the effectiv e-
ness of such sy stems depends on team identity . Her findings indicate that a strong
team identity is associated with g reater coor dination among members. A hor izontal
incentiv e scheme, in whic h members directl y control eac h other’ s actions, is more
effectiv e f or effor t in this conte xt (T o wr y 2003 ).
Sedatole et al. ’ s ( 2016 ) study considers a similar setting and pro vides additional
inf or mation on hor izontal monitor ing. Their findings sugg est that horizont al moni-
tor ing and team member dependence pr ovide s trong enough implicit incentiv es to
motiv ate individual per f or mance to reduce free-riding without t he im plement ation
T able 15 Overview of articles on incentive sy stem design choices in teams
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
T owry ( 2003 ) Laboratory experiment Social Social identity theor y
Upt on ( 2009 ) Laboratory experiment Personality Social v alue or ientation
Naranjo-Gil e tal. ( 2012 ) Laboratory experiment Social/cognitive Individualism-collectiv -
ism theor y ; cognitive
orient ation
Sedatole etal. ( 2016 ) Case study Social Social identity t heory
Tian etal. ( 2016 ) Laboratory experiment Social Self-categorization
theor y ; social identity
theor y ; similar ity
attraction theor y
Berg er etal. ( 2019 ) Laboratory experiment Social Social comparison
theor y ; group identity

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of team re w ards (Sedatole et al. 2016 ). Similar studies based on social identity the-
or y sugg est that team incentiv es ha v e a greater positive effect on effort t han indi-
vidual incentiv es ha v e when the potential conflict le vel in a group is high (T ian etal.
2016 ). Other studies indicate that personality and cognitive aspects should no t be
neglected. U pton (2009) dra w s upon the personality concept of social value orien-
tation, t hat is, the e xtent to whic h an individual is concer ned about ho w his or her
actions influence the outcomes of independent others. According to these findings,
an individual’ s social value orient ation affects group performance.
A dditionally , group per f or mance is affected b y a team’ s predominant cognitiv e
or ientation (N aranjo-Gil etal. 2012 ).
Effects of incentiv e syst em design c hoices on misr eporting, honesty, and whistle-
blowing S tudies also consider the psyc hological aspects of honesty , misrepor ting,
and whistleblo wing in incentiv e sys tem design. As our analy sis re v eals, t his sub-
topic is pr imaril y based on t he concept of social norms (e.g., Chen and Sandino
2012 ; Maas and v an Rinsum 2013 ; Cardinaels and Yin 2015 ; Chen e t al. 2017 ).
T able 16 pro vides inf or mation on the ar ticles about this subtopic.
Social nor ms represent beha vioral regularities t hat are based on shared belief s
regarding appr opr iate beha vior . The violation of such social norms can lead to
social sanctions or psy chological discomf or t (Fehr and Gäc hter 2000 ; Chen and
Sandino 2012 ). Social nor ms are used to in ves tigate the effects of compensation
le vels on employ ee t heft (Chen and Sandino 2012 ) or the design of incentiv e sys -
tems to encourag e inter nal whistleblo wing (Chen et al. 2017 ), among other top -
ics. Maas and v an Rinsum ( 2013 ) set up a laboratory experiment in a setting in
which manag ers receive mone t ary benefits from o v erstating t heir perf or mance.
The y pro vide evidence that manag ers experience disutility if their misrepor ting
violates social nor ms or results in unf air outcomes f or their peers. Fur ther more,
managers ’ misrepor ting is influenced by whe ther it decreases or increases their
peers ’ gains and whether their per f or mance repor ts are made public (Maas and
v an Rinsum 2013 ). Fur ther research indicates that misreporting increases when
the choices of compensation contracts sugg est that beha ving dishonestly is a
social nor m (Cardinaels and Y in 2015 ). Ot her studies sugg est that personality
T able 16 Overview of articles on the effects of incentive sys tem design choices on misreporting, hon-
esty , and whistleblowing
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Chen and Sandino ( 2012 ) Archiv al Social Social norms
Maas and van Rinsum
( 2013 )
Laboratory experiment Social Social norms
Cardinaels and Yin ( 2015 ) Laborator y e xperiment Social Social nor ms
Chen etal. ( 2017 ) Laboratory experiment Social Social norms
Chong and W ang ( 2019 ) Surve y Social/personality Moral diseng agement;
responsibility rationali-
zation
Nichol ( 2019 ) Laboratory experiment Personality Psyc hological entitlement

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Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
aspects also affect misrepor ting (e.g., Chong and W ang 2019 ; Nichol 2019 ).
Nichol (2019) in v estigates the effects of incentiv e contract framing on misreport -
ing and the personality trait of psyc hological entitlement. Psyc hological entitle -
ment can be seen as belie ving that one has a r ight to receiv e something (Major
1995 ; Nichol 2019 ). Nic hol’ s (2019) results suggest that misrepor ting is higher
under a penalty contract and occurs o wing to a f eeling of entitlement to monetar y
pa y offs.
4.2.3 Budgeting
Budg eting and the use of budg ets Fiv e ar ticles in our dataset consider budge ting
and the use of budgets, and three of them address the effects of par ticipation in
the budgeting pr ocess. All fiv e ar ticles are presented in T able 17 . Social psychol -
ogy is the predominant subfield, but no one theor y or concept predominates. Stud -
ies of the benefits of par ticipating in the budge ting process (e.g., W ong-On- Wing
et al. 2010 ; V enkatesh and Blasko vich 2012 ) also rel y on motiv ation and positiv e
psyc hology . 16
W ong-On- Wing e t al. ’ s (2010) study emplo ys self-de ter mination theor y in a par -
ticipativ e budge ting setting. Their findings are similar to those of studies of partici-
pation in PMS design (e.g., Groen etal. 2017 ). W ong-On- Wing e tal. (2010) pro vide
e vidence that intr insic and autonomous e xtr insic motiv ations f or par ticipativ e budg-
eting positiv ely influence individual perf or mance. The y also sugges t that controlled
e xtr insic motiv ation is negativ ely associated with individual perf or mance.
V enkatesh and Blasko vich (2012) s tudy par ticipation in the budge ting process
from a different perspectiv e. Their sur v ey f ocuses on the relation betw een par tici-
pation, psyc hological capit al, and individual perf or mance. Psy chological capital
thereby repr esents a positive s tage of psyc hological dev elopment that can be char -
acter ized b y an individual’ s lev els of hope, efficacy , optimism, and resiliency . The y
T able 17 Overview of articles on budgeting and the use of budge ts
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Poon e tal. ( 2001 ) Case study Social Goal interdependence theor y
Marginson and Ogden ( 2005 ) Case study Social Empow er ment; role ambiguity
W ong-On- Wing e tal. ( 2010 ) Case study Motiv ation Self-deter mination theory
V enkatesh and Blasko vich
( 2012 )
Surve y Positiv e psychology Psyc hological capital
Chong and Mahama 2014 Surve y Social T eam effectiveness; social
f acilitation
16 Essentiall y , positive psyc hology f ocuses on subjectiv e experiences, such as w ell-being or hope; posi-
tiv e individual traits, such as courag e or f orgiv eness; and moving individuals to wards better citizenship
( Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000 ).

