Innovation Management Control (IMC) supports innovation management with valuable information, thus improving innovation effectiveness and efficiency. Literature has shown that different elements of a management control system must be interdependent and that its design must form a coherent system of controls that spans the entire process under control. Accordingly, IMC covers the entire innovation process. However, IMC literature is spread over numerous journals from different disciplines, which may prevent the development of holistic IMC systems. We present a bibliometric analysis that provides insights into the development of IMC as a research field and examines the severity of knowledge dispersal. We build on a database covering 549 papers. The aim of the study is to reveal IMCs emergence and evolution as a research field, and future research directions. Our study shows that IMC combines several subfields and that dispersion is present in IMC, thus slowing knowledge transfer and hindering rapid progress.
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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