Summary research papers for the course 'Research in Management Control'

Table of Contents

Week 1..........................................................................................3
1.1 Introduction to management control....................................................................................................3
1.2 Ferreira, A., & Otley, D. (2009). The design and use of performance management systems: An
extended framework for analysis.................................................................................................................6
1.3 Malmi, T., & Brown, D. A. (2008). Management control systems as a package – Opportunities,
challenges and research directions..............................................................................................................8
Week 2..........................................................................................9
2.1 Introduction to management control research......................................................................................9
2.2 Tucker, B.P., Lowe, A.D. (2014). Practitioners are from Mars; academics from Venus?: An
investigation of the research-practice gap in management accounting....................................................10
2.3 Rautiainen A., Sippola K., Mättö T. (2017). Perspectives on relevance: The relevance test in the
constructive research approach.................................................................................................................11
2.4 Malmi, T., & Granlund, M. (2009). In Search of Management Accounting..........................................13
2.5 Norreklit, H. (2000). The balance on the balanced scorecard: a critical analysis of some of its
assumptions...............................................................................................................................................15
2.6 Henri, J. F. (2006). Management control systems and strategy: A resource-based perspective. .......17
2.7 Van der Kolk, B., Van Veen-Dirks, P., & Ter Bogt, H. J. (2019). The Impact of Management Control on
Employee Motivation and Performance in the Public Sector. ..................................................................18
Week 3........................................................................................20
3.1 Müller-Stewens, B., Widener, S. K., Möller, K., & Steinmann, J. C. (2020). The role of diagnostic and
interactive control uses in innovation........................................................................................................20
3.2 Pfister, J. A., & Lukka, K. (2019). Interrelation of controls for autonomous motivation: A field study of
productivity gains through pressure-induced process innovation.............................................................23
3.3 Speklé, R. F., & Verbeeten, F. H. (2014). The use of performance measurement systems in the public
sector: Effects on performance..................................................................................................................25
Week 4........................................................................................28
4.1 Jansen, E. P., Merchant, K. A. & Van der Stede, W. A. (2009), National differences in incentive
compensation practices: The differing roles of financial performance measurement in the United States
and the Netherlands..................................................................................................................................28
4.2 Malmi, T. et al. (2020), Culture and management control interdependence: An analysis of control
choices that complement the delegation of authority in Western cultural regions..................................30
4.3 Heba Y. Abdel-Rahim, Melanie P. Lorenz, Angie Abdel Zaher, (2022). How do cultural difference,
cultural exposure, and CQ affect interpretations of trust from contract choices? Evidence from dyadic
cross-country experiments.........................................................................................................................32
Week 5........................................................................................33
5.1 Curtis, E. and Sweeney, B. (2017) Managing different types of innovation: mutually reinforcing
management control systems and the generation of dynamic tension....................................................33
5.2 Bedford, D. S., Bisbe, J., & Sweeney, B. (2019). Performance measurement systems as generators of
cognitive conflict in ambidextrous firms....................................................................................................35
5.3 Goretzki, L., Strauss, E., Weber, J. (2013). An institutional perspective on the changes in
management accountants’ professional role.............................................................................................36
5.4 Janin, F. (2017). When being a partner means more: The external role of football club management
accountants................................................................................................................................................39
5.5 Horton, K. E., & de Araujo Wanderley, C. (2018). Identity conflict and the paradox of embedded
agency in the management accounting profession: Adding a new piece to the theoretical jigsaw  the
puzzle of how MA’s can change the structures that shape their behavior................................................40
Week 6........................................................................................43


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,6.1 Bedford, D. S., Derichs, D., Hoozée, S., Malmi, T., Messner, M., Sinha, V. K., Van der Kolk, B. &
Verbeeten, F. (2025). Digitalization of the finance function: Automation, analytics, and finance function
effectiveness...............................................................................................................................................43
6.2 Boerner, X., Wiener, M., & Guenther, T. W. (2025). Controllership effectiveness and digitalization:
Shedding light on the importance of business analytics capabilities and the business partner role........45




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,Week 1
1.1 Introduction to management control

Two definitions of management control (MC):

- Those systems, rules, practices, values and other activities management put in place in order
to direct employee behavior (Malmi & Brown, 2008).
- All devices or systems that managers use to ensure that the behavior and decisions of their
employees are consistent with the organization’s objectives and strategies (Merchant & Van
der Stede, 2012).

There are several categorizations of management control:

 Objects of Control (Merchant & Van der Stede, 2007)
o Results control
o Action control
o Personnel control
o Cultural control
 Levers of control (Simons, 1995)
o Belief systems
o Boundary systems
o Interactive control systems
o Diagnostic control systems
 Other categorizations  enabling (empowerment) vs. coercive (constraining, restrictive)
control, hard vs. soft control, and formal vs. informal control.

Definitions of the Objects of Control:




Which types of control practices are used in a specific company depends on two factors:

 The ability to measure outputs
 Knowledge of the transformation process



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,Typical practices that fall under results controls:

 Metrics used to measure performance inside of the organization (e.g. dashboards, balanced
scorecard).
 Performance targets of the organization (key targets communicated for an area/business
unit/department).
 Evaluation criteria for rewards (e.g. annual cash bonus is 1% of the firm’s ROI).

Potential issues when the focus is on results control:

 Performance indicators:
o Not everything that counts can be counted.
o Not everything that can be counted, counts.
 Results control:
o Suitable given objects of control framework? Can results be measured, etc.?
o Dysfunctional effects, potentially aggravated by incentives.

Characteristics of a management control system:

- With a good management control system, the firm is better able to achieve its goals.
- The most appropriate system usually depends upon certain contingent variables.

There are different contingency variables that should be taken into account when studying the design
and use of management control systems:

 External environment
 Organizational structure
 Contemporary technologies
 Technology: generic concepts
 Size
 Culture
 Strategy

Potential criticisms on contingency-based research:

- There is no contingency theory, but rather a variety of theories that explain and predict the
relationship between MCS and contextual variables (agency theory, psychology).
- Insights from alternate theories can assist in elaborating the traditional contingency-based
model, but is it then still a theory in itself?


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, Theories used in MC research:

 Agency theory
 Contingency theory
 Resource-based view theory
 Cognitive and information processing theories
 Goal-setting theory
 Self-determination theory
 Procedural and distributive justice theory

Most of these theories are behavioral oriented.




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