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pro vide e vidence that par ticipation positiv ely affects psy chological capital, whic h,
in tur n, positiv ely affects individual perf or mance (V enkatesh and Blasko vich 2012 ).
Other psyc hology-based s tudies sugges t t hat budg ets ha v e positive effects on job
e xper ience (Mar ginson and Ogden 2005 ) or team effectiv eness (Chong and Mahama
2014 ).
Budg etar y slac k and honesty The twel v e ar ticles presented in T able 18 address
the phenomena of budgetary slack or honesty . Most articles on t hese subtopics
in vestig ate par ticipativ e budgeting se ttings and were published after 2010; three
w ere published as recently as the first half of 2019. W e find a strong f ocus on social
psyc hology and t he concept of social norms t herein (e.g., F isher etal. 2000 ; Ste v ens
2002 ; Bro wn etal. 2017 ; Bla y etal. 2019 ).
Social nor ms are used to pr o vide evidence that the aspects of the par ticipativ e
budge ting process (Fisher e t al. 2000 ), reputation and f eelings of ethical respon -
sibility (Ste v ens 2002 ), pref erences f or honesty (Bla y et al. 2019 ) and the choice
of who sets the budge t (Bro wn et al. 2017 ) reduce slack or positiv ely influence
per f or mance.
A dditionally , honesty is e xamined based on a v ar iety of theor ies and concepts
(e.g., Churc h etal. 2012 ; Bro wn etal. 2014 ; Churc h etal. 2019 ). These findings sug-
ges t that factors suc h as managers ’ profits from dishonesty (Churc h et al. 2019 ) and
the pro vision of rankings (Bro wn etal. 2014 ) affect the creation of slac k.
Interestingl y , personality aspects are addressed rather frequentl y in these studies
(e.g., Har tmann and Maas 2010 ; Hobson e t al. 2011 ; Da vidson 2019 ). Har tmann
T able 18 Overview of articles on budgetar y slac k
Ar ticle R esearch method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Fisher etal. ( 2000 ) Laboratory experiment Social Social norms
Ste vens ( 2002 ) Laboratory experiment Social Social nor ms
Har tmann and Maas ( 2010 ) Laborator y e xper iment Social/personality Social pr essure; Machi-
a v ellianism
Hobson etal. ( 2011 ) Laborator y e xperiment Social/personality/
cognitiv e
Moral judgment; empa-
thy ; moral decision-
making theor y
Church e tal. ( 2012 ) Laboratory experiment Social Moral disengag ement
theor y
Bro wn etal. ( 2014 ) Laboratory experiment Social Social comparison t heory
De Baerdemaeker and
Br ugg eman ( 2015 )
Surve y Motiv ation/industr ial
and org anizational
psyc hology
Self-determination
theor y ; organizational
commitment
Bro wn etal. ( 2017 ) Laboratory experiment Social Social norms
Boster etal. ( 2018 ) Laborator y e xperiment Motivation Cro wding theor y
Bla y etal. ( 2019 ) Laboratory experiment Social Social nor ms; affect
Church e tal. ( 2019 ) Laboratory experiment Social/cognitive Self-interest; psy chologi-
cal conflict
Da vidson ( 2019 ) Laboratory experiment Personality Social value orientation

303
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Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
and Maas (2010) also consider social pressure and Mac hia v ellianism in the ex ami-
nation of slac k. Machia v ellianism ref ers to an individual’ s tendency to act based on
self-profit and refrain from e thical considerations (Schepers 2003 ; Hartmann and
Maas 2010 ). Har tmann and Mass ( 2010 ) sugg est that high lev els of Machia vellian-
ism ma y lead to a higher likelihood of giving int o management pressure to create
slac k. Hobson et al. (2011) also in ves tigate ethical considerations reg arding slac k
in par ticipativ e budgeting. Their findings indicate that personalities reflecting high
le vels of tr aditional values and empath y are more likel y to consider slack une thical.
Ho we ver , alt hough the y find that par ticipants judge slac k to be unethical on a v er -
age, the y sho w that par ticipants still create slac k under a slac k -inducing pa y scheme,
although they do not do so under a trut h-inducing pa y scheme (Hobson e t al. 2011 ).
Fur ther more, e vidence suggests that social-v alue or ientation affects honesty . Da vid-
son (2019) ex amines t he influence of personality on manag er ial r epor ting beha vior
in the context of hiring choices and budg et signing req uirements. He distinguishes
betw een tw o types of social v alue or ientation and show s that t hese types also e xhibit
differences in honesty .
4.2.4 Organizational contr ol
Use of formal and informal contr ols in or g anizational contr ol syst ems The eight
ar ticles sho wn in T able 19 focus on the use of f or mal and inf or mal controls in
org anizational control sy stems. Our anal ysis sho w s that social psyc hological theo-
r ies and concepts (e.g., Cole tti et al. 2005 ; Anderson et al. 2017 ) are predominantl y
emplo y ed by these studies.
A dditionally , f ormal and informal controls are studied in terms of their potential
effects on motiv ation and creativity (Christ et al. 2012 ; Grabner and Speckbac her
2016 ; Pfister and Lukka 2019 ). R egarding the use of social psy chology , some
T able 19 Overview of articles on t he use of f or mal and inf or mal controls in or ganizational control sy stems
Ar ticle R esearch method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Coletti etal. ( 2005 ) Laboratory experiment Social Attribution t heory
T a yler and Bloomfield
( 2011 )
Laboratory experiment Social Social nor ms
Christ etal. ( 2012 ) Laboratory experiment Motiv ation Motivational framing
Christ ( 2013 ) Laborator y e xperiment Social Social nor ms
Grabner and Spec kbacher
( 2016 )
Surve y Motiv ation Intr insic motiv ation;
cognitiv e ev aluation
theor y
Anderson etal. ( 2017 ) Laboratory experiment Social Cognitive dissonance
theor y ; attr ibution
theor y
Bhattacharjee and Moreno
( 2017 )
Laboratory experiment Social Emotions
Pfister and Lukka ( 2019 ) F ield study Motiv ation Self-deter mination theory

