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Schmalenbach Business Review
Published in: Schmalenbach Business Review 2/2016

01-08-2016 | Original Article

Managing Interdependence in Multi-business Organizations

A Case Study of Management Control Systems

Authors: Jetta Frost, Rick Vogel, Khaled Bagban

Published in: Schmalenbach Business Review | Issue 2/2016

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Abstract

Managing interdependence in multi-business organizations is a profound challenge for the design and use of management control systems. Results of a case study of a leading multinational telecommunications provider suggest that the composition of control systems varies significantly with the type of interdependence. This is further substantiated by six qualitative sub-cases of the case study firm. Specifically, we find that management control systems are significantly more complex in cases of cooperative forms of interdependence than in cases of transactional forms. Contrary to expectations, this also applies to pooled interdependence which occurs when separate units share some common resources.
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Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
1
In order to ensure topicality and relevance, our overview excludes works that have been published prior to 1980 (Hall et al. 1977; Hickson et al. 1969; Ouchi and Maguire 1975; Van de Ven et al. 1976). In addition, we do not consider studies on interdependence between organizations, e. g., within joint ventures (Kumar and Seth 1998), strategic alliances (Luo 2008) or supply chains (Dekker 2004), because these settings differ too much from cross-unit collaborations within firms.
 
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Metadata
Title
Managing Interdependence in Multi-business Organizations
A Case Study of Management Control Systems
Authors
Jetta Frost
Rick Vogel
Khaled Bagban
Publication date
01-08-2016
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Published in
Schmalenbach Business Review / Issue 2/2016
Print ISSN: 1439-2917
Electronic ISSN: 2194-072X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41464-016-0019-2

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