Management Accounting Section Midyear Meeting

Time Perspective and Inter-Temporal Trade-Off Decisions: Mitigating Short-Termism and Long-Termism

• In Event: Nonprofits, Social Responsibility and Opportunism

Abstract

We qualitatively explore the relationship between time perspective (TP) and managerial short-termist and long-termist decision-making behavior, previously not evidenced in the literature. We also consider the important but underdeveloped role played by organizational-level factors in influencing this relationship. Findings indicate that managers who have a dominant present TP are more likely to make short-termist decisions, while managers who have a dominant future TP are more likely to make long-termist decisions. However, these relationships are not universal and reflect managers’ engagement with multiple temporal frames and the influence of organizational-level factors. Specifically, performance management systems that are used to monitor, sanction, and reward performance within defined periods, create tension that sometimes manifests as managers displaying inter-temporal behavior inconsistent with their dominant TP.

Authors

• Emma Pugh, University of Bristol

• Aoife McDermott, Cardiff University

• David Marginson, Retired from Warwick Business School