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This study aims to analyse the influence of digitalisation on the management control function of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In particular, it aims to illuminate how digitalisation influences management control elements, organisation and roles/competencies and to identify obstacles to digitalisation of management control in SMEs and measures taken to overcome them.

The study is based on guideline-supported expert interviews conducted with 14 financial managers from SMEs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

This study reveals the influence of digitalisation on management control elements, organisation, and roles/competencies. The automation and standardisation of management control processes result in new elements for management control, such as strategic support for management. In addition, the increased availability and transparency of data enable the use of instruments within a company that allow for quick analyses of the company's development. Digitalisation leads to the integration of management control into the corporate network and, thus, a change in the organisation of management control. It also triggers the expansion of management control competencies, especially IT competencies. A shortage of internal digitalisation resources, unclear corporate roadmaps, and a lack of managerial experience loom as central challenges for digitalising the management control function. Measures derived from the interviews can help SMEs overcome the obstacles to the digitalisation of management control.

This research is the first interview-based study of the impact of digitalisation on management control in SMEs, potential obstacles to that digitalisation, and measures to overcome those obstacles. Thus, it contributes to the emerging debate on factors that may explain why SMEs lag in terms of the digitalisation of their internal processes.

This study aims to investigate the influences on the digitalization of management control and the effects of this digitalization on management control tasks performed, management control instruments used and the organization of management control.

This empirical analysis is based on a survey of 189 management accountants and managers responsible for management control in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Logistic regression analyses were used to test the investigated effects.

This study finds that digital competencies, standardization of processes and data management contribute to the digitalization of management control. This study further finds that digitalization significantly increases the coverage of strategic and operational management control tasks and the use of operational management control instruments but not of strategic instruments.

This study investigates the influence of digitalization in management control on strategic and operational management control tasks, instruments and organizations. In contrast, prior research has focused on single aspects of management control or analyzed the impact on the entire company. This is also the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to systematically identify potential influences on the digitalization of management control and analyze them empirically.

This study investigates the association between family firm status and the maturity level of management control systems (MCSs) by considering the moderating effect of process digitalization.

The authors conducted an empirical analysis on a sample of 106 Italian firms, utilizing both ordinary least squares and ordered logistic regression in this study.

By resorting to the MCS maturity model proposed by Marx et al. (2012), the empirical findings reveal that family firms do not differ from their nonfamily counterparts regarding MCS maturity. Furthermore, the degree of process digitalization is positively associated with the probability of adopting IT-related technologies in MCSs. Digitalization negatively moderates the relationship between family firm status and MCS maturity, resulting in family firms exhibiting a lower MCS maturity level than their nonfamily counterparts.

Despite similar efforts in the digitalization process, family firms lag behind in the adoption of IT-enabled MCSs, which suggests that reduced agency issues in family firms constrain the MCS maturity level.

This study can assist practitioners in implementing a more mature MCS by considering the interplay between internal digitalization processes and family status of the firm, thereby enhancing the decision-making process.

This study adds novelty to an underexplored area at the intersection of MCSs, family firms and digitalization.

In developing countries, how risk management technologies influence management accounting and control (MAC) practices is under-researched. By drawing on insights from institutional studies, this study aims to examine the multiple institutional pressures surrounding an entity and influencing its risk-based management control (RBC) system – that is, how RBC appears in an emerging market attributed to institutional multiplicity.

The authors used qualitative case study research methods to collect empirical evidence from a privately owned Egyptian insurance company.

The authors observed that in the transformation to risk-based controls, especially in socio-political settings such as Egypt, changes in MAC systems were consistent with the shifts in the institutional context. Along with changes in the institutional environment, the case company sought to configure its MAC system to be more risk-based to achieve its strategic goals effectively and maintain its sustainability.

This research provides a fuller view of risk-based management controls based on the social, professional and political perspectives central to the examined institutional environment. Moreover, unlike early studies that reported resistance to RBC, this case reveals the institutional dynamics contributing to the successful implementation of RBC in an emerging market.

