On Strategy and Management Control: The Importance of Classifying the Strategy of the Business
指出权变理论研究中战略操作化方式不同导致结论模糊，提出整合战略模式、战略位置和战略使命三个变量来分类企业战略，并分析它们如何影响管理控制系统的设计与使用。
The point of departure for this paper is a number of contingency‐theory studies on the relationship between business strategy and the design and use of management control. In these studies strategy has been operationalized in different ways – a major reason why the findings are ambiguous and difficult to integrate. Thus there is a strong need for a common frame of reference for classifying business strategy. In view of the multifaceted nature of the concept of strategy, however, it is neither desirable nor possible to arrive at a single method of classification that would be appropriate in all situations. Rather, the task is to integrate different strategic variables such as strategic pattern, strategic position and strategic mission. In this paper we show how these three variables may be assumed to influence, and be influenced by, what characterizes changes in strategy and how business units manage their product offerings. Unlike most previous studies in the field, this paper discusses how the strategic variables taken together may be assumed to influence the classification of strategy and thus the design and use of the management‐control system. Our deductive analysis, and the hypotheses used in connection with it, show that studies which consider only one strategic variable may lead to erroneous conclusions about the relationship between strategy and management control.