Strategy implementation through hierarchical couplings in a management control package: an explorative case study

Berend Van der Kolk () and Tom Schokker
Additional contact information
Berend Van der Kolk: University of Groningen
Tom Schokker: University of Groningen

Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, 2016, vol. 27, issue 2, No 2, 129-154

Abstract: Abstract We examine how couplings of management control (MC) elements help to implement an organization’s strategy. Despite prior research stating that couplings between MC elements form a fruitful soil for further research, empirical studies in this area are still scarce. We draw on coupling theory to explore three hierarchical relations between MC elements, and examine how these couplings help to implement the organization’s strategy. We conducted a single case study in a medium-sized Dutch municipality, using interviews, observations and desk research. We identified three different types of couplings which yielded different effects, but were all distinctively helpful in implementing particular parts of the organization’s strategy. This study contributes to the MC literature by demonstrating how coupling theory can be operationalized to examine relations between MC elements in an MC package, and by showing how various hierarchical couplings can help to implement an organization’s strategy.

Keywords: Package; Coupling; Hierarchy; Municipality; Public sector; Strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H83 M19 M40 M41 M48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00187-015-0226-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jmgtco:v:27:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s00187-015-0226-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/187

DOI: 10.1007/s00187-015-0226-x

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung is currently edited by Thomas Günther

More articles in Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().