A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Explaining the Unintended Consequences of Management Control Systems: Managerial Cognitions and Inertia in the Case of Nokia Mobile Phones
Tekijät: Malmi Teemu, Kolehmainen Katja, Granlund Markus
Kustantaja: Wiley
Julkaisuvuosi: 2023
Journal: Contemporary Accounting Research
Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimi: CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH
Lehden akronyymi: CONTEMP ACCOUNT RES
Sivujen määrä: 33
ISSN: 0823-9150
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12849
Verkko-osoite: https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12849
Rinnakkaistallenteen osoite: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/179316560
Management control systems (MCS) have been known to produce unintended, dysfunctional consequences. However, relatively little is known about how MCS can contribute to the inertia and even decline of a firm. Our analysis in the abductive mode was triggered by a surprising case study observation that although Nokia Mobile Phones (NMP) certainly had many capabilities that could have facilitated a timely response to disruptive environmental change, this did not happen. In developing an explanation for this, we draw on the managerial cognitions literature, showing how the cognitions at NMP, developed in the era of organizational success, became embedded in its MCS. This embeddedness, in turn, intensified existing cognitions. As the cognitions became less accurate over time, the once effective MCS started to cause various inertial effects, such as suboptimal and slow decision-making. We contribute to the literature on the dysfunctional consequences of MCS by theorizing how MCS can contribute to inertia via cognitions in two ways: first, by reinforcing prevailing cognitions and hence preventing management from realizing a need for change; and second, by moderating the impact cognitions have on actions by delaying actions based on renewed cognitions. Both ways may be fatal, especially in hyper-competitive contexts.
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