91看片

Award-winning research utilizes brain imaging to understand why strategic objectives may fail.

91看片 faculty member Paul Black has won the American Accounting Association鈥檚 for groundbreaking research that may help organizations do a better job of achieving their strategic objectives.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an honor and I鈥檓 grateful to receive this award, especially since it is only given to one paper each year in the entire management accounting field,鈥� said Black. 鈥淚t was a pleasant discovery.鈥�

Black鈥檚 research, which he conducted with colleagues from BYU and Utah Valley University, examined a phenomenon known as surrogation, in which employees confuse strategic objectives with concrete measures that are designed to track progress toward those strategic objectives.

As an example, a company鈥檚 strategic objective could be to increase customer satisfaction. To quantify the firm鈥檚 progress, managers often implement a customer satisfaction survey that allows them to measure whether they鈥檙e reaching the goal of increased customer satisfaction.

However, employees and managers can become so focused on the measures that they end up undermining the objectives.

鈥淭he survey score is not a perfect reflection of actual customer satisfaction, but it鈥檚 a proxy for it,鈥� said Black, assistant professor and dean鈥檚 fellow in the School of Accountancy. 鈥淪urrogation occurs when people begin to believe and behave as though the measure鈥攖he survey score鈥攊s the end goal of customer satisfaction.鈥�

This can be detrimental to achieving the objective, Black said, because managers could start doing things to manipulate the measures.

鈥淭hey might start only giving surveys to happy customers to boost their scores,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is why surrogation is problematic, because people can manipulate the measures in ways that don鈥檛 actually affect the actual end goal.鈥�

In the study, Black and his colleagues used functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) technology to perform brain scans while volunteer participants鈥攁ll of whom had some knowledge of accounting and business鈥攚ere given abstract and concrete words to review, as well as examples of strategic objectives and measures.

The results of the experiment demonstrated what happens in the brain during surrogation.

鈥淪urrogation occurs as a mental shortcut,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here is less brain activity happening when people鈥檚 behavior suggests surrogation is occurring.鈥�

Implications for business

鈥淭he better you understand the cognitive underpinnings of why [surrogation] happens the more you can help come up with solutions,鈥� said Black. 鈥淲e can think about the best ways to reduce surrogation and focus on the strategy.鈥�

For example, companies can train their managers on what surrogation is and how to avoid it.

In addition, Black said, prior research found that if managers are involved in strategy selection and are not merely executors of strategy, they are less likely to surrogate鈥攖hey are more likely to discern the difference between objectives and measures.

鈥淭his can help managers understand that measures are good and we have them for a reason, but they aren鈥檛 perfect, so be sure everything you鈥檙e doing is focused on the strategic objective,鈥� he said.

According to Black, several other researchers published papers in the accounting literature looking at surrogation but none of them employed fMRI.

鈥淣obody really dug as deep as we did and asked why surrogation happens. We actually looked at the neuroscience behind why it happens.鈥�

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鈥淲e鈥檙e incredibly excited for Paul and his coauthors to be recognized in this way. Their work is an outstanding example of how rigorous, innovative accounting research can provide valuable insight into the fundamental challenges business organizations face.鈥�

Jonathan Stanley, director of Auburn鈥檚 School of Accountancy

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Their , 鈥淎n fMRI investigation of the neurocognitive processing of measures and strategic objectives,鈥� was published in Management Science in 2024.

Black shares the award with co-authors , executive director of MindCORE Neuroimaging Facility at University of Pennsylvania (formerly at BYU); , department chair and professor of information systems at BYU Marriott School of Business; , associate director and Robert Smith professor of accountancy at BYU Marriott School of Business; and , assistant professor of accounting at Utah Valley University.

They will receive the award in August at the American Accounting Association鈥檚 annual meeting in Chicago.

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