Dr. Rajiv Banker

Dr. Rajiv Banker

A research paper by a University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) School of Management professor has been recognized by the American Accounting Association for the significant impact its findings are having on the accounting field.

The paper, co-authored by Dr. Rajiv Banker, UTD’s Ashbel Smith Professor of Accounting and Information Management and director of the school’s Accounting and Information Management Programs, has won the American Accounting Association’s “Notable Contribution to Management Accounting Literature Award” for 2002. The award, which includes a cash prize of $2,500, recognizes research that makes an exceptional contribution to accounting theory and knowledge.

The paper, analyzing data from the hospitality industry, finds that non-financial measures of a company’s performance — such as customer satisfaction — are leading indicators of the company’s future financial performance. It also documents that managers’ compensation plans that include incentives linked to increasing customer satisfaction result in an overall positive impact on a company’s future financial performance.

Dr. Banker’s co-authors on the work, “An Empirical Investigation of an Incentive Plan that Includes Nonfinancial Performance Measures,” are Gordon Potter of Cornell University and Dhinu Srinivasan of The University of Pittsburgh. Their paper was published in January 2000 in The Accounting Review.

“This award from such a prominent organization as the American Accounting Association is well-deserved recognition of the excellent work of Rajiv Banker and his colleagues,” said Dr. Hasan Pirkul, dean of the UTD School of Management. “In addition, it is another indicator of the outstanding quality of our school’s faculty.”

Dr. Banker’s award will be presented at a meeting of the American Accounting Association in San Antonio on August 15.

Dr. Banker holds a Bachelor of Science degree, with honors, from the University of Bombay and a Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard University. He teaches courses in accounting and software economics.