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While previous studies have focused on identifying management control (MC) mechanisms in international construction joint ventures (ICJVs), the impacts of such MC mechanisms on the performance of ICJVs remain largely unknown. This study aims to investigate the impacts of MC mechanisms on the performance of ICJVs hosted in the developing country of Ghana.

Through a comprehensive review of the literature, a theoretical model was developed, and data were collected through a questionnaire survey with 190 project managers composed of Ghanaians/locals and their foreign partners of ICJVs. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Results showed that both personnel and support and training control mechanisms have a positive and significant impact on project and company/partner performance. Surprisingly, insignificant and negative impacts exist between both mechanisms and socioenvironmental and company/partner performance from the local partners' view, respectively; the reverse is rather true from the foreign partners' perspective.

This study contributes to the ICJV body of knowledge by analyzing the impacts of MC mechanisms on the ICJVs’ performance, enabling ICJVs frontliners (i.e. top managers) and project managers to better enhance their control structures and the ICJVs’ performance.

This is arguably the first study to take the bipartite perspective rather than the unilateral view of studying the impacts of MC mechanisms on the performance of ICJVs.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a meta-model that systematically aggregates and organizes research on “partner selection” in interorganizational relationships (IORs), which is scattered across several disciplines, to help future researchers explore various aspects of this control mechanism in a more consistent manner. This paper also aims at critically reviewing each aspect of this control mechanism examined in the prior literature and identifying important research trends.

This paper conducts a comprehensive review and in-depth analysis of the key theoretical and empirical research findings on partner selection in IORs by identifying 172 papers across 46 journals that specifically discuss this control mechanism. A meta-model approach is adopted to review and identify the shortcomings in extant research and provide guidance to future researchers on exploring unanswered research questions. Moreover, maps are constructed using the Luft and Shields’s (2003) approach to graphically present the causal-model forms examined in this topic area.

This meta-model shows how the research on partner selection in IORs is scattered across different disciplines, resulting in its inconsistent evolution with researchers, in many cases, not being able to effectively synthesize contributions from fields that are not their own or not closely allied. The causal-model forms also enable rapid tracing of what has been researched.

There has been considerable research on control mechanisms in IORs till date. However, “partner selection,” which is an important control mechanism, has received little attention and is often neglected. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first to develop a meta-model to consolidate knowledge on this topic that is important for further advancement of research.

This study aims to evaluate the moderating impact of corporate governance on the relationship between internal control mechanisms and financial performance.

The study employs a structured questionnaire to collect data from 250 top managers of rural banks in the capital of Ghana. Cronbach alpha value and Fornell-Larcker tests were performed to assess the reliability and validity of the data used. The study adopted a partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM).

The results show that internal control and corporate governance both have a direct positive and significant impact on financial performance. Furthermore, the interaction of internal control and corporate governance also has a positive and significant impact on financial performance, thus confirming the moderating role of corporate governance in the relationship between internal control mechanisms and financial performance.

This implies that organizations need to strengthen their corporate governance procedures to increase the efficiency of their internal control systems, which would ultimately lead to an improvement in their financial performance.

The present study innovates by assessing the moderating role of corporate governance in the nexus between internal control mechanisms and financial performance. This moderating effect assessment implies that corporate governance may not only affect the technical implementation of the internal control structures but will subsequently make an impact on the overall performance of the organization.

This study aims to investigate the dual effects of commitment-based governance on the relationship between formal control and public–private partnership (PPP) project performance. Formal control and relationship governance are two primary forms of inter-organizational governance that affect project performance. However, little is known about the interplay between formal control and commitment and its effect on PPP projects. More specifically, previous studies have failed to distinguish the function routes of relationship governance resulting from different types of formal control (process and outcome control).

This study adopts a questionnaire survey to empirically investigate the mechanism that commitment-based governance influences the relationship between formal control and PPP performance. After collecting data from public and private sector professionals involved in 101 Chinese PPP projects, the theoretical framework proposed in this paper is verified by the empirical results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

The results show that process control has an inverted U-shaped effect and outcome control has a significant positive influence on PPP project performance. Furthermore, commitment moderates the effect of formal control on PPP project performance by increasing the relevance of outcome control and mediates the inverted U-shaped relationship between process control and PPP project performance.

