Innovating For the Planet: A qualitative study on how the balance between the controlling and enabling nature of management control systems impacts organizations' sustainable innovation work

Sammanfattning: Climate change is becoming increasingly important for organizations to take action against. Therefore, there is a need for new innovations regarding sustainability. This thesis investigates how the balance between controlling and enabling usages of management control systems (MSCs) impacts an organization's sustainable innovation work. The study is conducted within one case organization in the agricultural industry through eight semi-structured interviews along with data collected through document analysis. Mundy's (2010) framework, consisting of five factors that influence the balance between the dual usage of MCSs, is the main theory used when analyzing the empirical findings. The thesis suggests that MCSs positively impact the integration of sustainability in sustainability-related innovation projects and that the organization prioritizes diagnostic systems in the attainment of sustainability objectives in this type of work. Furthermore, the study demonstrates how the balance between controlling and enabling utilization of MCSs may be especially complex to attain in sustainability-related innovation work, as sustainability objectives seem to benefit from a controlling usage of MCSs, whereas innovation is seen to need more enabling MCSs.