Description of management control practices in 10 countries - A quantitative analysis

Abstract

This study presents a quantitative analysis on the management control practices of organizations from ten countries. In addition to the description of the practices, there are two more research objectives. Firstly, it is explored whether the practices of organizations from different countries differ on a statistically significant level. Secondly, statistically significant differences in the practices between small and large organizations within the countries are examined.

The theoretical background of this study rests upon management control system research as well as studies investigating cross-national differences in management practices. The data subject to analysis is part of international research project called Effective Management and Control Systems. Statistical method utilized is one-way analysis of variance.

In addition to the accurate description of the management control practices, there are two main findings. First of all, the practices of organizations from different countries differ remarkably. A number of statistically significant differences could be found within all elements of the MCSP typology. Secondly, the number of statistically significant differences in the practices between small and large organizations, 2 000 employees as the threshold, was very low.