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1 3
researc hers rely on social norms to pro vide e vidence t hat f or mal contr ols influ -
ence people ’ s perceptions of appropriate behavior (T ay ler and Bloomfield 2011 ) .
Other researchers sho w t hat the w a y that f or mal contr ols are imposed determines
their effects on emplo yee effort (Chr ist 2013 ). Moreo ver , research based on social
psyc hology suggests that emotional signals, suc h as anger or satisf action, affect
accounting-based transf er pr icing decisions (Bhattacharjee and Moreno 2017 ).
Attribution theor y is also used in the context of f or mal controls (e.g., Cole tti et al.
2005 ; Anderson et al. 2017 ). According to attribution t heory , individuals tr y to
make causal attributions about other individuals ’ beha vior to ev entually understand
their motiv ations (Coletti et al. 2005 ; Anderson et al. 2017 ). Coletti e t al. (2005)
emplo y this t heory in a setting with collaboration betw een divisions. The y find that
strong initiall y present f or mal control sy stems induce cooperation be tween divi -
sions, thereby im pro ve trust betw een collaborators. Interestingl y , Anderson et al.
(2017) pro vide e vidence that initial tr ust decreases e xpenditures on f ormal controls
and simultaneously increases in v estment in the cooperation in new interfirm rela -
tionships. T r ust seems to help with causal attributions about beha vior and, thus,
helps to intensify cooperation.
Pr oject contr ols, internal contr ol syst ems, interfirm tr ansactions, and r evisions
T able 20 pro vides inf or mation on articles t hat address or ganizational contr ols in
ter ms of pr oject controls, inter nal control sy stems, interfirm transactions, and system
re visions. These subtopics are e xamined using cognitiv e and personality psyc hology
and motiv ation theor y . For instance, psyc hology-based resear ch uses the cognitiv e
concept of mental representation in a study of recommendations to continue a pro-
ject (e.g., Kadous and Sedor 2003 ).
Bir nber g and Zhang (2011) f ocus on t he effects of economic conditions and psy -
chological f actors on a pr incipal’ s inter nal control sy stem c hoices. They in v estigate
the impact of betra yal a version, a tendency to e xper ience disutility from potentiall y
being e xploited by o thers, and t he concept of loss a v ersion, t ak en from prospect
theor y . Their findings indicate t hat bo th factors influence decisions (Birnberg and
Zhang 2011 ). Ylinen and Gullkvist ( 2012 ) adapt the personality concept of toler-
ance f or ambiguity to ex amine the use of project controls. Their findings sugg est
that tolerance f or ambiguity is an impor tant f actor in the use of project controls, as
managers c hoose project controls based on their tolerance f or ambiguity .
T able 20 Overview of articles on project controls, inter nal contr ol systems, interfirm transactions, and
re visions
Ar ticle R esearch method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Kadous and Sedor ( 2003 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Mental representations
Bir nber g and Zhang ( 2011 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Prospect theor y ; betra yal
a v ersion; loss av ersion
Ylinen and Gullkvist ( 2012 ) Surve y Personality T olerance for ambiguity
Thomas ( 2016 ) Laboratory experiment Motivation Goal priming t heory

305
1 3
Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
A dditionally , the motiv ational goal pr iming theor y is used to e xamine w a ys to
motiv ate individual effor t in manag ement accounting sys tem revisions (Thomas
2016 ).
4.2.5 Decision‑making
Capital inv estment decisions The ar ticles sho wn in T able 21 address capit al in ves t-
ment decisions. All three experimental studies incor porate a f or m of affect, a con-
cept der iv ed from social psyc hology .
Kida et al. (2001) sho w t hat affectiv e reactions (i.e., emotional reactions, such as
anger) influence capital in ves tment decisions. Fur ther more, their findings indicate
that managers tend to reject alternatives t hat elicit neg ativ e emotional reactions e v en
if they ha v e higher expected financial utility (Kida e tal. 2001 ). Moreno etal. (2002)
demonstrate similar beha vioral responses in a subsequent field e xper iment. Building
on prospect theor y , they find that negativ e and positive affectiv e reactions chang e
r isk -taking beha vior . This beha vior is e xpressed by manag ers ’ tendency to choose
decisions that elicit positive affect and, thus, e xhibit greater r isk -t aking beha v -
ior . (Moreno et al. 2002 ). Additionall y , negativ e affect should be considered in the
conte xt of difficult decisions, as it is associated with t he tendency to a v oid choices
(Sa wers 2005 ).
Decision - making quality T able 22 pro vides an ov er vie w of ar ticles on decision-
making quality and the use of psy chological theor ies in s tudies of decision-making.
Our anal ysis re v eals a f ocus on cognitiv e psyc hology .
Chang et al. (2002) sho w t hat cognitiv e t heories, such as pr ospect t heory , fuzzy -
trace theor y , and probabilistic mental models, can be used to e xplain framing effects
in a decision-making conte xt. Although t he y posit t hat the fuzzy -trace theor y best
depicts the effects of framing on beha vior in an accounting conte xt (Chang et al.
2002 ), w e do not identify other ar ticles building on this theor y . Recent ar ticles build
on mental models to find that causal linkages and time dela y inf or mation in strat-
egy maps affect decision-making quality and, thus, long-term profit per f or mance
(Humphre ys e t al. 2016 ). A similar study e xamines the effects of different f or ms of
accountability and causal chain framing on inf or mation searc h processes and deci-
sion-making quality . Dalla V ia et al. ’ s ( 2019 ) ey e-trac king laborator y e xper iment
re v eals t hat, on the one hand, the pro vision of a causal chain is par amount to achie v e
high decision quality under outcome accountability . On t he o ther hand, providing
such a causal c hain reduces inf or mation searc h effor t and does not im pro ve decision-
making quality under pr ocess account ability (Dalla V ia et al. 2019 ). Fur ther more,
studies e xamine the effects of personality traits on decision q uality . Specificall y , the
T able 21 Overview of articles on capit al in vestment decisions
Ar ticle R esearch method Psyc hology subfield Psychological theories or concepts
Kida etal. ( 2001 ) F ield experiment Social Emotional affectiv e reactions
Moreno etal. ( 2002 ) Field e xper iment Social/cognitive Prospect theor y ; affective reactions
Sa wers ( 2005 ) Laboratory experiment Social Neg ative affect

306
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1 3
My ers-Br iggs type indicator is used to classify subjects according t o t heir pref er red
cognitiv e sty les (Cheng etal. 2003 ).
4.2.6 Stra tegic MAC
In total, w e analyze six articles on strategic MA C. Three of them illuminate t he r ela-
tions betw een strategic perf or mance measurement sy stems (SPMSs) and beha vio-
ral responses (i.e., commitment to goals, individual perf or mance, or psy chological
f actors, suc h as role stress). The other three in v estig ate the ev aluation of strategies
using SPMS and managers ’ use of strategic per f or mance measures and their char ac-
ter is tics. Although SPMS seem to affect motivational f actors, such as goal commit-
ment (e.g., W ebb 2004 ), we find a pr onounced use of social and cognitive theories.
T able 23 pro vides an ov er vie w of these ar ticles.
The social concepts and theor ies used b y these studies range fr om role theor y
(Bur ne y and Widener 2007 ) to e x chang e theor y (Bur ne y and Widener 2013 ) and
motiv ated reasoning (T a yler 2010 ). T ay ler (2010) ex amines w a ys to mitig ate moti-
v ated reasoning, that is, a manager ’ s pref erence f or ar r iving at a cert ain conclusion.
He finds that a combination of in v ol ving managers in the selection of BSC measures
T able 22 Overview of articles on decision-making quality
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psyc hological theor ies or
concepts
Chang etal. ( 2002 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Prospect t heory , fuzzy-trace
theor y ; probabilistic mental
models
Cheng etal. ( 2003 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive/personality Cognitiv e style; My ers-Br iggs
type
Humphre ys etal. ( 2016 ) Laborat or y e xper iment Cognitiv e Mental models
Dalla Via e tal. ( 2019 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitive Causal reasoning t heory
T able 23 Overview of strategic MA C ar ticles
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psy chological theories or
concepts
W ebb ( 2004 ) Field e xper iment Motivation Goal commitment; Self
efficacy
Bur ne y and Widener
( 2007 )
Surve y Social R ole ambiguity
T a yler ( 2010 ) Laboratory experiment Social Motiv ated reasoning
Choi etal. ( 2012 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitiv e A ttr ibute subs titution theor y
Bur ne y and Widener
( 2013 )
Field study Social/motiv ation/
positiv e psyc hol-
ogy
Ex chang e t heory; intrinsic
motiv ation; goal setting
theor y
Choi etal. ( 2013 ) Laboratory experiment Cognitiv e A ttr ibute subs titution theor y

