| 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. |
