We study if debt pressure drives the use of interactive management accounting and control systems (MACS) and its consequences. We build on Simons (1990) and argue that financing pressures can threaten strategic investment. To alleviate debt pressures and reduce information asymmetries with lenders, managers are predicted to increase the interactive use of MACS. However, because individual MACS have different features, not all interactive use of individual MACS equally serves to assuage debt pressures. We predict that firms facing high debt pressure interactively use traditional MACS and that when individual MACS use befits the level of debt pressure, firms benefit by experiencing future decreases in their cost of debt. Our findings confirm these predictions. We contribute to the literature by showing that pressures from external stakeholders influence interactive use. We also suggest a new relevant firm outcome affected by MACS use: the future cost of debt. Finally, in additional analyses, we show that concerns over innovation may lead managers to choose apparently non-optimal MACS for interactive use, consistent with managers often juggling conflicting pressures.

我们研究债务压力是否推动了交互式管理会计和控制系统（MACS）的使用及其后果。我们以西蒙斯（Simons，1990）为基础，认为融资压力会威胁战略投资。为了减轻债务压力并减少与贷方的信息不对称，预计管理人员将增加对MACS的交互使用。但是，由于单个MACS具有不同的功能，因此并非所有单个MACS的交互使用都同样可以缓解债务压力。我们预测，面临高债务压力的公司将交互使用传统的MACS，而当单个MACS的使用符合债务压力的水平时，公司将通过未来降低其债务成本而受益。我们的发现证实了这些预测。我们通过表明外部利益相关者的压力影响交互使用来为文献做出贡献。我们还建议受MACS使用影响的新的相关公司成果：未来债务成本。最后，在其他分析中，我们表明，对创新的关注可能会导致管理人员选择显然非最优的MACS进行交互使用，这与管理人员通常会摆弄冲突的压力相一致。