Publications

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 7: Designing Asset Allocation Systems

By: Robert Simons

This module reading provides tools and analyses for acquiring and allocating resources. The module begins by reviewing the importance of setting strategic boundaries as a basis for asset acquisitions. Next, a distinction is made between new assets acquired to meet... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Asset Allocation Systems; Payback; Discounted Cash Flow; Internal Rate Of Return; Strategic Investments; Analyzing Acquisitions; Strategy; Capital Budgeting

Forthcoming
Article

The Effect of a System for Sharing Best Practices Within Pre-existing Peer Networks

By: Shelley Xin Li and Tatiana Sandino

Peer networks, such as enterprise social networks (ESNs), can facilitate knowledge transfer across employees. However, such systems can also lead to information overload or difficulty in finding useful information. We examine data from a natural field experiment where... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Best Practices; Enterprise Social Media; Management Accounting And Control Systems; Social and Collaborative Networks; Communication Technology; Knowledge Sharing; Sales; Social Media; Retail Industry

May 1982 (Revised June 1982)
Case

Air Traffic Controllers

By: Michael Beer

On August 3, 1981 President Ronald Reagan terminated 12,000 air traffic controllers, members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, for violating their no-strike oath. Provides background on the human resources policies and practices of the Federal... View Details

Keywords: Resignation and Termination; Labor and Management Relations; Government and Politics; Labor Unions; Negotiation; Employees; Air Transportation Industry; United States

September 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 3: Using Information for Performance Measurement and Control

By: Robert Simons

This module reading explains how managers use information to control critical business processes and outcomes. The analysis begins by illustrating how managers use information to communicate goals and track performance. Then the focus turns to the choices that managers... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Organization Process; Feedback Model; Innovation; Uses Of Information; Big Data; Benchmarking; Decision Making; Information; Performance Evaluation; Analytics and Data Science

June 2025
Article

What Board-level Control Mechanisms Changed in Banks Following the 2008 Financial Crisis? A Descriptive Study

By: Shelly Li, Shivram Rajgopal, Suraj Srinivasan and Yu Ting Forester Wong

Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) identified major shortcomings in bank board governance, contributing to systemic risk management failures. This study adapts a management control framework and empirically examines... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Management Control; Governing and Advisory Boards; Governance Controls; Risk Management; Change Management; Banks and Banking; Financial Crisis

SSRN

Read Now

1995
Book

Levers of Control: How Managers Use Innovative Control Systems to Drive Strategic Renewal

By: R. Simons

Keywords: Management Systems

1990
Article

The Role of Management Control Systems in Creating Competitive Advantage: New Perspectives

By: R. Simons

Keywords: Management; System; Competitive Strategy

October 1996 (Revised December 1996)
Case

United Electric Controls

By: H. Kent Bowen, Jody H. Gittell and Sylvie Ryckebusch

United Electric Controls (UE) was a small, traditional family-owned manufacturing company when Dave Reis, the youngest member of the Reis family, took over the business. This case describes Reis's efforts to change UE's traditional work practices in order to make the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Family Business; Production; Business Strategy; Human Resources; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decisions; Growth and Development Strategy; Information Technology; Electronics Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

Article

How New Top Managers Use Control Systems as Levers of Strategic Renewal

By: R. Simons

Keywords: Management; System; Strategy

Teaching Interest

Financial Reporting and Control

By: Suraj Srinivasan

Financial Reporting and Control (FRC) covers topics about how managers can design and use performance measurement systems for external reporting and internal management to build more effective organizations. Throughout their careers, business leaders are required to... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting

winter 1994
Article

The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems

By: M. C. Jensen

Keywords: System; Failure

SSRN

August 1982 (Revised January 1988)
Case

Assuming Control at Altex Aviation (A)

Two young and inexperienced MBAs buy a virtually bankrupt company. They design a decentralized control system organized around profit centers. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Entrepreneurship; Management Systems; Air Transportation Industry

July 2002 (Revised August 2003)
Case

EXP Systems

By: Malcolm S. Salter and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Discusses selecting investors and avoiding board-level conflicts of interest in start-ups. Using the "term sheet" in third-round financing as a negotiation over future governance and control rights. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Governance Controls; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Startups; Management Teams

Teaching Interest

Finance Reporting and Control

Financial Reporting and Control (FRC) is a course about how leaders can design and use performance measurement systems to build more effective organizations. Throughout their careers, business leaders are required to... View Details

April 2011
Module Note

Customer-Centric Information and Control Systems in B2B Settings: The Case for Customer-Supplier Partnerships

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

Keywords: Customers; Information; Information Management; Partners and Partnerships

February 2019
Technical Note

Can Multiunit Organizations Remain Agile as They Grow?

By: Tatiana Sandino

This note discusses how multiunit organizations incorporate flexibility into their management control systems, some by authorizing all or a select number of their dispersed units to make input and process decisions, some by investing in data-analytic technologies to... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Flexibility; Management Systems; Business Units; Decision Making

October 1991 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Maxwell Appliance Controls

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A profitable manufacturing division of a large company is looking for new ways to identify sources of productivity improvements. Led by its senior finance officer, an activity-based cost system is developed to identify activities performed for its highly varied product... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Management Teams; Quality; Performance Improvement; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Production; Manufacturing Industry

September 2006
Tutorial

Internal Control Process - Online Tutorial

By: David F. Hawkins

Introduces the Internal Control Process by detailing its five components: 1) the internal control environment, 2) risk assessment, 3) internal control activities, 4) information and communications, and 5) monitoring. Includes multiple review exercises throughout the... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Communication; Assets; Governance Compliance; Governance Controls; Policy; Information; Code Law; Risk Management; System; Online Technology