Recent studies in managerial accounting point out that the firms do not fully ratchet up the managers' future performance targets based on their past performance. This study offers a novel theoretical perspective on the firm's executive compensation strategy that supports such latest empirical...

Managerial incentive plans often combine objective measures of performance relative to beginning-of-year targets with ex post subjective evaluations. We argue that one of the roles of subjectivity is to offset the limitations of target-based rewards and strengthen managerial incentives when...