Management Control Systems: A review of literature and a theoretical framework for future researches

Abstract

The conventional perspectives of management control system (MCS) restrict MCS scope to economic rationales and merely emphasize on the single theme MCS techniques; i.e. planning, budgeting, performance measure and motivation related issues. Similarly, conventional perspective focuses on the internal processes within an organization. On the other hand, the current perspectives of MCS attempt to address the behavioral issues within and outside organizational operations. However, both perspectives fail to provide enough attention to the important central factors of MCS issues in the developing nations. The role of socio-cultural factors in MCS design and use is an emerging matter that has received less concern in the both conventional and contemporary MCS literature. In an attempt to broaden the scope of MCS functions, the paper reviews the main themes of MCS literature and offers a theoretical framework that considers the different social settings of the different nations. The theoretical framework is intended to enable us to understand the forms of MCS in the developing nations as well as developed nations. The methodology of the paper is mainly driven by theoretical reviews of MCS literature, which is hoped to be useful to reduce the research gaps of the earlier concepts.

Keywords: management control systems, literature review, theoretical framework