The Choice of Interactive Control Systems under Different Innovation Management Modes

Abstract

This paper contributes to the recent levers of control (LOC) literature on the relationships between innovation and management accounting and control systems (MACS) by emphasising the importance of the choice by which individual MACS are selected for interactive use. Using data from a survey-based study on innovation and control practices in 57 medium-sized Spanish firms, we find evidence supporting that 1) the choice of individual MACS selected for interactive use is associated to a firm's innovation management mode (IMM), and 2) the level of product innovation output is influenced by whether or not IMM and interactive MACS present similar cognitive models and whether the sophistication of the information contents provided by the interactive MACS responds to the priority needs perceived in the IMM. Our findings further indicate that similarity in patterns between IMM and MACS does not lead to a beneficial impact on the level of innovation outputs, suggesting instead that it may induce the replication of dysfunctional existing trends caused by strategic momentum regarding innovation.

Keywords: control systems, management accounting, levers of control, interactive use, innovation

JEL Classification: D83, M40, M46, O31