Impacts of Interactive and Diagnostic Control System Use on the Innovation Process

Abstract This research explores the innovation process in organizations based on the Management Control System (MCS). We examined the link between the diagnostic and interactive uses of management control systems and their association with the intensity of the innovation process. Motivations for the research are: (a) enhance the potentiality of the model by including variables that are external to the organization, and (b) offer an empirical emergent country perspective on innovation. The study is quantitative and the data were collected by means of a survey questionnaire involving a sample of 121 Brazilian companies. The analysis was supported by structural equation modeling. The contributions are: (a) enhancement of the model by including the influences exerted by external stimuli on the intensity of innovation, (b) confirmation of the utility of the model in an emergent country, and (c) despite the controversial literature, highlighting the importance of the interactive use of the Management Control Systems process, by offering an empirical perspective on innovation control. A positive implication of the findings relates to the use of a broader and not exclusively internal model to increase its potentiality, reflecting the organizational reality by including the dynamism of external stimuli and the innovation control perspective.

摘要 本研究以管理控制系统（Management Control System, MCS）为分析框架，探讨组织内部的创新流程。本研究考察了管理控制系统的诊断性应用与互动性应用之间的关联，以及二者与创新流程强度的联系。本研究的研究动机在于：其一，通过纳入组织外部变量提升模型的潜在解释力；其二，提供新兴经济体视角下的创新实证研究视角。本研究为定量研究，通过问卷调查收集数据，样本涵盖121家巴西企业，分析过程采用结构方程模型支撑。本研究的贡献包括：其一，纳入外部刺激对创新强度的影响，完善了现有模型；其二，验证了该模型在新兴经济体国家中的适用性；其三，尽管现有相关研究存在争议，本研究通过提供创新管控的实证视角，凸显了管理控制系统互动性应用流程的重要性。本研究结论的积极启示在于，应采用更具包容性而非仅局限于内部的模型以提升其解释力，通过纳入外部刺激的动态性与创新管控视角，更好地契合组织的现实情境。