The Effect of Target Difficulty on Target Completion: The Case of Reducing Carbon Emissions

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ioannou, Ioannis; Li, Shelley Xin; Serafeim, George
• 署名单位: University of London; London Business School; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: ACCOUNTING REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4826
• DOI: 10.2308/accr-51307
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 1467-1492
• 关键词: corporate social-responsibility; task-performance; GOAL DIFFICULTY; incentives; strategy; efficacy; creativity; salaries; choking; plan

摘要

Targets are an integral component of management control systems and play a significant role in achieving desirable performance outcomes. We focus on a key environmental performance objective-reduction of carbon emissions-as a setting in which to examine how target difficulty affects the degree of target completion in long-term non-financial performance. We use a novel dataset compiled by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and find that firms setting more difficult targets complete a higher percentage of such targets. We also find that this effect is negatively moderated by the provision of monetary incentives. We corroborate this evidence by showing that target difficulty is more effective for carbon reduction projects requiring more novel knowledge and in high-pollution industries. We discuss limitations and suggest avenues for future research.