Fifty years of management control systems research: a bibliometric review of the literature and research agenda

Purpose: The popularity of Management Control Systems (MCS) has increased due to rising uncertainty in business operations. They help companies implement strategies, manage information and incentivize managers with common goals. Therefore, the research aims to take stock of the evolution of studies on MCS adoption, identifying trends and future avenues. Design/methodology/approach: While a few systematic literature reviews have investigated the implications of MCS adoption amid specific contexts, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the whole research stream is lacking. Consequently, our study analyzes relevant scientific literature on the topic of MCS from 1970 to 2022, through the use of VOSviewer, R Bibliometrix and Latent Dirichlet Allocation to visualize the bibliometric results. Findings: The study provides a comprehensive overview of key emerging topics in MCS literature and the ways in which they have developed over the decades, along with a structured research agenda built upon the literature gaps found amid current and past scientific production. It does so by analyzing scientific production from multiple bibliometric aspects and advanced text-mining techniques to extract common emerging themes from the dataset. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no attempt has yet been made to synthesize MCS literature through a bibliometric review. The bibliometric perspective on MCS enhances scholars' understanding of the historical path and future trends of the literature stream, while helping practitioners update existing MCS conceptualizations in light of contemporary changes.