IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aosoci/v45y2015icp24-39.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Management control system design, ownership, and performance in professional service organisations

Author

Listed:
  • King, Robyn
  • Clarkson, Peter

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the implications for organisational performance of the interplay between ownership and management control system design in professional service organisations. Based on transaction cost economic (TCE) theory, we expect that low ownership by professionals working in a professional services organisation will be more efficiently managed with a boundary MCS archetype and high ownership by an exploratory MCS archetype. Of direct relevance, we predict that a failure to conform to these optimal archetypes will manifest in relatively poorer performance. The study was conducted based on a survey of 120 practice managers of primary healthcare organisations in Australia. These results provide empirical support for the stated prediction.

Suggested Citation

  • King, Robyn & Clarkson, Peter, 2015. "Management control system design, ownership, and performance in professional service organisations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 24-39.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:45:y:2015:i:c:p:24-39
    DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2015.06.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368215000707
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.aos.2015.06.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerdin, Jonas & Greve, Jan, 2004. "Forms of contingency fit in management accounting research--a critical review," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 303-326.
    2. Govindarajan, V. & Gupta, Anil K., 1985. "Linking control systems to business unit strategy: impact on performance," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 51-66, January.
    3. Ittner, Christopher D. & Larcker, David F., 2001. "Assessing empirical research in managerial accounting: a value-based management perspective," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 349-410, December.
    4. Gordon, Lawrence A. & Narayanan, V. K., 1984. "Management accounting systems, perceived environmental uncertainty and organization structure: An empirical investigation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 33-47, January.
    5. Gregory G. Dess & Richard B. Robinson, 1984. "Measuring organizational performance in the absence of objective measures: The case of the privately‐held firm and conglomerate business unit," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(3), pages 265-273, July.
    6. Widener, Sally K., 2004. "An empirical investigation of the relation between the use of strategic human capital and the design of the management control system," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 377-399.
    7. Karen Eggleston & Yu‐Chu Shen & Joseph Lau & Christopher H. Schmid & Jia Chan, 2008. "Hospital ownership and quality of care: what explains the different results in the literature?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(12), pages 1345-1362, December.
    8. Grabner, Isabella & Moers, Frank, 2013. "Management control as a system or a package? Conceptual and empirical issues," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 407-419.
    9. Lawrence P. Casalino & Kelly Devers & Timothy K. Lake & Marie C. Reed & Jeffrey Stoddard, "undated". "Benefits of and Barriers to Large Medical Group Practice in the United States," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 39db1df53fdf468981a529c95, Mathematica Policy Research.
    10. Ittner, Christopher D. & Larcker, David F. & Pizzini, Mina, 2007. "Performance-based compensation in member-owned firms: An examination of medical group practices," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 300-327, December.
    11. David F. Larcker & Tjomme O. Rusticus, 2007. "Endogeneity and Empirical Accounting Research," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 207-215.
    12. Martin Gaynor & Paul Gertler, 1995. "Moral Hazard and Risk Spreading in Partnerships," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(4), pages 591-613, Winter.
    13. Thomas C. Powell, 1995. "Total quality management as competitive advantage: A review and empirical study," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 15-37.
    14. Macher Jeffrey T & Richman Barak D, 2008. "Transaction Cost Economics: An Assessment of Empirical Research in the Social Sciences," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-65, May.
    15. Widener, Sally K., 2007. "An empirical analysis of the levers of control framework," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(7-8), pages 757-788.
    16. Gerdin, Jonas, 2005. "Management accounting system design in manufacturing departments: an empirical investigation using a multiple contingencies approach," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 99-126, February.
    17. repec:mpr:mprres:3658 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Separation of Ownership and Control," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 301-325, June.
    19. N. Venkatraman & John E. Prescott, 1990. "Environment‐strategy coalignment: An empirical test of its performance implications," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(1), pages 1-23, January.
    20. Macher, Jeffrey T. & Richman, Barak D., 2008. "Transaction Cost Economics: An Assessment of Empirical Research in the Social Sciences," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(1), pages 1-63, April.
    21. Van der Stede, Wim A. & Young, S. Mark & Chen, Clara Xiaoling, 2005. "Assessing the quality of evidence in empirical management accounting research: The case of survey studies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(7-8), pages 655-684.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maleen Z. Gong & Nava Subramaniam, 2020. "Principal leadership style and school performance: mediating roles of risk management culture and management control systems use in Australian schools," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 2427-2466, September.
