Abstract:
Purpose – This paper reviews management control literature which draws on the institutional logics
perspective as the theoretical lens to understand the current grounding of this perspective on management
control research. It identifies gaps in the current literature and offers possible future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach – For the purpose of this paper, five search engines (ABI INFORM,
EBSCO, Emerald insight, JSTOR and Science Direct) were consulted, and 35 papers across 16 journals, which
specifically fall within the area of management controls and institutional logics, were reviewed.
Findings – The review revealed that the institutional logics perspective has provided theoretical anchoring
to management control-related areas such as budgeting, performance management and control tools in
organizations. The extant studies have either used institutional logics as a single theoretical perspective or
have integrated it with other theories such as neo-institutional theory, agency theory and structuration theory.
The research settings of the papers span across firm level, industry level and government organizations and
non-profit organizations. Most of the studies have used the qualitative case study approach, whereas a few
have taken the mixed method research design.
Originality/value – Although there are a number of review papers in the area of management controls as
well as on institutional theory in general, such reviews have not specifically been focused on the institutional
logics perspective, which is a significant development within institutional theory, having provided theoretical
backing to a wide range of management control studies over the years. Addressing this omission, this paper
provides important insights for future researchers on what research has been done using the lens of
institutional logics and what else is worth doing. In that sense, this paper contributes to the domain of
management control research, as well as to the development of institutional theory in general and the
institutional logics perspective in particular.
