Conclusions
The aim of this paper was to provide empirical evidence to research literature whether the family and non-family businesses use equally the MCS, as well as to assess the influence of MCS on performance. Our results support that family businesses use the MCS to a lesser extent than non-family companies, in line with Jorissen et al. (2005), Laitinen (2008), Kotey (2005), Chua et al. (2003) and Perren et al. (1999). Organizational objectives in family firms differ from those in non-family firms, as non-economic goals related to the family itself may be even more essential than the economic goals of the firm (Chua, Chrisman, & Sharma, 1999). Besides, altruism, trust, loyalty or long-term perspective are factors (Schulze, Lubatkin, Dino, & Buchholtz, 2001), quite common in family firms, that might determine the choice of MCS. Our findings also confirm that the use of the MCS has a positive impact on business performance, in accordance to the majority of the studies (Adler et al., 2000; Dávila, 2000; Laitinen, 2014; Songini & Gnan, 2015). Similarly, our results are in line with those achieved by Schulze, Lubatkin, and Dino (2002) and Lubatkin, Schulze, Ling, and Dino (2005), who could contrast a positive effect of the use of the MCS on corporate performance in family businesses. This paper contributes to previous literature researching how the family nature of firms affects the use of management control systems (Jayaram, Dixit, & Motwani, 2014). This study provides evidence on how the use of MCS can vary across different types of firms, between family and non-family firms particularly. The study’s findings also suggest that the high level of use of MCS positively influence companies’ level of performance. This linkage confirms the Contingency Theory principle that states that the use of MCS can be a source of competitive advantage, influencing performance directly.