307
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Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
and simultaneously framing them as a causal c hain can reduce motiv ated reason-
ing in strategy assessments (T ay ler 2010 ). T wo studies in v estig ate the consequences
of strategies that ha ve been translated into perf or mance measures. When manag ers
are not full y a w are that such measures onl y represent strategic cons tr ucts, they ma y
treat representativ e measures as constr ucts of interes t, a phenomenon explained b y
attr ibute subs titution theor y (Kahneman and Freder ic k 2008 ; Choi etal. 2012 ). Choi
et al. ( 2012 , 2013 ) ref er to t his phenomenon as s trategy sur rog ation. These studies
sho w that compensating managers based on a single measure of a s trategic constr uct
increases the propensity to use that specific measure as a sur rog ate f or the strategic
construct and, t hus, incur potential cos ts (Choi et al. 2012 ). How e v er , in v olv ement in
strategy selection mitig ates this strategy sur rog ation effect (Choi etal. 2013 ).
4.2.7 Costing syst ems
W e identify f our ar ticles on cos ting system subtopics. These articles employ con-
cepts from social, cognitiv e, and motivation psy c hology to ex amine either the use
and usefulness of costing sy stems or the effects of par ticipating in costing sy stem
design. T able 24 pro vides an ov er vie w .
For instance, cognitiv e psyc hology -based research pr ovides e vidence t hat cogni-
tiv e adaptions to chang es in costing methods are rather unusual f or most individuals
(Dear man and Shields 2005 ). A dditionally , this research emplo ys cognitiv e disso-
nance theor y , which posits that individuals aim to ensure that their beha vior is con-
sistent with their attitudes tow ards cer tain ev ents and theref ore appears reasonable
to themselv es and others (Festing er 1957 ; Jer mias 2001 ). Jermias (2001) provides
e vidence that commitment to a costing system influences the perceiv ed usefulness
of this system. Mahama and Cheng (2013) pr ovide similar im plications based on
psyc hological empow er ment and self-de ter mination theor y . They find that when
managers per ceive a cos ting system as mor e enabling, t he y use it more intensely .
Complementing other researc h on par ticipation (e.g., W ong-On- Wing et al. 2010 ;
Groen et al. 2017 ), Hoozée and Ngo (2018) build on self-determination t heory in the
conte xt of costing sys tems. Their findings indicate similar positiv e effects on auton-
omous motiv ation as w ell as effects on the perceived usefulness of cos t inf or mation
and the perceiv ed contr ibutions to process impr ov ements.
T able 24 Overview of articles on costing systems
Ar ticle Resear ch method Psy chology subfield Psychological theories or
concepts
Jermias ( 2001 ) Laboratory experiment Social Cognitive dissonance theory
Dearman and Shields
( 2005 )
Laboratory experiment Cognitiv e Cognitiv e adaption
Mahama and Cheng ( 2013 ) Sur v e y Social/motiv ation Psyc hological empow er -
ment; self-determination
theor y
Hoozée and Ngo ( 2018 ) Sur v ey Motiv ation Self-determination theor y

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4.2.8 Roles inmanagement c ontrol syst ems
Four studies describe the consequences of role e xpectations wit hin manag ement
control sy stems and, thus, predominantly r ely on r ole t heory . T able 25 pro vides
additional inf or mation.
R ole theor y considers role e xpectations in org anizations. It posits that central
org anizational roles are de ter mined b y the expectations of other members of the
org anization (Kahn et al. 1964 ; Byr ne and Pierce 2007 ). These e xpectations can
cause role ambiguity , role conflict, and role s tress, which e v entuall y affect per f or -
mance negativ ely (Kahn etal. 1964 ; Mar ginson and Bui 2009 ).
Byr ne and Pierce (2007) build on role theor y and find that interactions betw een
management accountants and operating manag ers ma y be subject to contingencies
and conflicts. Fur ther mor e, adopting a “business par tner” role seems conditional
and uncer tain. Researc h based on t his theor y furt her sugg ests that the need to fulfill
e xpectations for multiple r oles ma y lead to higher lev els of role conflict and role
ambiguity f or management accountants and other organizational members (Maas
and Matějka 2009 ; Marginson and Bui 2009 ).
In addition to div erse role e xpectations, a management accountant ’ s occupational
prestig e ma y also determine specific conflicts between or ganizational and pr of es-
sional demands. Be yond r ole t heory , Hiller et al. (2014) pro vide e vidence t hat
aspects of social identity ma y decrease conflict and tur no ver intentions.
5 Discussion andav enues forfutur e research
Our findings indicate a great div ersity regarding topics, psy chological theories, and
concepts emplo y ed. In the f ollowing, w e discuss implications and a v enues f or future
researc h. From the eight broader topics presented in this revie w , aspects of per f or-
mance measurement and e valuation ar e ex amined most freq uently . W e find evidence
that the use of psychological theories differs across per f or mance measurement and
e valuation subtopics. F or instance, both subtopics subjectivity in per f or mance e valu-
ations and PMS design are str ongly influenced b y cognitive theories (e.g., Dai et al.
2018 ; Fehrenbac her et al. 2018 ; Bedf ord et al. 2019 ). Psyc hology-based researc h
on the pro vision of RPI instead illuminates social aspects using social comparison
T able 25 Overview of articles on roles in management control sy stems
Ar ticle Researc h method Psyc hology subfield Psychological theories or
concepts
Byr ne and Pier ce ( 2007 ) Field study Social Role theor y
Maas and Matějka ( 2009 ) Sur v ey Social/industrial and
org anizational psy-
chology
R ole theor y; r ole stress; role
conflict
Marginson and Bui ( 2009 ) Case study Social R ole theor y
Hiller etal. ( 2014 ) Sur v e y Social Social identity theor y

