Journal ArticleDOI
Management control as a system or a package? Conceptual and empirical issues
Isabella Grabner,Frank Moers +1 more
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this paper, the authors provide a formal definition of internal consistency and show how it can be used to conceptualize MC systems, thereby giving contingency theorists the necessary ingredient to move forward.Abstract:
Despite the trend in investigating combinations of MC practices that form packages or systems, there is ambiguity about what is meant by a “control package” or “control system”. In this paper, we address questions related to MC as a package and as a system, both from a conceptual and empirical perspective. The purpose of our study is to clarify a number of issues, so as to guide future research in this area. We do not claim to have all the answers. Rather we make a number of assumptions explicit to show when it is important to address multiple MC practices simultaneously, why this is the case, and what the empirical implications are. Our research directly relates to the systems approach to contingency theory and the literature’s struggle to clearly define its most fundamental concept, i.e., “internal consistency”. Our analysis provides a formal definition of “internal consistency” and shows how it can be used to conceptualize MC systems, thereby giving contingency theorists the necessary ingredient to move forward.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
The contingency theory of management accounting and control: 1980–2014
TL;DR: It is suggested that the narrow view of contingency that relies on responses to generally applicable questionnaires needs to be replaced by a more tailored approach that takes into account the context of specific organizations.
Journal ArticleDOI
The role of innovation in the evolution of management accounting and its integration into management control
Robert H. Chenhall,Frank Moers +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how management accounting has evolved from a traditional, cybernetic approach to control operating within a closed system with little attention to adaptive processes into MCS that encompass a more dynamic, complex, open approach to management control that has provided a basis to facilitate innovation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Management control effectiveness and strategy: An empirical analysis of packages and systems
TL;DR: Using data from a survey of top managers the analysis reveals that there are multiple ways by which firms can effectively combine MC practices in a given strategic context and shows that not all MC practices found to be relevant in isolation are relevant when examined simultaneously as a package.
Journal ArticleDOI
Configurations of control: An exploratory analysis
David S. Bedford,Teemu Malmi +1 more
TL;DR: From a cross-sectional sample of 400 firms, this study presents an empirically derived taxonomy of five control configurations used by top managers, labelled as simple, results, action, devolved, and hybrid.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Levers of Control Framework: An exploratory analysis of balance
TL;DR: By identifying empirical manifestations of balance, this study sheds light on one of the key concepts in the LOC framework, providing an empirically informed starting point for future theoretical analysis and interpretation.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Management control systems design within its organizational context: findings from contingency-based research and directions for the future
TL;DR: Contingency-based research has a long tradition in the study of management control systems (MCS), and researchers have attempted to explain the effectiveness of MCS by examining designs that best suit the nature of the environment, technology, size, structure, strategy and national culture.
Posted Content
The Economics of Modern Manufacturing: Technology, Strategy, and Organization
Paul Milgrom,John Roberts +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a model of a flexible multiproduct firm that emphasizes quality and speedy response to market conditions while utilizing technologically advanced equipment and new forms of organization.
Journal ArticleDOI
Complementarities and fit strategy, structure, and organizational change in manufacturing
Paul Milgrom,John Roberts +1 more
TL;DR: The theories of supermodular optimization and games provide a framework for the analysis of systems marked by complementarity and are used to analyze the characteristic features of the Lincoln Electric Company's strategy and structure.
Journal ArticleDOI
In Search of Complementarity in Innovation Strategy: Internal R&D and External Knowledge Acquisition
TL;DR: This paper uses a productivity and an adoption approach, while including a search for contextual variables in the firms strategy that affects complementarity, to analyze complementarity between innovation activities: internal research and development (R&D) and external knowledge acquisition.
Journal ArticleDOI
Alternative forms of fit in contingency theory.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the selection, interaction, and systems approaches to fit in structural contingency theory and empirically examined as related to a taskcontingency theory of work-unit design in 629 employment security units in California and Wisconsin.
Related Papers (5)
Management control systems as a package—Opportunities, challenges and research directions
Teemu Malmi,David Brown +1 more
The design and use of performance management systems: An extended framework for analysis
Aldónio Ferreira,David Otley +1 more