Managers should recognize that process control is a double-edged sword and prevent the overuse of process control. Managers should direct their attention toward efforts to improve the commitment, which allows for the effectiveness of outcome control strategies. Additionally, this study new measurement method for relationship governance suggests that managers should be aware of the difference in parties' perceptions of the relationship.

This study allows for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship governance-control nexus from a commitment perspective. The authors bring into light the dual role of commitment-based governance in the relationship between the two types of formal control and PPP project performance. Moreover, the new approach to measure relationship governance offers valuable insight into the measurement of variables about individual's perception.

This study which is positioned in the ambit of control research investigates the impact of ex ante contractual completeness on opportunistic behaviors and ex post transaction costs, while assessing how these affect relationship termination intention. This study aims to examine alternative attractiveness as a necessary moderator of the nexus between transaction cost and relationship termination intention.

Data gathered from 211 companies in South Korea that have installed and run outsourced vending machines are analyzed and used to validate the study’s theoretical and empirical contributions.

The findings, which rely only on data from companies that outsource and those that run outsourced vending machines, show that contractual completeness negatively affects both active and passive opportunism. The study also discovers that active opportunism positively affects both bargaining costs and monitoring costs, whereas passive opportunism has a positive and direct effect on maladaptation costs but a negative effect on monitoring costs. It further finds that both bargaining and maladaptation costs have positive and direct effects on relationship termination intention, while monitoring costs have a negative effect on the same. Furthermore, it is observed that alternative attractiveness moderates the relationships between bargaining costs and relationship termination intention, as well as maladaptation costs and relationship termination intention.

This study demonstrates that contractual completeness can serve as an important ex ante control mechanism, whereas the two types of opportunism can raise transaction costs. Furthermore, alternative attractiveness is identified as a driver of the impact of transaction costs on relationship termination intention.

A key point of the departure of this study is that it examines the moderating role of alternative attractiveness in the relationship between transaction cost and relationship termination intention. The paper also advances the control literature by emphasizing the critical role that contractual completeness plays in reducing the occurrence of (both active and passive) opportunism in business relationships (especially companies that outsource).

Work-life flexibility policies (e.g., flextime, telework, part-time, right-to-disconnect, and leaves) are increasingly important to employers as productivity and well-being strategies. However, policies have not lived up to their potential. In this chapter, the authors argue for increased research attention to implementation and work-life intersectionality considerations influencing effectiveness. Drawing on a typology that conceptualizes flexibility policies as offering employees control across five dimensions of the work role boundary (temporal, spatial, size, permeability, and continuity), the authors develop a model identifying the multilevel moderators and mechanisms of boundary control shaping relationships between using flexibility and work and home performance. Next, the authors review this model with an intersectional lens. The authors direct scholars’ attention to growing workforce diversity and increased variation in flexibility policy experiences, particularly for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality, which is defined as having multiple intersecting identities (e.g., gender, caregiving, and race), that are stigmatized, and link to having less access to and/or benefits from societal resources to support managing the work-life interface in a social context. Such an intersectional focus would address the important need to shift work-life and flexibility research from variable to person-centered approaches. The authors identify six research considerations on work-life intersectionality in order to illuminate how traditionally assumed work-life relationships need to be revisited to address growing variation in: access, needs, and preferences for work-life flexibility; work and nonwork experiences; and benefits from using flexibility policies. The authors hope that this chapter will spur a conversation on how the work-life interface and flexibility policy processes and outcomes may increasingly differ for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality compared to those with lower work-life intersectionality in the context of organizational and social systems that may perpetuate growing work-life and job inequality.

The implementation of control systems allows marketing managers to improve operational decisions and organizational results. This paper aims to identify the relationship between control combinations and organizational results and analyze the relationships between the variables attributed to the marketing managers and with marketing control combinations. Decisions involving marketing control combine formal and informal mechanisms and generate control systems that have a favorable relationship with organizational results.

The paper is based on 301 cross-sectional surveys among marketing managers. The classification procedure based on metric distance was implemented to identify the marketing control combinations. A hierarchical cluster analysis was carried out with perceptions about formal and informal control, to validate the control combination classifications. Finally, a discriminant analysis and ANOVA test were carried out for exploring factors associated with the managers. The data analysis was supported by IBM SPSS Statistics 24 software.

The authors found evidence that, when managers perceive high-control systems, the perception of non-financial and financial results is always better, but the presence of high-clan control also returns optimal results. In addition, the manager's satisfaction levels and work motivation are higher with high control systems than with other control systems.

