The adoption of management control systems (MCS) is a key element in managing the tension that growth imposes
on young growing firms. Despite its importance to a large number of organizations, only recently has the empirical
literature devoted attention to the evolution of these systems over the lifecycle of firms [Moores and Yuen, Account.
Organizat. Soc. 26 (2001) 351]. This paper builds upon existing management control theory, mostly focused on
established organizations, and existing predictions based on extended field observations to explore how these systems
are adopted within growing firms. To advance theory, the paper also draws from the entrepreneurship and life cycle
literatures. It identifies several variables as drivers of the emergence of management control systems including the size of
the organization, its age, the replacement of the founder as CEO, and the existence of outside investors. The empirical
evidence, from a database on the adoption of human resource management systems, is consistent with these variables
being associated with the adoption of MCS. The paper also provides initial results on how the emergence of various
types of management control systems depends on which systems the organization has already adopted.
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