The aim of this study was to investigate the indirect
effects of mechanistic and organic forms of control
on project performance through innovativeness as well
as the interaction effect of those controls on project
performance in exploratory and exploitative innovation
projects. Overall, the results support the importance of
OC, showing it acting through innovativeness on project
performance in exploratory innovations and enhancing
project performance in exploitative innovations. The
results also suggest that the interaction effect of OC and MC
enhances performance in both exploratory and exploitative
innovation projects, and support a complementary
effect.
This study contributes to literature in three ways.
Firstly, this study draws on prior research in management
accounting and control (Chenhall and Morris,
1995; Henri, 2006; Jørgensen and Messner, 2009; Mundy,
2010) to extend those to another level of analysis, the
project level rather than the organizational level. While
accounting research has studied control mechanisms in
other organizational contexts, the project level has largely
been forgotten (Chenhall, 2008), although scholars argue
it to be more appropriate for studying control systems in
innovation settings (Davila et al., 2009b). Secondly, this
study offers empirical evidence of the impact of indirect
effects of project controls on project performance.
By distinguishing between exploratory and exploitative
innovative project settings, this study finds indirect effects
of organic project controls on performance via innovativeness
in exploratory settings. These findings are seen
as extending the findings of Bisbe and Otley (2004) at
the organizational level. This study also finds empirical
evidence of tension on project performance resulting
from a combined use of mechanistic and organic forms
of control in both exploratory and exploitative innovation
project settings. As the results indicate, the tension
caused by a combination of project control mechanisms
appears to be complementary, but not dependent on the
degree of innovation newness. Although prior research on
opposing control forces in exploratory innovation settings
exists, empirical research comparing the effects of combined
use of two opposing forms of project control in both
exploratory and exploitative innovative project settings is
non-existent.
This study also has important managerial implications.
First, it emphasizes the important role of organic communication
processes in enhancing project performance
through innovativeness in exploratory innovation settings.
It also shows that project managers can identify how
the different forms of control they already use or intend
to use can most benefit innovation by combining those
controls with their respective complementary opposite
coordination mechanisms. The variety of possible combinations
of different forms of MCS or style of use of MCS
provides the project manager with a pool of options. A
project manager who is informed about the desirable and
undesirable effects and who pays them due attention,
can enhance performance and innovativeness. However,
combining opposing control strategies may not be easy
in practice within the same social system, and evidence
from prior studies also indicates that practitioners often
do not combine opposing action strategies (e.g. Sheremata,
2002).