IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aosoci/v86y2020ics0361368220300714.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conceptual and empirical issues in understanding management control combinations

Author

Listed:
  • Bedford, David S.

Abstract

This paper discusses several conceptual and empirical issues related to understanding combinations of management control (MC) practices. First, the paper clarifies the meaning of the two main perspectives for investigating MC combinations – MC packages and MC systems. Second, the paper considers how researchers can improve theory development concerning the effects of MC combinations by explicating the causal mechanisms through which they arise. Third, the paper discusses whether loose coupling provides an informative perspective for understanding MC combinations, particularly in relation to how organizations adapt MC practices to contextual changes. Finally, the paper comments on the main empirical approaches for investigating MC combinations. Recent studies, especially those in this special issue, are drawn upon to illustrate how these issues relate to MC research.

Suggested Citation

  • Bedford, David S., 2020. "Conceptual and empirical issues in understanding management control combinations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:86:y:2020:i:c:s0361368220300714
    DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2020.101187
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368220300714
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.aos.2020.101187?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. Jan W. Rivkin & Nicolaj Siggelkow, 2003. "Balancing Search and Stability: Interdependencies Among Elements of Organizational Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(3), pages 290-311, March.
    2. repec:pup:chapts:9889-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Schedlinsky, Ivo & Schmidt, Maximilian & Wöhrmann, Arnt, 2020. "Interaction of information and control systems: How the perception of behavior control affects the motivational effect of relative performance information," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Masschelein, Stijn & Moers, Frank, 2020. "Testing for complementarities between accounting practices," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Margaret A. Abernethy & Henri C. Dekker & Axel K‐D. Schulz, 2015. "Are Employee Selection and Incentive Contracts Complements or Substitutes?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 633-668, September.
    6. 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.
    7. Choi, Jongwoon (Willie), 2020. "Studying “and”: A perspective on studying the interdependence between management control practices," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Mats Alvesson & Lars Lindkvist, 1993. "Transaction Costs, Clans And Corporate Culture," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 427-452, May.
    9. 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.
    10. Gerdin, Jonas & Johansson, Tobias & Wennblom, Gabriella, 2019. "The contingent nature of complementarity between results and value-based controls for managing company-level profitability: A situational strength perspective," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Speckbacher, Gerhard & Wabnegg, Markus, 2020. "Incentivizing innovation: The role of knowledge exchange and distal search behavior," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    12. Erik Brynjolfsson & Paul Milgrom, 2012. "Complementarity in Organizations [The Handbook of Organizational Economics]," Introductory Chapters,, Princeton University Press.
    13. 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.
    14. Stephen K. Kim & Amrit Tiwana, 2016. "Chicken or egg? Sequential complementarity among salesforce control mechanisms," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 316-333, May.
    15. Robert Gibbons & John Roberts, 2012. "The Handbook of Organizational Economics," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 9889.
    16. Danny Miller, 1986. "Configurations of strategy and structure: Towards a synthesis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(3), pages 233-249, May.
    17. Daniel A. Levinthal, 1997. "Adaptation on Rugged Landscapes," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(7), pages 934-950, July.
    18. 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.
    19. Mundy, Julia, 2010. "Creating dynamic tensions through a balanced use of management control systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 499-523, July.
    20. Demartini, Maria Chiara & Otley, David, 2020. "Beyond the system vs. package dualism in Performance Management Systems design: A loose coupling approach," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    21. Bedford, David S. & Bisbe, Josep & Sweeney, Breda, 2019. "Performance measurement systems as generators of cognitive conflict in ambidextrous firms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 21-37.
    22. Henri, Jean-François & Wouters, Marc, 2020. "Interdependence of management control practices for product innovation: The influence of environmental unpredictability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    23. Lill, Jeremy B., 2020. "When the Boss is far away and there is shared pay: The effect of monitoring distance and compensation interdependence on performance misreporting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    24. Nils Stieglitz & Klaus Heine, 2007. "Innovations and the role of complementarities in a strategic theory of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 1-15, January.
    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. Merchant, Kenneth A. & Otley, David, 2020. "Beyond the systems versus package debate," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    2. Bénet, Nathalie & Deville, Aude & Raïes, Karine & Valette-Florence, Pierre, 2022. "Turning non-financial performance measurements into financial performance: The usefulness of front-office staff incentive systems in hotels," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 317-327.
    3. Deore, Aishwarrya & Gallani, Susanna & Krishnan, Ranjani, 2023. "The effect of systems of management controls on honesty in managerial reporting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    4. Bedford, David S. & Speklé, Roland F. & Widener, Sally K., 2022. "Budgeting and employee stress in times of crisis: Evidence from the Covid-19 pandemic," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    5. François Meyssonnier & Nadim Tarafi & Dominique Barbelivien, 2021. "Le couplage de l’évaluation des managers et du contrôle de gestion dans les systèmes globaux de pilotage de la performance," Post-Print hal-03361386, HAL.
    6. Manthei, Kathrin & Sliwka, Dirk & Vogelsang, Timo, 2021. "Information Provision, Incentives, and Attention: A Field Experiment on Facilitating and Influencing Managers' Decisions," IZA Discussion Papers 14199, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Choi, Jongwoon (Willie), 2020. "Studying “and”: A perspective on studying the interdependence between management control practices," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).

