Financial goal setting: Implicit vs. explicit

With no conceptual basis, financial goals can only be haphazardly incorporated into the planning process. A recent survey of 60 large Canadian companies points out that there is little understanding of the “dynamics and interdependencies” for reconciling goals and for making them more congruent with the goals of most managers. Indeed, in 1977 the Journal of Finance stated that a “fully integrated theory on corporate financial decisions has not yet been developed” — a statement which has to date gone unchallenged.