5. Discussion and conclusion
This study focused on complementarities among management control mechanisms in lean manufacturing companies. Little research has been carried out on this topic, which is rather paradoxical, as lean manufacturing is recognized as an enterprise-wide system consisting of interdependent practices (Liker, 2004; Maskell et al., 2012). Our aim with this research was to study lean management control mechanisms and their complementary effects on firm performance. Earlier research provides limited evidence of complementarity among lean management control mechanisms. Emiliani et al. (2003) and Kennedy and Widener (2008) were single firm studies and found that lean management control mechanisms were interrelated, but did not provide evidence of complementary effects from lean management control mechanisms to firm performance. Kristensen and Israelsen (2014) was a single firm study showing that greater balance among management control mechanisms led to greater firm performance, but their method made it difficult to capture the covariance and interactions among lean management control mechanisms. Fullerton et al. (2013) was a cross-sectional study and found that management control mechanisms were interrelated. However, the study did not provide evidence of the complementary effects from lean management control mechanisms to firm performance, and did not encompass the complete set of management control mechanisms.