Are Defense Contractors Rewarded for Risk, Innovation, and Influence?

Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Accounting

Publication Date

Summer 2009

Abstract

This study investigates the factors that lead to a diversity of profitability among defense contractors, a topic largely ignored by prior studies. We use regression analysis to test whether the profitability of defense contractors is significantly associated with factors that are hypothesized to cause the diversity of profitability among defense contractors. We find that defense contractors assuming higher risks, being more innovation-oriented, and being more influential could earn higher profitability from their defense business than other defense contractors, but defense business in general seems to be less profitable than commercial business. Our evidence suggests that the profitability of defense contractors is reasonable with respect to rewarding risk and innovation. This study provides new light on the reasonableness of defense contractors' profitability and also provides useful evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of the Department of Defense in implementing its stated profit policy.

Comments

This article was originally published in Quarterly Journal of Finance and Accounting. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.

Due to copyright restrictions, this article is not available for free download from ScholarWorks @ CWU.

Journal

Quarterly Journal of Finance and Accounting

Rights

© 2009 Creighton University

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