Balancing the Dual Responsibilities of Business Unit Controllers: Field and Survey Evidence
研究业务单元控制者在服务本地决策与公司控制之间的双重角色，发现强调公司控制职责会增加角色冲突与模糊性，进而导致数据误报容忍度上升。
ABSTRACT: We examine how business unit (BU) controllers balance their dual roles of providing information for both local decision-making (local responsibility) and corporate control (functional responsibility). The existing literature suggests that organizations can improve the quality of financial reporting and internal controls by increasing the emphasis on the functional responsibility of BU controllers. In this study, we rely on prior literature and insights from field interviews to argue that such an increase also leads to role ambiguity and conflict, which in turn can lead to an increased tolerance of data misreporting. We test our predictions using survey responses of 134 BU controllers. As predicted, we find that the emphasis on the functional responsibility of BU controllers is positively associated with role conflict and role ambiguity, both of which are related to data misreporting at the BU level.