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theor y (e.g., Har tmann and Sc hrec k 2018 ) or incor porates neg ative personality
aspects, such as t he Dar k T r iad or negativity bias (e.g., W ang 2017 ; Kaplan et al.
2018a ). Other effects of ev aluation processes and outcomes are addressed by consid-
er ing personality traits, suc h as tolerance f or ambiguity or psyc hological entitlement
(e.g., Holder ness e t al. 2017 ), and social phenomena, suc h as affective r eactions
(e.g., Ding and Beaulieu 2011 ). Con versel y , motiv ational aspects, specifically self-
determination t heory , are rele vant when in v estigating the effects of participation in
PMS design. Our findings indicate that more recent research ma y par ticularl y shif t
its f ocus to cognitive and personality theories to illuminate phenomena t hat are no t
y et understood. Prior research has disco vered man y cognitive heuristics and biases,
and their negativ e consequences. Future r esearch could, theref ore, address w a ys to
mitigate the negativ e consequences of the design of PMS or ev aluation processes,
f or exam ple, to suppor t the present heur is tic reasoning in a positiv e w a y . Fur ther -
more, researc hers could incor porate positiv e psyc hological traits, such as empath y
or humility , to illuminate t heir influences on e valuation decisions and outcomes.
Aspects of compensation, re w ards, and incentiv es are second-most often e xam-
ined. Ov erall, our anal ysis re v eals a strong er emphasis on social aspects in this
researc h stream, than, f or e xample, in the per f or mance measurement and e v alua-
tion stream. Specificall y , social compar ison theor y (e.g., Hannan e tal. 2008 ; Knauer
et al. 2017 ), social nor ms (e.g., Maas and v an Rinsum 2013 ; Chen et al. 2017 ) and
social identity theor y (e.g., Sedatole et al. 2016 ; Tian et al. 2016 ) are freq uently
dra wn upon. How e ver , researchers also selectiv ely f ocus on cognitiv e theor ies, espe-
ciall y prospect theor y and related concepts (e.g., Hirsc h et al. 2017 ; Oblak et al.
2018 ), to in ves tigate incentiv e contract design effects. In contrast, ear lier research
on the pro vision of f eedbac k and rew ards is descr ibed based on the motiv ational
theor y of self-determination (e.g., Drake e t al. 2007 ; Stone et al. 2010 ; Kunz and
Linder 2012 ). Alt hough personality aspects w ere less frequentl y incor porated in
this research in the past, the y ha v e been more frequentl y ex amined in recent y ears.
Personality traits, suc h as t he need f or achie v ement or psyc hological entitlement
(e.g., Fehrenbac her et al. 2017 ; Nichol 2019 ), ma y offer oppor tunities to e xplain
beha vioral patter ns regarding com pensation, rew ards or incentiv es that are not y et
understood, especiall y in contexts prone to misreporting and honesty issues. Fur ther
researc h ma y also benefit from incor porating personality aspects, e.g., psy chological
entitlement, in areas based mainl y on social concepts, such as the effects of tourna-
ment incentiv e schemes. The reactions t o tour naments and thereb y induced pressure
are likel y to be contingent on an individual’ s personality traits and coping mecha-
nisms and, thus, are w or th looking into.
Psyc hological t heories are also employ ed in research concentrating on budg eting,
org anizational control matters, and decision-making processes. Man y psyc hology-
based budge ting studies w ere published v er y recentl y , indicating a recent interest
in the psyc hological aspects of budge ting. Notabl y , par ticipation is a par ticularl y
common researc h topic in this context. Prior research pro vides evidence that the
psyc hological reactions induced by par ticipation influence perf or mance and report-
ing beha vior (e.g., Brown e t al. 2017 ; Bla y et al. 2019 ) and should, t heref ore, be
fur ther in ves tigated b y future researc h. How e v er , most researc h in this field deals
with budgetary slack and honesty , tw o concepts that seem deeply interw o ven with

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psyc hology . W e find a strong f ocus on social psy chology , and the concept of social
nor ms therein, in both older and more recent budg eting researc h (e.g., Fisher et al.
c 2000 ; Ste v ens 2002 ; Bro wn etal. 2017 ; Bla y et al. 2019 ). Interes tingl y , personality
aspects are addressed rather often wit h reg ard to slac k creation and honesty issues
(e.g., Har tmann and Maas 2010 ; Hobson e t al. 2011 ; Da vidson 2019 ). An essential
difference from the per f or mance measurement and e v aluation literature, which also
sho w s tendencies tow ards personality psyc hology , is the consideration of more posi-
tiv e character tr aits. Interestingl y , very f ew s tudies in this area dra w upon cognitiv e
or motiv ation psyc hology . How e v er , we assume that future budg eting researc h could
benefit from the strong er incor poration of theories of heur istics, framing, or mo tiva-
tion, as they ma y also pro v e to be relev ant f or explaining neg ativ e beha vior (e.g.,
slac k creation or misrepor ting) and its potential mitig ation.
Fur ther , our anal ysis indicates that although social psyc hological theor ies and
concepts ha ve a s tronger influence on or ganizational contr ol research, this area
also incor porates se v eral motiv ation theor ies. This researc h stream mos t fre -
quentl y employ s the social concepts of social nor ms and attribution t heory , moti -
v ational aspects used include intr insic motiv ation and self-deter mination con -
structs. Cognitive psy chology is onl y dra wn on in org anizational control studies
published bef ore 2012, and tolerance f or ambiguity is the only personality trait
incor porated in researc h on this topic. These findings sugges t a v enues f or future
researc h. Although t here is a s trong f ocus on social psy chology , some areas ma y
additionall y benefit from the incor poration of social aspects. Particularly in the
conte xt of project controls and interfirm transactions, individuals ’ social and per -
sonal beha vior significantly influences their judgments and, thus, t heir outcomes.
Ne vert heless, w e did not identify an y research that addresses social aspects in this
field. Thus, researc hers could dra w on concepts from, e.g., social identity theory
or e ven r ole theor y , to ex amine potential dysfunctional beha viors or coordina -
tion difficulties betw een project or transaction parties. Interestingl y , research on
f or mal and inf or mal or ganizational controls does not incorporate cognitive psy -
chology . Ho we ver , cognitive theories and concepts, such as prospect theor y , ma y
pro vide additional e xplanations f or individual beha vior when f or mal or inf or -
mal controls are present. Or ganizational control r esearch also ma y benefit from
determining t he influences of a more div erse set of personality traits on beha vior .
For e xample, resear chers could in ves tigate ho w a set of traits lik e, e.g., honesty ,
agreeableness and conscientiousness, affect transactions or the use of and reac -
tion to inf or mal and f ormal controls.
Reg arding decision-making researc h, our findings indicate a f ocus on cognitiv e
psyc hology and affective reactions. Similar to o ther subtopics (e.g., per f or mance
measurement and e valuation), resear chers e xamine rather negativ e implications of
affect. Future researc h could, theref ore, e xamine the effects of positiv e affective r eac-
tions in this context and w a ys to elicit and use them f or t he benefit of or ganizations.
More recent researc h incor porates ne w e xper imental methods, such as e ye-trac king,
to e xamine decision q uality . Future researc h in this field could also combine cogni-
tiv e and social or personality psyc hology to identify the effects of character traits
(e.g., social v alue or ientation) or e xisting social nor ms on decision q uality .