This study contributes to the existing knowledge by providing a broader empirical basis to extend conceptual frameworks about marketing control combinations that emerge in practice.

企業設置營銷控制系統來進行營銷控制,這可讓市場經理能改善其營運決策和組織成果。本文擬確定控制合併與組織成果的關係;本文亦擬分析涉及市場經理的變數與營銷控制合併的關係。涉及營銷控制的決策會結合正式和非正式的機制,而這些決策會帶來與組織成果有良性關係的控制系統。

本研究乃基於對市場經理進行的301項橫斷調查。研究人員實施基於度量距離的分類程式,來確定營銷控制合併;為了證實有關的控制合併分類是正確的,研究人員就對正式控制和非正式控制的觀感和看法、進行了階層式分群法分析;最後,研究人員進行了判別分析和變異數分析 (ANOVA), 以探索與經理有關聯的因素。有關的數據分析得到IBM公司的SPSS (統計產品與服務解決方案) Statistics 24 (統計軟體) 的支持。

我們證實了、若主管感知高控制的系統,其對非財務結果和財務結果的看法必會較好的,但高社群控制亦會帶來最佳的結果。我們亦證實了高控制系統,較其它控制系統,更能提高主管的滿意程度和工作動機。

本研究提供了一個更廣闊的經驗基礎,以擴展涉及在實踐中出現的營銷控制合併的概念框架,就此,本研究豐富了這方面的知識。

Via the lens of the ego-depletion phenomenon (Baumeister et al., 1998) and Higgins' (1998) regulatory focus theory, this paper seeks to explain why current controlled communications are failing to achieve coherence between people's free will and their actions pursuing sustainable goals in a society. This paper explains how ego-depletion triggered by controlled communications can lead to confusion and decision fatigue in a society, thus potentially sabotaging people's participation in sustainable behaviour.

The authors applied Jaakkola's (2020) theory synthesis approach to integrate concepts from previously unconnected disciplines in order to generate novel insights in the area of controlled communication management.

The authors develop a theoretical framework and present research propositions that can help advance research and the discourse at the intersection of controlled communication and self-regulation theories.

This paper possesses the limitations associated with conceptual papers, e.g. the lack of empirical support of the study’s conceptual arguments.

This paper generates novel insights to assist communication practitioners and policymakers to improve vehicles and mechanisms of controlled communication with the public regarding sustainable goals pursuit.

To the best of authors' knowledge, this is one of the first papers that has merged the domains of self-regulation, ego-depletion, and controlled communication in an integrative framework in order to explain the mechanisms of how to enhance the effectiveness of controlled communication associated with sustainable goals pursuit.

In the context of a developing country, Indian buildings need further research to channelize energy needs optimally to reduce energy wastage, thereby reducing carbon emissions. Also, reduction in smart devices’ costs with sequential advancements in Information and Communication Technology have resulted in an environment where model predictive control (MPC) strategies can be easily implemented. This study aims to propose certain preemptive measures to minimize the energy costs, while ensuring the thermal comfort for occupants, resulting in better greener solutions for building structures.

A simulation-based multi-input multi-output MPC strategy has been proposed. A dual objective function involving optimized energy consumption with acceptable thermal comfort has been achieved through simultaneous control of indoor temperature, humidity and illumination using various control variables. A regression-based lighting model and seasonal auto-regressive moving average with exogenous inputs (SARMAX) based temperature and humidity models have been chosen as predictor models along with four different control levels incorporated.

The mathematical approach in this study maintains an optimum tradeoff between energy cost savings and satisfactory occupants’ comfort levels. The proposed control mechanism establishes the relationships of output variables with respect to control and disturbance variables. The SARMAX and regression-based predictor models are found to be the best fit models in terms of accuracy, stability and superior performance. By adopting the proposed methodology, significant energy savings can be accomplished during certain hours of the day.

This study has been done on a specific corporate entity and future analysis can be done on other corporate or residential buildings and in other geographical settings within India. Inclusion of sensitivity analysis and non-linear predictor models is another area of future scope.

This study presents a dynamic MPC strategy, using five disturbance variables which further improves the overall performance and accuracy. In contrast to previous studies on MPC, SARMAX model has been used in this study, which is a novel contribution to the theoretical literature. Four levels of control zones: pre-cooling, strict, mild and loose zones have been used in the calculations to keep the Predictive Mean Vote index within acceptable threshold limits.