An empirical study on the drivers of management control systems' design in new product development

Results support the relevance of the project uncertainty and product strategy to explain the design of management control systems and show that better cost and design information has a positive association with performance, but that time information hasa negative eAect.

Abstract

New product development has changed significantly over the last decade and management control systems have played an important role in this transformation. This study draws on Galbraith's concept of uncertainty and investigates the relationship between project uncertainty, product strategy and management control systems. It also explores whether these systems help or, as argued in the innovation literature, hinder product development performance. Results support the relevance of the project uncertainty and product strategy to explain the design of management control systems. They also show that better cost and design information has a positive association with performance, but that time information has a negative effect.