Management Control in Family Business. A Literature Review

Journal title MANAGEMENT CONTROL
Author/s Francesco Badia, Grazia Dicuonzo, Simona Ranaldo, Vittorio Dell’Atti
Publishing Year 2020 Issue 2020/Suppl. 1
Language Italian Pages 24 P. 79-102 File size 262 KB
DOI 10.3280/MACO2020-001-S1006
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In the last few years the relevance of family firms in the global economy has fos-ter the scientific debate on this field. The specific characteristics of these business make the analysis of management control tools used by family firms particularly interesting. Given the growing attention to this topic, through a systematic literature review, this paper intends to outline the main issues on the use of management control and management accounting tools in family businesses. The results show three main streams of literature: 1) the element that differentiate the management control choices of family firms from non-family firms; 2) the influence of the leadership style on the use of formal or informal management control tools; 3) the development of management control system in particular stages of the family firm’s life, such as professionalization of the business, and generational succes-sion. The whole analysis reveals that there is an open space for the scholars interested in the development of managerial studies aimed at offering new contributions to family businesses, to identify management control tools able to adapt to the spe-cific characteristics and context of this type of organization.

Keywords: Family business, family firms, management control, management ac-counting, literature review

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Francesco Badia, Grazia Dicuonzo, Simona Ranaldo, Vittorio Dell’Atti, Il controllo di gestione nelle imprese familiari: un’analisi della letteratura in "MANAGEMENT CONTROL" Suppl. 1/2020, pp 79-102, DOI: 10.3280/MACO2020-001-S1006