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Our anal ysis also re v eals implications f or psychology -based strategic MA C and
costing sy stem researc h. For instance, w e did not identify psyc hology-based stra-
tegic MA C ar ticles published after 2013. Although researchers ha v e shown that
psyc hological aspects are in fact influential, this outcome ma y sugg est that interest
in psyc hological explanations has decreased in this field. W e find that psyc hology-
based SPMS researc h relies mainly on social concep ts, f ollow ed by cognitiv e and
motiv ation theor ies. Interesting ly , w e do not identify studies that incor porate per -
sonality aspects into their e xaminations of the effects of SPMS ev en though t hese
aspects ha ve been pro ven to im pact beha vior in the context of other MA C subtopics.
Thus, future researc h regarding s trategic MA C could in v estigate ho w , f or ex ample,
the commitment to strategic goals or the effectiv eness of the translation of strategy
into per f or mance measures is conting ent on personality traits lik e, e.g., t he dar k
tr iad or one ’ s social value orient ation.
The small number of anal yzed costing sys tem ar ticles pro vide evidence that
social, cognitiv e, and motiv ational f actors influence perceptions of usefulness and
the use of cost inf or mation. Fur ther , studies that sho w the effects of par ticipation in
the design process seem to be affected b y motiv ational aspects. How ev er , based on
other ar ticles in this re view , par ticipation elicits social phenomena as w ell. Thus,
future costing sy stem researc h ma y benefit from considering t he effects of, e.g.,
e xisting social nor ms. A dditionally , researchers could e xamine potential effects of
phenomena like cognitiv e dissonance, which ma y be ev oked b y contradictor y belief s
or ideas and actual presented costing inf or mation and costing sy stem design. Fur -
ther , future research could e xamine whether and ho w the perceived usefulness and
the use of cost inf or mation ma y also be affected b y personal characteristics, e.g.,
one ’ s tolerance f or ambiguity .
Besides the af orementioned, researc hers use psyc hology to shed light on the roles
of actors in manag ement control sys tems. W e find t hat psy chology -based in ves tiga-
tions of role e xpectations seemingly pr ompt the use of role theor y . Ho we ver , indi-
viduals ’ methods of coping wit h e xpect ations and their beha vior under stress and
ambiguous e xpectations may also be de ter mined b y other f actors. W e, theref ore,
belie ve that the role perceptions of individuals in control sy stems ma y relate to posi-
tiv e and negativ e personality traits, e.g., t he dar k tr iad or social v alue or ientation.
Fur ther more, an individual’ s cognitiv e or ientation or perceptions of accountability
ma y impact the fulfillment of these roles.
Ov erall, our results confir m the de v elopments indicated by pre vious studies (e.g.,
Hesf ord et al. 2007 ; Hopper and Bui 2016 ; Lachmann et al. 2017 ): The quantity
and propor tion of psy c hology-based MA C research both increased o ver the in v es-
tigation period, especially be tween 2015 and the first half of 2019. Furt her , we find
that the variety of psyc hology subfields used b y MAC s tudies increases o v er t he
in vestig ation per iod and that this div ersity is especially high be tween 2015 and the
first half of 2019. Bo t h findings indicate a g r owing interes t in emplo ying psyc ho-
logical theor ies and concepts to f oster a better unders t anding of the conseq uences
and effects of MA C practices on beha vior . W e sho w that social psychology is the
most freq uentl y utilized subfield. W e believ e this is the case because t he researc h
that we e xamined in this revie w in v estig ates contexts in whic h social interactions
betw een individuals are mandator y (e.g., perf or mance e valuations or par ticipativ e

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budge ting). Thus, f ocusing on and observing social psychological phenomena, such
as affectiv e reactions or social comparison processes, offers additional valuable
e xplanations f or beha vior t hat ma y contradict t he pr edictions of traditional economic
theor y in some cases. Interestingl y , man y studies rel y on more than one psyc hology
subfield to der iv e theoretical f oundations. One possible e xplanation f or this finding
ma y be that psyc hological processes are so comple x that multiple psyc hological the-
or ies are necessary to capture, predict, and e xamine the effects of specific beha vioral
phenomena and their f acets.
Some psyc hological t heories and concepts wit hin the respectiv e subfields
ha ve been emplo yed b y researc hers more frequentl y t han o t hers ha v e. For e xam -
ple, ar ticles dra wing on social psyc hology build theoretical f oundations on social
comparison t heory (e.g., Hannan et al. 2013 ; T afko v 2013 ; Knauer et al. 2017 )
or social nor ms (e.g., F isher et al. 2000 ; Maas and v an Rinsum 2013 ; Bla y et al.
2019 ). Prospect theor y (e.g., Churc h et al. 2008 ; Oblak et al. 2018 ) and men -
tal models (e.g., Kadous and Sedor 2003 ; Hall 2011 ) are among t he mos t fre -
quentl y employ ed concepts from cognitiv e psyc hology . When e xamining motiv a -
tional issues, ar ticles mos t of ten build on self-de ter mination theor y (e.g., K unz
and Linder 2012 ; Groen etal. 2017 ), f ollo wed b y concepts of intrinsic motivation
(e.g., W ong-On- Wing e t al. 2010 ; Chr ist e t al. 2012 ). W e find that personality
psyc hology seems to be of g ro wing interest to researc hers. Interestingl y , person -
ality psyc hology is not addressed by pre vious literature studies (e.g., Bir nber g
et al. 2007 ). W e identified a rat her div erse set of concepts from personality psy -
chology . The concepts of tolerance f or ambiguity (e.g., Har tmann and Slapničar
2012 ) and psyc hological entitlement (e.g., Nichol 2019 ) are both emplo y ed by
se ver al studies. Ho we v er , according to our anal ysis, the use of personality psy -
chology , ev en in combination with other subfields, is restr icted t o cer tain MAC
topics and subtopics. For e xam ple, we do not identify articles emplo ying per -
sonality concepts to e xamine str ategic MAC aspects, cos ting sys tems, or roles in
management contr ol systems.
Reg arding researc h methods, man y studies use laborator y e xper iments. The
e xter nal v alidity of such e xper iments is often questioned o wing to concer ns regard-
ing the representativeness and g eneralizability of their results (Spr inkle 2003 ). Inter -
estingl y , we identified v er y f ew field e xper iments, whic h offer higher generalizabil-
ity and, thus, higher external validity (Harr ison and List 2004 ). Psy chology -based
MA C researc h can, t her ef ore, benefit from researc hers v entur ing into the field. Field
e xper iments can pro vide additional know ledge and v er ify e xisting kno w ledge under
more natural conditions but offer the additional benefits of e xper imental manipula-
tions ( 2004 ; Flo yd and List 2016 ).
Within the MA C topics discussed abo ve, w e identified sev eral subtopics that are
of greater interest based on the number of ar ticles addressing them. Specificall y ,
subjectiv e per f or mance e v aluations and subjective measur es (e.g., Kunz 2015 ; Bol
and Leib y 2018 ), incentiv e contract framing and compensation contract selection
(e.g., T afko v 2013 ; Reic her t and W oods 2017 ), and budgetar y slac k and honesty in
budge ting (e.g., Bro wn et al. 2014 ; Bla y et al. 2019 ) are very frequentl y in v esti-
gated using psy chology -based t heories. The outcomes and consequences of these
studies are deepl y influenced by individual judgments and beha viors and, t hus,

