Management Control Systems in a Fast Growing Start-up

摘要

Fast growing start-ups create most of the new jobs today. Therefore, it is interesting for thesociety and economy to know how the design of management control systems (MCS)contributes to the success in a fast growing start-up. The aim of this paper is to increase theknowledge about how MCS is designed in a fast growing start-up four years from start, and toinvestigate if culture should be seen as a MCS. To answer this, a case study of a four year oldcompany was made. Information was collected through 15 interviews, questionnaires andparticipant observation. The starting point for this paper was the earlier research by Davila andFoster, who are the foremost researchers in the field of fast growing start-ups. This iscomplemented with a cultural aspect presented by Malmi and Brown as well as MacNeill andBoyd. The results in this paper show that the number of MCS increases as a company grows, andthat the number of employees is connected to the number of implemented MCS on bothcompany level as well as on department level. In this case study, the company uses culture as aMCS leading to fewer formal MCS. By using culture as a MCS, the company receives severaladvantages, such as managing other offices without more MCS, increases its teamwork andcreates a happy and familiar atmosphere. This indicates that culture could be considered a MCSand that the research by Davila and Foster should be complemented with this aspect.