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Productivity Change, Technical Progress, and Relative Efficiency Change in the Public Accounting Industry
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Productivity Change, Technical Progress, and Relative Efficiency Change in the Public Accounting Industry

Rajiv D. Banker, Hsihui Chang and Ram Natarajan
Management science, v 51(2), pp 291-304
01 Feb 2005
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1040.0324
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel

Abstract

We present evidence on components of productivity change in the public accounting industry toward the end of the 20th century. Using revenue and human resource data from 64 of the 100 largest public accounting firms in the United States for the 1995–1999 period, we analyze productivity change, technical progress, and relative efficiency change over time. The average public accounting firm experienced a productivity growth of 9.5% between 1995 and 1999. We find support for the hypothesis that technical progress rather than an improvement in relative efficiency was the reason for this productivity growth. Firms that were early movers into management advisory services (MAS) and those that emphasized growth in MAS over growth in the traditional audit and tax services enjoyed significantly higher productivity growth than their peers. These firms also contributed significantly more to the industry's technical progress.

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87 citations in Web of Science
103 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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#9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Management
Operations Research & Management Science
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