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Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
benefit from the incor poration of theor ies that offer additional e xplanations be yond
pure economic reasoning. Be yond that, our anal ysis sho ws an increase in publica-
tions in specific topic categor ies in r ecent years. This ma y be explained b y t he g en-
eral increase in the number and share of psyc hology -based MA C research articles;
ho we ver , it may also indicate a gro wing interest in some specific subtopics. The
increase is especiall y pronounced f or research on budg etar y slac k and honesty . Six
of the twel ve articles on t hese subtopics w ere published in or after 2015, and three
w ere ev en published in t he firs t half of 2019. Fur ther , more than half of all ar ticles
included in our re view with a bac kground of personality psy chology w ere published
betw een 2016 and 2019. W e first identified personality concepts in ar ticles pub-
lished in 2003 (Cheng et al. 2003 ). The new er ar ticles f ocus on a variety of personal-
ity aspects, such as psy chological entitlement (Holder ness e tal. 2017 ; Nichol 2019 ),
social v alue or ientation (Da vidson 2019 ), and responsibility rationalization (Chong
and W ang 2019 ). Although personality traits and t heir effects on actions do no t pla y
a significant role in the economic theor y underl ying MA C, consider ing these f actors
offer an oppor tunity to pr ovide furt her insight into the potential effects and influ-
ences of MA C practices. The insights of this revie w into recent MAC resear ch impl y
that researchers ha v e only begun to incorporate personality aspects, and this incor-
poration ma y be accelerating. Con versel y , some subtopics ha v e not receiv ed much
attention in recent y ears. For instance, the most recent ar ticle in the strategic MA C
categor y w as published in 2013. Researc hers can, theref ore, address these thematic
fields using ne w technologies, tested theories, and more recent know ledge to answ er
unansw ered research q uestions.
Interestingl y , t her e is an ov erarching theme that ev oked psy chology -based
researc h across multiple categor ies. Specificall y , we f ound sev enteen ar ticles on
par ticipation in different conte xts. For instance, we identified ar ticles on participa-
tion in PMS design, budge t setting, costing sy stem design, and str ategic MAC. Inter -
estingl y , t he concept of participation is already ex amined b y t he seminal w ork of
Argyris (1952) . Ar ticles on participation incor porate social psyc hological and moti-
v ation theor ies with almost equal freq uency . This offers t he opportunity to benefit
from already e xisting psy chology -based know ledge. For e xample, future researc h on
the effects of par ticipation in MA C conte xts ma y use already tested theor ies and
recent kno w ledg e from one setting to find e xplanations f or research q uestions in
other par ticipation-based researc h settings. Specificall y , researchers could, e.g., ben-
efit from the kno w ledge that participation affects factors lik e goal commitment and
individual per f or mance, and derive r esearch q uestions regar ding t he effects of par -
ticipation in costing sy stem design and use. Fur ther , e v en though we did not find an y
personality psyc hology-based par ticipation researc h, w e believ e t hat suc h researc h
in PMS design, or costing sy stem design could lead to a better unders tanding of why
such sy stems ma y or may no t w ork in practice.
In summar y , psyc hology -based MA C research is div erse regarding its topics,
and psyc hological t heories and concepts employ ed. Based on our revie w , t here
are se v eral potentiall y fr uitful a venues f or future researc h in t he eight topic cat-
egor ies discussed. P ar ticularl y , personality characteristics are likel y to influence
man y MA C-related aspects, but their effects are ye t to be e xamined. Be yond per -
sonality char acter istics, there are man y more already tested psyc hological theor ies

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and concepts from related fields, that could pro v e rele vant to MA C research. F or
instance, the concept of account ability , whic h is ex amined in, e.g., auditing research
or org anizational sciences, could also be applied in MA C researc h. Despite t he
kno wn influences of accountability in t hese fields, little MA C research (e.g., Fehren-
bacher e t al. 2020 ) has asked and answ ered account ability related q uestions. Ne v-
er theless, although there is a seemingly endless v ariety in promising psyc hological
theor ies or concepts to dra w from, MA C researc hers should ex ercise caution in pick -
ing theor ies and concepts that are reasonabl y applicable in the MAC conte xt. There-
f ore, we belie v e psyc hology-based MAC r esearch w ould especially benefit from
interdisciplinar y e xc hange, inter disciplinar y researc h teams, and potentiall y e ven
interdisciplinar y education in univ ersity courses, in order to continue to deepen our
understanding of the effects of MAC pr actices on beha vior .
6 C onclusion
W e conclude by reflecting on the contr ibutions and limitations of our systematic lit-
erature re vie w . Our w ork in v estig ates t he main f oci of and de velopments in r ecent
psyc hology-based MA C researc h. W e shed light on which MA C topics are in ves ti-
gated, whic h researc h methods are applied in these in ves tigations, and whic h theo-
r ies and concepts are used t o generate kno w ledge on the effects of MA C practices
from a psy chological perspectiv e. W e achie ved this through a structured mater ial
collection and a subsequent in-depth content anal ysis of relev ant ar ticles published
betw een 2000 and 2019. W e thereby identified 125 rele v ant ar ticles out of a total of
5247 ar ticles from nine leading accounting journals. In our subsequent content anal-
ysis, w e focused on de ter mining the theoretical perspectiv es, researc h methods, and
main findings of each included article. Additionall y , all 125 ar ticles wer e catego-
r ized in terms of MA C topics, research me thods, and psyc hology subfields, and we
discussed possible implications of the recent dev elopments. Thereby , our o v er vie w
offers a v ar iety of insights int o t he use of psy c hology in recent MA C research to
fur ther de v elop t he current understanding of t he effects of MA C practices. W e com-
plement and e xtend exis ting discussions of psyc hology -based studies (e.g., Bir nber g
et al. 2007 ; Luft and Shields 2009 ; Kaplan et al. 2018b ) b y including ar ticles that
dra w upon t heories and concepts from f our bigger subfields of psyc hology . There-
f ore, we discuss ar ticles emplo ying t heories or concepts from the previousl y ex am-
ined subfields of social psyc hology , cognitive psy c hology and motiv ation theor y . In
addition, w e significantly e xtend t he scope of prior studies b y including ar ticles that
dra w upon personality psyc hology , multiple subfields, and sev eral smaller subfields.
T o our know ledge, this re view is the first to sy stematicall y collect, anal yze, and
synthesize such a broad spectrum of psyc hology-based researc h from t he selected
jour nals to illuminate the c haracter is tics and know ledge g eneration of this research
stream during t his time period. Fur ther , we dr a w a picture of an e vol ving research
landscape, with sev eral future research opportunities, as well as emer ging new f ac-
ets, e.g., the gro wing influence of personality psyc hology or par ticipation in v arious
MA C conte xts. Moreov er , by synthesizing and conte xtualizing 125 ar ticles, w e sho w
that there are specific domains, where reactions to implemented MA C practices are

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Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
significantl y affected by psy c hological aspects. Among others, reactions to, e.g.,
PME sys tems, compensation, re w ards or incentiv es benefit from psyc hology -based
e xplanations of beha vioral patter ns. F or instance, f ollowing basic economic theory ,
incentivizing should motiv ate f a vorable beha vior; ho w ev er, there ma y be, e.g., social
aspects like e xisting social nor ms, that reinf orce or agg ra vate the assumed beha v -
ioral reactions. Thus, our findings adv ocate t he consideration of suc h aspects and
ma y pro vide f ood f or t hought f or practitioners, and the design and implementation
of MA C practices be yond common economics-based recommendations.
Ne vert heless, w e recognize that our systematic re view is subject to some limita-
tions. The selection cr iteria and the selection process itself are designed to include
onl y a fraction of recent MA C research. Especiall y owing to the restrictions on jour -
nals and the publication per iod, potentiall y relev ant ar ticles that do not mee t the
proposed criter ia are e x cluded a pr iori. Moreov er, t he journal selection, which is
based on leading accounting jour nals and prior research (e.g., Hesf ord et al. 2007 ;
Lachmann e tal. 2017 ), is not e xhaustiv e and may be adjus ted by future r evie w s. The
ar ticle selection w as conducted using t he bes t of our know ledge, but it ne vertheless
relies on our subjectiv e judgments of inclusion eligibility . Fur ther more, our anal ysis
relies on the simultaneous inv estigation of MA C topics, psyc hological concepts, and
the research me thods employ ed, which g enerates a comprehensiv e ov er vie w of the
trends and main themes in this stream of research but ma y also hinder more detailed
in vestig ations of specific topics or concepts. Future researc h ma y complement our
w ork with more specific re view s, potentiall y f ocusing, f or instance, on e xper imental
studies emplo ying social or cognitive concepts.
Reg ardless of these limitations, we belie v e that our revie w is a v aluable resource
f or researchers and practitioners seeking an o v er vie w of the know ledge in the MA C
field that has been generated b y dra wing on different subfields of psyc hology . By
offer ing insights into this str eam of MAC r esearch, this re view ma y encourage
researc hers to in v estigate future de velopments in this field or e v en to conduct psy-
chology -based MAC researc h t hemsel v es.
Acknowledgements Open A ccess funding pro vided by Projekt DEAL.
Complianc e with ethical standards
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they ha ve no conflict of interes t.
Open Acc ess This ar ticle is licensed under a Creativ e Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter national License,
which permits use, shar ing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in an y medium or f or mat, as long as
you giv e appropr iate credit to the original aut hor(s) and the source, pro vide a link to t he Creativ e Com-
mons licence, and indicate if chang es were made. The imag es or other third par ty material in this ar ticle
are included in the ar ticle ’ s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If mater ial is not included in the article’ s Creative Commons licence and y our intended use is
not permitted by statutory regulation or ex ceeds the per mitted use, y ou will need to obtain per mission
directl y from the copyr ight holder . To vie w a copy of this licence, visit http://creat iv eco mmons .org/licen
ses/by/4.0/ .

