Management Control: Unsolved Problems and Research Opportunities

Abstract

During the last decades the need for a better definition of the central concepts of management control has been claimed repeatedly by several authors, since the lack of clarity in this matter is an essential problem for the development and maturity of a sound theory of management control. The diversity of theories and approaches has contributed to the understanding of this complex phenomenon, although these contributions could have been more fruitful if they had shared the conceptual framework. The aim of this paper is to identify the central concepts in need of a higher degree of consensus and find out whether recent contributions have brought some insight on them. In addition, it is also expected to explore and find opportunities for future research in the same line of reasoning. After making a review of seminal and recent contributions, it is inferred that the conceptualization on the field of management control has achieved some degree of success at sharing the understanding of specific aspects, while at the same time has blurred the understanding of others. Then it is concluded that researchers on management control still need to improve their degree of agreement on three central concepts: the management control problem, the definition and description of management control mechanisms, and the scope and boundaries of management control systems. Several research paths are identified and proposed.

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