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The study builds on existing research in management control (MC) and innovation management. The purpose of this study is to identify patterns in the application of MC instruments which contribute to successful innovation. The application of MC instruments can reduce potential risks and make the new product development (NPD) process more transparent and efficient.

The authors use dyadic data to determine the effect of 58 MC instruments on NPD process stage-specific performance and subsequent innovation and firm success. To provide empirical evidence of each MC instrument’s effectiveness, three importance-performance matrix analyses were conducted that assess the impact of each MC instrument.

The authors identify patterns in the application of MC instruments which contribute to successful innovation activities and the authors determine the impact of MC instruments on NPD performance, innovation performance and firm performance in different stages of the NPD process.

The authors provide knowledge that can be used by managers to review their actual application of MC in the NPD process and to select their instrument set.

The authors contribute to the MC literature by examining data from a cross-industry study on the effects of MC instruments during the NPD process. The authors include a comprehensive set of MC instruments and show how their effect changes between the different stages of the NPD process.

The number of theoretical and empirical research on management control of innovation activities has significantly increased. Existing studies in this field are characterized by a wide dispersion and a multitude of different definitions. The purpose of this article is to provide a systematic review of the literature on management control of innovation activities and to synthesize the current body of knowledge.

Following a systematic review approach, this article reviews 79 articles on management control for innovation activities from 1959 to 2019 and inductively derives a multi-dimensional framework.

The review of existing studies advances the debate about the detrimental versus beneficial character of management control systems for innovation, showing that the repressing character of control is not inherent to control itself, but emanates from the design of the respective management control system.

The multi-dimensional framework connects and combines existing research and thus synthesizes the current state of knowledge in this field. Additionally, the framework can guide practitioners to systematically assess context factors and consequences of their management control systems design, and it shows avenues for future research.

The scientific and practical value of this paper is the convergence of the current body of knowledge consisting of various definitions and conceptualizations and the identification of avenues for future research.