The Role of Management Accounting and Control Systems as Antecedents of Organizational Creativity and Innovation Capabilities

This paper examines the extent to which the use of Management Accounting and Control Systems influence the development of organizational capabilities in the innovation setting. More specifically, this research exams the cultural, interactive and diagnostic control systems in firms that follow conservative and entrepreneurial strategies, to test their effects as antecedents of organizational creativity and capabilities that could explain to some extent the ability of an organization to convert invention into product innovation. Using survey data collected from 124 medium and large Spanish companies, we find evidence supporting the interchangeable role of interactive and cultural forms of control to developed different capabilities as companies pursue different strategies.