The role of management control systems in the implementation of the CSR strategy

Abstract

Recent times have seen a lot of interest in the concept of sustainable development and its incorporation at the corporate level. Organizations are still having difficulty integrating performance evaluation across all of its dimensions into their decision-making processes because the strategy's adoption is still in its early stages.

This is due to a lack of consideration for social and environmental issues in strategy processes and, as a result, in the metrics employed to measure organizational performance. Management control systems, especially Simons' (1995) control levers, are said to be necessary for the CSR strategy's execution and monitoring of overall performance.

Now, the purpose of this paper is to establish a narrative literature review on the main theories that have examined the relationship between CSR and its control systems in order to increase so-called global or three-dimensional performance: economic, social and environmental. We use the theoretical framework of R. Simons (1995) to assess the role of these control systems in the implementation of a CSR strategy and the model of E. Reynaud (2003) to identify the dimensions of overall performance.

Keywords: CSR Strategy; Overall performance; Levers control of Simons (1995).

JEL classification: M14; P17

Paper type: Theoretical Research