Management control systems

This chapter is focused on a fundamental theoretical approach to management control system research, the contingency theory. Reviewing the most prominent research works over the past 30 years, the main insights on the relationships between contingency factors and the appropriate design of MCS are illustrated and discussed. In particular, this chapter assumes the conventional view that considers MCS as passive tools designed to support managerial decision-making and summarizes the effects of endogenous and exogenous variables on the design of MCS and firm's performance for the achievement of equilibrium conditions.