The Evolution of Management Control Systems in Digital Organizations: A Systematic Literature Review
Keywords:
Management control systems, digital organizations, digital transformation, management accounting, algorithmic control, qualitative research, NVivoAbstract
This study aimed to explain how management control systems evolve in digital organizations and to develop a qualitative framework of the main control capabilities required for data-driven, platform-based, and digitally transforming firms. The study adopted a qualitative, review-informed design based on semi-structured interviews with 22 participants selected through purposive sampling from digital organizations in Tehran. Participants included senior financial managers, controllers, digital transformation managers, data analytics managers, operations managers, and management consultants with direct experience in designing or using management control systems in digitally enabled organizational settings. Data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached; saturation was achieved after the nineteenth interview, and three additional interviews were conducted to confirm category stability. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis supported by NVivo software. Coding proceeded through open coding, axial categorization, and selective integration of the main themes. The findings revealed five main categories explaining the evolution of management control systems in digital organizations: real-time and data-driven control, integration of control architecture across digital platforms, hybridization of formal and informal controls, transformation of the controller role, and ethical–behavioral challenges of algorithmic control. Participants emphasized that digital control is no longer limited to budgeting, variance analysis, and periodic reporting; instead, it increasingly depends on dashboards, predictive analytics, automated alerts, cross-functional data flows, and continuous monitoring. However, they also stressed that digital control creates new tensions related to transparency, employee autonomy, privacy, data quality, and overreliance on algorithmic indicators. The study concludes that management control systems in digital organizations are evolving from retrospective, finance-centered, and hierarchical mechanisms toward real-time, predictive, integrated, and learning-oriented systems. Effective digital control requires technological capability, data governance, strategic alignment, human judgment, and ethical safeguards. The proposed framework contributes to management control literature by explaining how digital transformation changes not only control tools but also the meaning, timing, actors, and behavioral consequences of organizational control.
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