Management controls and inter‐firm relationships: a review

Purpose – Inter‐firm relationships are increasingly being adopted as competitive tools. However, the challenges created by these relationships for the design and use of management control systems (MCS) have been well documented. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the literature on MCS and inter‐firm relationships. The review examines the types of relationships studied and the theoretical approaches. Design/methodology/approach – The findings reported in the paper are based on desk research. The review is largely concentrated on the key international English language accounting journals. Findings – Supply chain and outsourcing have been the dominant forms of inter‐firm relationships studied. Other studies have focused on joint ventures and networks. Transaction cost economics has been the dominant approach and trust has also featured as a theoretical issue in most of the studies. Originality/value – The paper furthers the understanding of the contributions made by previous studies on MCS and inter‐firm relationships. Some suggestions for future research are offered at the end.