This paper was written for a Festschrift in honour of Rolf Skog.Concepts of corporate purpose which have risen to the fore recently emphasize a point which Rolf Skog highlights in his writings about the importance of profits for the success and continuity of business. But they also question...

We provide a tractable model of motivational goal bracketing by a present-biased individual, extending previous work to show that the main insights from models with rational goals carry over to a setting with non-rational goals. Goals motivate because they serve as reference points that make...

The family business is the sort of venture in which most of the shareholders belong to one family. Moreover, decision-making power is restricted to family members. The literature explains that family cohesion, fairness, and loyalty are vital elements to achieve success in the family business....

Do not-for-profit hospitals provide better care than for-profit hospitals? We compare patient outcomes in for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals between 1984 and 1994 using a new method for estimating differences across hospitals that yields far more accurate estimates of hospital quality than...

Prior studies suggest that, to be effective, results-based control systems need to ensure managers’ goal commitment. Based on survey responses from 320 managers, we find that managers’ participation in goal setting and performance feedback are both positively asso¬ciated with goal...