This paper aims to propose an interpretive framework to understand how machine learning (ML) affects the way companies interact with their ecosystem and how the introduction of digital technologies affects the value co-creation (VCC) process.

This study bases on configuration theory, which entails two main methodological phases. In the first phase the authors define the theoretically-derived interpretive framework through a literature review. In the second phase the authors adopt a case study methodology to inductively analyze the theoretically-derived domains and their relationships within a configuration.

ML enables multi-directional knowledge flows among value co-creators and expands the scope of VCC beyond the boundaries of the firm-client relationship. However, it determines a substantive imbalance in knowledge management power among the actors involved in VCC. ML positively impacts value co-creators’ performance but also requires significant organizational changes. To benefit from VCC via ML, value co-creators must be aligned in terms of digital maturity.

The paper answers the call for more theoretical and empirical research on the impact of the introduction of Industry 4.0 technology in companies and their ecosystem. It intends to improve the understanding of how ML technology affects the determinants and the process of VCC by providing both a static and dynamic analysis of the topic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many organisations to transform face-to-face teams into virtual ones through the adoption of remote working modes. This event has represented the starting point of a process that is changing how management control (MC) systems are designed and implemented to guide employees towards organisational objectives. The previous literature on virtual teams (VTs) has devoted scant attention to MC issues. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring how MC – and particularly cultural control – has changed to cope with the shift from face-to-face to VTs and by analysing the interrelationship between the different control mechanisms and the resulting tensions.

The research adopts the methodological framework based on abduction to provide a theoretical explanation and conceptualisation of MC in virtual settings. To tackle the research objective, this work undertakes a cross-sectional field study based on semi-structured interviews with managers of different service companies.

The results of the research highlight the key challenges that managers are called to deal with to design and change MC systems when implementing remote working. In particular, managers must cope with the reduced possibility to leverage cultural controls. To do this, this study’s analysis found that managers act by introducing and/or removing formal and informal controls and by orchestrating the interplays and tensions between these mechanisms.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, to date limited attention has been paid to MC in VTs. Moreover, few researchers have investigated the process of MC change from face-to-face to VTs. This work aims to contribute to this nascent stream of literature by providing interesting implications for both research and practice.

This paper aims to investigate the law and logic mechanism of management control matching pattern and company strategy aggressiveness under different strategies by textual analysis, based on the empirical data of Chinese A-share listed companies during the period from 2010 to 2018. Additional analyses further investigate the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty and R&D intensity on the relationship between management control matching type and strategy aggressiveness. The conclusion can help relevant departments to develop management control theory and method system with Chinese characteristics and provide theoretical reference for the matching mode of dual control.

This paper uses the text analysis method. The main explanatory variables are analyzed using the computer SQL Server database software through the relevant text of the board of directors report in the company annual report. Other financial data came from the CSMAR database, excluding ST and PT and companies with missing data, and 16,902 samples were finally obtained. This paper conducted statistical analysis through Stata12.

This paper shows that the matching pattern between formal and informal control is divided into three types. They have different impacts on strategy aggressiveness. Specifically, consistent matching type II significantly positively influences the aggressiveness of offensive strategy. Consistent matching type I significantly positively influences the aggressiveness of defensive strategy. Complementary matching type I significantly positively influences the aggressiveness of analytical strategy. Additional analyses find that compared with non-high-tech companies, high-tech companies have more significant influence on the relationship between management control matching pattern and company strategic aggressiveness. And compared with other two “strategy-control” matching patterns, both environmental uncertainty and product innovation have more significant influence on the relationship between consistent matching II and offensive strategy aggressiveness.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper divides the formal and informal control matching patterns of management control into three categories for the first time. It examines the relationship between the formal and informal control matching of management accounting and the degree of strategy aggressiveness. The conclusion provides new empirical evidence to promote the effective implementation of development strategies for companies. It can help relevant departments to develop management control theory and method systems with Chinese characteristics and provide theoretical references for the matching mode of dual control.