    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. Chen, Clara Xiaoling & Lill, Jeremy B. & Lucianetti, Lorenzo, 2023. "Performance measurement system diversity and product innovation: Evidence from longitudinal survey data," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    2. 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.
    3. Masschelein, Stijn & Moers, Frank, 2020. "Testing for complementarities between accounting practices," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Gerdin, Jonas & Johansson, Tobias & Wennblom, Gabriella, 2019. "The contingent nature of complementarity between results and value-based controls for managing company-level profitability: A situational strength perspective," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Speklé, Roland F. & Widener, Sally K., 2020. "Insights on the use of surveys to study management control systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    6. Teemu Malmi & David S. Bedford & Rolf Brühl & Johan Dergård & Sophie Hoozée & Otto Janschek & Jeanette Willert, 2022. "The use of management controls in different cultural regions: an empirical study of Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and Nordic practices," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 273-334, September.
    7. Stefanie Einhorn & Bernhard Fietz & Thomas W. Guenther & Edeltraud Guenther, 2024. "The relationship of organizational culture with management control systems and environmental management control systems," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(8), pages 2321-2371, August.
    8. Konstantin Flassak & Julia Haag & Christian Hofmann & Christopher Lechner & Nina Schwaiger & Rafael Zacherl, 2023. "Working from home and management controls," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 193-228, January.
    9. Abernethy, Margaret A. & Anderson, Shannon W. & Nair, Sujay & Jiang, Yile (Anson), 2021. "Manager ‘growth mindset’ and resource management practices," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. 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.
    11. Braumann, Evelyn C. & Grabner, Isabella & Posch, Arthur, 2020. "Tone from the top in risk management: A complementarity perspective on how control systems influence risk awareness," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    12. Simone A. Schweiger & Tatiana R. Stettler & Artur Baldauf & César Zamudio, 2019. "The complementarity of strategic orientations: A meta‐analytic synthesis and theory extension," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(11), pages 1822-1851, November.
    13. Bellora-Bienengräber, Lucia & Derfuss, Klaus & Endrikat, Jan, 2023. "Taking stock of research on the levers of control with meta-analytic methods: Stylized facts and boundary conditions," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    14. Bedford, David & Bisbe, Josep & Sweeney, Breda, 2022. "Enhancing external knowledge search: The influence of performance measurement system design on the absorptive capacity of top management teams," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    15. Demartini, Maria Chiara & Otley, David, 2020. "Beyond the system vs. package dualism in Performance Management Systems design: A loose coupling approach," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    16. Nuraddeen Abubakar Nuhu & Kevin Baird & Sophia Su, 2022. "The association between the interactive and diagnostic use of financial and non-financial performance measures with individual creativity: The mediating role of perceived fairness," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 371-402, September.
    17. Chenhall, Robert H. & Moers, Frank, 2015. "The role of innovation in the evolution of management accounting and its integration into management control," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-13.
    18. Thomas Gackstatter & Benedikt Müller-Stewens & Klaus Möller, 2019. "Effective accounting processes: the role of formal and informal controls," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 131-152, July.
    19. Deore, Aishwarrya & Gallani, Susanna & Krishnan, Ranjani, 2023. "The effect of systems of management controls on honesty in managerial reporting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    20. Ossi Pesämaa, 2017. "Personnel- and action control in gazelle companies in Sweden," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 107-132, February.

    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:86:y:2020:i:c:s0361368220300714. 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.