Management Control Systems and Strategy: Trends, Gaps and Opportunities for Future Research

Abstract

The relationship between management control systems and strategy is widely researched with varied conceptualization of the relationship and diverse range of theories, methods, and contexts. This paper is an analytical review of literature aimed at documenting an understanding of the relationship between management control systems and strategies to comprehend existing knowledge, identify gaps, and sketch future research directions. Articles were located using keywords from the Scopus database and Google Scholar search engine for the period from 1997 to 2022. The review was conducted by classifying studies in the research context, theory, research approach with its paradigm, and understanding of the relationship between management control system and strategy. After classification, the contributions of research to the field and the lessons learned from these studies are discussed. The findings revealed that prior research mainly focused on the business sector of the developed market context, mainly illuminated by contingency and institutional theories, philosophical divides of realism and interpretivism, and most of them assume a one-directional relationship between management control systems and strategy. The findings imply that further study can enhance understanding by researching in a different context, using robust alternative theories, a critical realist view of mixed methods research, and a bidirectional conceptualization of the relationship between Management control systems and Strategy.