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1 3
Appendix1: Overview ofcoding dimensions, ca tegories
andsubcategories
Subject of coding All ar ticles mar ked as “included” after scanning relev ant ar ticles f or final inclusion
criter ia
Code 1: T opic
Description: Ref ers to the subfield of MAC that the pr imarily e xamined topics
can be assigned to
The topic categories were de veloped based on prior literature (e.g.,
Hesf ord etal. 2007 ; Lac hmann etal. 2017 ; Shields 1997 ) and
findings of the content analy sis of our included ar ticles
T o descr ibe the subjects in greater detail, the topics of the included
ar ticles w ere recorded in detail during content analy sis and
harmonized af terwar ds. Thereby , t he identified topics ha ve been
summarized under sev eral generic ter ms to further classify t he
ar ticles into the respectiv e categories
Categor y 1 Budge ting Includes ar ticles on, e.g., budg et-
ar y slac k , participative budg et-
ing or budge t repor ting
Categor y 2 Compensation, re wards and
incentiv es
Includes ar ticles on, e.g., the
design of compensation
contracts or choices reg arding
re ward types and incentiv es
Categor y 3 Costing sy stems Includes ar ticles on, e.g., partici-
pation in costing sy stem design,
effects of costing sy stem chang e
or costing sy stem choices
Categor y 4 Decision-making Includes ar ticles on, e.g., f actors
that influence decision-making
processes and decision quality
Categor y 5 Org anizational control Includes ar ticles on, e.g., internal
control sys tems, project con-
trols, creativity controls, and
other inter nal contr ol systems
not co ver ed by the other catego-
ries of t his re view
Categor y 6 Perf or mance measurement and
ev aluation
Includes ar ticles on the e valuation
process and its outcomes, e.g.,
effects of subjectivity in weight-
ing performance measures on
emplo yee perf or mance, or on
performance measurement
sys tem design, e.g., t he c hoice
of performance measures
Categor y 7 R oles in management control
sys tems
Includes ar ticles on the role
perception of management
accountants
Categor y 8 Strategic manag ement account-
ing and control
Includes ar ticles on s trategic per -
f or mance measurement sy stems

317
1 3
Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
Code 2: Subfield of psyc hology
Description: Ref ers to the subfield of psychology that the emplo yed psy chologi-
cal theor ies and concepts originated from. The psyc hological con-
cepts wer e identified in t he titles, k eyw ords, abstract or full text
of the respective article. The basic framew ork f or code 2 relies on
the often-researched psyc hological theor ies and constructs from
Bir nber g etal. (2007) ’ s comprehensiv e ov er view . Dur ing the
content anal ysis, tw o additional categor ies, i.e., personality and
multiple, were added
Categor y 1 Social Studies emplo ying concepts
derived from the domain of
social psyc hology , its theor ies
and phenomena
Categor y 2 Cognitiv e Studies emplo ying concepts
derived from the domain of cog-
nitiv e psyc hology , its t heories
and phenomena
Categor y 3 Motiv ation Studies emplo ying concepts
derived from motiv ational t heo-
ries and associated phenomena
Categor y 4 Personality Studies emplo ying concepts
derived from the domain of per -
sonality psyc hology , its theor ies
and phenomena
Categor y 5 Multiple Studies emplo ying multiple
concepts derived from more
than one of the abov ementioned
dimensions or single concepts
based on more than one of the
abo vementioned dimensions
Code 3: Resear ch me thod
Description: Ref ers to the research methods emplo yed
Relies on the categorization scheme of Lachmann e tal. (2017) ,
who use a modified v ersion of the categor ization scheme b y
Hesf ord etal. (2007)
Categor y 1 Surve y Studies collecting data using
standardized (online) ques tion-
naires disseminated b y mail or
e-mail (Lachmann e tal. 2017 ;
V an der Stede etal. 2007 ; Birn-
berg and Shields 1990 )

318
L.-M. W ibbeke, M.Lachmann
1 3
Categor y 2 Experiment Studies in vol ving manipulations
of independent variables and
observations of their effects on
dependent variables (Hesf ord
etal. 2007 ; Lac hmann etal.
2017 ; Bir nber g and Shields
1990 ). Fur ther , this revie w
distinguishes betw een laboratory
e xper iments and field e xper i-
ments
Laboratory experiments occur in
a setting primar il y created to
conduct research with a standard
subject pool, i.e. students (Har -
rison and List 2004 ; Bir nber g
and Shields 1990 ). The labora-
tory experiments-categor y also
comprises online experiments.
Har rison and List (2004) name
six f actors that can be used to
distinguish betw een labora-
tory and field experiments: t he
subject pool, inf or mation the
subjects bring to t he e xperimen-
tal task , nature of the commod-
ity , nature of the experimental
task, nature of t he s takes and the
nature of the experimental envi-
ronment (Flo yd and List 2016 ).
W e f ollow the classification
scheme b y Har rison and List
(2004) and the remarks of Floyd
and List (2016) and ref er to an
e xper iment with a non-standard
subject pool, e.g., managers, as
field e xper iments in terms of
this revie w
Categor y 3 Field study In v estigations of more than one
org anization employing tec h-
niques suc h as inter vie w s, obser-
vations and internal documents.
It occurs in natural settings not
created primar il y f or conducting
research (Hesf ord etal. 2007 ;
Lachmann e tal. 2017 ; Bir nber g
and Shields 1990 )
Categor y 4 Archiv al study S tudies using publicly a vailable or
proprietar y data as the pr imary
data source and applying q uan-
titative me thods to analyze these
data (Moers 2007 ; Lachmann
etal. 2017 )

319
1 3
Psy chology inmanagement accounting andc ontrol resear ch:…
Categor y 5 Case study In v estigations within one single
org anization, employing tec h-
niques suc h as inter vie w s, obser-
vations, and internal documents.
It occurs in natural settings not
created primar il y f or conducting
research (Hesf ord etal. 2007 ;
Lachmann e tal. 2017 ; Bir nber g
and Shields 1990 )
Categor y 6 Multiple Ar ticles appl ying more than one
research me thod
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