Given its ability to improve user interaction and labor productivity, ease human workloads and cut maintenance costs, public sectors are using AI-based robotic technology (AI-RT) at an accelerated rate. There is, however, little knowledge about the variables affecting citizens' participation when services backed by AI-RT are offered. In order to better understand the elements that influence AI-RT citizens' involvement and the moderating function of trusts in governmental organizations, this article draws on ideas from the Consumer Value Theory.

Out of 500 survey forms that were distributed to Indonesian people who had experience in using AI-RT devices in public service hall (e.g. airport’s Auto Gate), 367 returned the completed feedbacks. Data analysis used a step-by-step hierarchical moderated regression examination using SPSS 24 version.

Citizens’ involvement is positively correlated with esthetics and customization and adversely correlated with period expended using the AI-RT. Additionally, the findings imply that citizens who have greater levels of faith in governmental institutions are more likely to benefit favorably from the customization and esthetics of AI-RT.

The AI-RT must be capable of customizing the distribution of the appropriate materials to the appropriate individual at the appropriate moment, and public managers should guarantee that it is esthetically pleasing. Additionally, they ought to place a high priority on winning the trust of the populace in order to increase citizens’ involvement.

This paper was among the initial efforts that discover the determinants of citizens’ involvement in the AI-RT and the moderating effect of trusts in governmental organizations on the links between predictors and predicted variable, especially in an emerging country such as Indonesia.

This paper aims to identify digitally reflective employees as facilitators of digital work characteristics.

This conceptual paper focuses on developing a general micro-theoretical framework that clarifies digital reflection (DR). It integrates theoretical and empirical accounts from different management viewpoints on DR into one general micro-theoretical framework.

This research defines DR as an individual’s tendency to consider how digital work characteristics affect them and their organization.

The results indicate that firms wishing to introduce or maintain new digital work characteristics that positively impact human resources may profit from involving and promoting DR in the work design and human resources management processes.

This paper describes a DR framework that can help scholars and managers understand the mediating role of DR in the relationship between digital work characteristics and individual results.

Este documento identifica a los empleados digitalmente reflexivos como facilitadores de las características del trabajo digital.

Este documento conceptual se centra en el desarrollo de un marco micro-teórico general que aclara la reflexión digital. Integra relatos teóricos y empíricos desde diferentes puntos de vista de gestión sobre la reflexión digital en un marco micro-teórico general.

Esta investigación define la reflexión digital como la tendencia de un individuo a considerar cómo las características del trabajo digital los afectan a ellos y a su organización.

Este documento describe un marco de reflexión digital que puede ayudar a los académicos y gerentes a comprender el papel mediador de la reflexión digital en la relación entre las características del trabajo digital y los resultados individuales.

Los resultados indican que las empresas que deseen introducir o mantener nuevas características de trabajo digital que impacten positivamente en los recursos humanos pueden beneficiarse al involucrar y promover la reflexión digital en el diseño del trabajo y los procesos de gestión de recursos humanos.

Este documento identifica funcionários digitalmente reflexivos como facilitadores de características de trabalho digital.

Este documento conceitual se concentra no desenvolvimento de uma estrutura microteórica geral que esclarece o pensamento digital. Ele integra relatos teóricos e empíricos de diferentes pontos de vista de gestão sobre a reflexão digital em um quadro micro-teórico geral.

Esta pesquisa define a reflexão digital como a tendência de um indivíduo para considerar como as características do trabalho digital os afetam e sua organização.

Este documento descreve uma estrutura de reflexão digital que pode ajudar acadêmicos e gerentes a entender o papel mediador da reflexão digital na relação entre as características do trabalho digital e os resultados individuais.

Os resultados indicam que as empresas que desejam introduzir ou manter novos recursos de trabalho digital que impactam positivamente o RH podem se beneficiar do envolvimento e promoção do pensamento digital no design do trabalho e nos processos de gerenciamento de RH.