Management Accounting Section Midyear Meeting

Does the Implementation of a Business Intelligence System Improve Employees’ Work Commitment? Evidence from a Large Chinese Construction Company

• In Event: Incentives and Compensation VI

Abstract

This study examines whether the implementation of a Business Intelligence System (BIS) affects employees’ work commitment and whether providing a BIS access to employees moderates the relation between BIS implementation and employees’ work commitment. This study employs proprietary archival data from two project departments of a large Chinese construction group that has started to implement BIS across its subsidiaries. Empirical results show the implementation of a BIS has positive effects on employees’ commitment, however, such relation is weakened when employees are provided a BIS access. This study offers early empirical evidence on the positive relation between BIS implementation and employees’ commitment, contributing to prior research’s mixed theoretical arguments on the effects of BIS on organizational management and extending prior research’s analytical focus on BIS’s effects from organizational level to individual level. Further, this study adds to the management control literature by offering initial insights on how the use of technology-based management control (i.e. providing employees a BIS access) may affect employee work behaviour. This study also has practical implications.

Authors

• Zhichao (Alex) Wang, The Australian National University

• Alexander Bruggen, Maastricht University

• Yuan Lin, Ford Company