Management Control and Management Accounting

Abstract

Abstract Management control aims at conforming the behaviour of organizational members to organizational goals. To this aim, management control employs a multitude of control mechanisms—from performance measurements and incentive schemes to group norms and shared beliefs. This chapter focuses on the potential of agent-based modelling and simulation for theory building in management control. A core argument of the chapter is that the agent-based paradigm structurally corresponds to management control. The discussions provide examples of agent-based models contributing to emerging research topics in the field. The models are differentiated according to how they capture control mechanisms (i.e., as exogenously given and endogenously evolving). Models with exogenously given control mechanisms primarily focus on the effects and effectiveness of single mechanisms or combinations thereof, potentially differentiating for environmental contingencies. Agent-based models with endogenously evolving control mechanisms allow capturing the emergence of management control systems and the adaptation to potentially turbulent environments. The chapter discusses the promises and challenges of agent-based modelling for the domain and derives avenues for future research.