Abstract This paper presents empirical evidence concerning relationships between experienced managers' demand for information, the supply of information, and judgment accuracy. The purpose of presenting this evidence is to shed light on the information-choice problem of accountants. Managers analyzed four performance reports and made diagnostic judgments. This paper uses a predecisional research method to investigate five issues. The evidence indicates that (1) there is a moderate level of convergence among three behavioral measures of demand, (2) there is a low but statistically significant level of demand consensus, (3) there is an association between supply and demand, (4) demand is not associated with judgment accuracy, and (5) judgment accuracy is an inverted-U function of the supply of information. Implications of this research are presented which relate to demand measurement convergence and the choice of methods to measure demand, demand consensus and the tailoring of reports and, finally, the association between information supply and judgment accuracy.
Michael D. Shields (Fri,) studied this question.