Terminological distinctions of ‘control’: a review of the implications for management control research in the context of innovation

Andrea Fried ()
Additional contact information
Andrea Fried: Linköping University

Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, 2017, vol. 28, issue 1, No 2, 5-40

Abstract: Abstract The article reviews the terminological distinctions (e.g. action and result control, interactive and diagnostic control) used for control in twenty-five empirical studies on management control in the context of innovation. The terminological distinctions are classed in three categorizations. These are (a) the types of managerial control, (b) the design and use mode of managerial control instruments and (c) the enabling and constraining character of managerial control instruments. By analyzing the categorizations, it becomes evident that there are two, almost independent ontological streams shaping the empirical field: the determinist perspective and the voluntarist perspective of management control with different understandings of contingency. The ‘ideal fit’ approach to contingency of the determinist perspective adds little cumulative knowledge to the field of management control in the context of innovation. Therefore, the article suggests to strengthen the voluntarist perspective and to develop a ‘quasi fit’ interpretation of contingency. The agenda for prospective research in management control in the context of innovation includes to investigate deviant and repair behavior related to management control systems (MCS) in innovating activities, to understand MCS as dependent as well as independent variable and to explore the role of MCS in economizing innovative activities.

Keywords: Contingency perspective; Determinism; Distinction; Innovation; Management control; Use mode; Voluntarism; Deviance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M10 M40 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00187-016-0240-7 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:28:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s00187-016-0240-7

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

DOI: 10.1007/s00187-016-0240-7

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 ().