    2. Bedford, David S. & Malmi, Teemu & Sandelin, Mikko, 2016. "Management control effectiveness and strategy: An empirical analysis of packages and systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 12-28.
    3. Reusen, Evelien & Stouthuysen, Kristof, 2017. "Misaligned control: The role of management control system imitation in supply chains," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 22-35.
    4. Marialuisa Saviano & Clara Bassano & Paolo Piciocchi & Primiano Di Nauta & Mattia Lettieri, 2018. "Monitoring Viability and Sustainability in Healthcare Organizations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-23, October.
    5. Samagaio, António & Crespo, Nuno Fernandes & Rodrigues, Ricardo, 2018. "Management control systems in high-tech start-ups: An empirical investigation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 351-360.
    6. Iryna Alves & Sofia M. Lourenço, 2022. "The use of non-financial performance measures for managerial compensation: evidence from SMEs," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 151-187, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bedford, David S. & Malmi, Teemu & Sandelin, Mikko, 2016. "Management control effectiveness and strategy: An empirical analysis of packages and systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 12-28.
    2. David Bedford & Mikko Sandelin, 2015. "Investigating management control configurations using qualitative comparative analysis: an overview and guidelines for application," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 5-26, April.
    3. Erhart, Raphaela & Mahlendorf, Matthias D. & Reimer, Marko & Schäffer, Utz, 2017. "Theorizing and testing bidirectional effects: The relationship between strategy formation and involvement of controllers," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 36-52.
    4. Stefanie Einhorn & Xaver Heinicke & Thomas W. Guenther, 2021. "Management control packages in family businesses: a configurational approach," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(4), pages 433-478, May.
    5. Cadez, Simon & Guilding, Chris, 2008. "An exploratory investigation of an integrated contingency model of strategic management accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(7-8), pages 836-863.
    6. Marc Janka & Xaver Heinicke & Thomas W. Guenther, 2020. "Beyond the “good” and “evil” of stability values in organizational culture for managerial innovation: the crucial role of management controls," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(6), pages 1363-1404, December.
    7. Greve, Jan & Ax, Christian & Bedford, David S. & Bednarek, Piotr & Brühl, Rolf & Dergård, Johan & Ditillo, Angelo & Dossi, Andrea & Gosselin, Maurice & Hoozée, Sophie & Israelsen, Poul & Janschek, Ott, 2017. "The impact of society on management control systems," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 253-266.
    8. Bhimani, Alnoor & Sivabalan, Prabhu & Soonawalla, Kazbi, 2018. "A study of the linkages between rolling budget forms, uncertainty and strategy," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 306-323.
    9. Johansson, Tobias, 2018. "Testing for control system interdependence with structural equation modeling: Conceptual developments and evidence on the levers of control framework," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 47-62.
    10. Lindawati Gani & Johnny Jermias, 2012. "The Effects of Strategy–Management Control System Misfits on Firm Performance," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(3), pages 165-196, September.
    11. Kaveh Asiaei & Ruzita Jusoh & Omid Barani & Arash Asiaei, 2022. "How does green intellectual capital boost performance? The mediating role of environmental performance measurement systems," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1587-1606, May.
    12. Christoph Feichter & Isabella Grabner, 2020. "Empirische Forschung zu Management Control – Ein Überblick und neue Trends [Empirical Management Control Reserach—An Overview and Future Directions]," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 72(2), pages 149-181, June.
    13. Iryna Alves & Sofia M. Lourenço, 2022. "The use of non-financial performance measures for managerial compensation: evidence from SMEs," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 151-187, June.
    14. van Veen-Dirks, Paula, 2010. "Different uses of performance measures: The evaluation versus reward of production managers," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 141-164, February.
    15. Adel Elgharbawy & Magdy Abdel-Kader, 2013. "Enterprise governance and value-based management: a theoretical contingency framework," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(1), pages 99-129, February.
    16. Müller-Stewens, Benedikt & Widener, Sally K. & Möller, Klaus & Steinmann, Jan-Christoph, 2020. "The role of diagnostic and interactive control uses in innovation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    17. Sebastian Goebel & Barbara E. Weißenberger, 2017. "Effects of management control mechanisms: towards a more comprehensive analysis," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 185-219, February.
    18. Artz, Martin & Homburg, Christian & Rajab, Thomas, 2012. "Performance-measurement system design and functional strategic decision influence: The role of performance-measure properties," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 445-460.
    19. Thomas Borup Kristensen & Henrik Nielsen, 2020. "Configuring a profile-deviation-analysis to statistical test complementarity effects from balanced management control systems in a configurational fit approach," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 439-475, February.
    20. Abdel-Kader, Magdy & Luther, Robert, 2008. "The impact of firm characteristics on management accounting practices: A UK-based empirical analysis," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 2-27.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:45:y:2015:i:c:p:24-39. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/aos .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.