Doan, Cam Tu (2008) Analyse of economic and financial performance in the activities of industrial service. PhD thesis CECO, CECO, EP/X p.275.

Alternative Locations: http://www.imprimerie.polytechnique.fr/Theses/Files/Doan.pdf

Abstract

This thesis investigates how managers use the management control systems as levers of
strategic change. This question is interesting both from a theoretical and a practical viewpoint.
The investigation is focused on the case of industrial service operations. The specificities of
this sector - immaterial flows, heterogeneous competences, customer involvement - make its
environment particularly unstable. Meanwhile, the information technology era forces the
service companies to continually carry out strategic change to create a sustainable competitive
advantage.
Simons (1995, 2000)’s lever-of-control framework is used as starting point. This framework
proposes two extreme benchmarks to classify management control systems: interactive versus
diagnostic systems depending on the degree of involvement of the top management.
This thesis develops two new ideas: firstly, that the framework of analysis could be extended
to cover four dimensions: the management tool, the organizational structure, the use of control
system, and the compensation system; secondly, it explores how all four dimensions interact
in practice.
The tool dimension originates from the managerial literature on control systems. It
emphasizes the importance of the horizontal coordination of the material flows from suppliers
to customers. The organisational dimension comes from the literature on project management,
which enlarges this coordination issue to new products and new services. The compensation
dimension has already been introduced by Simons, though this dimension has rarely been
explored in practice.
Two case studies are used to explore the relevance of this grid. The analysis covers several
years in which strategic changes occurred, making explicit how these changes were translated
into the four dimensions of our grid. It appears that some configurations along these four
dimensions are more efficient than others. A more efficient configuration simultaneously
exhibits some interactive and diagnostic features. This balanced approach, which we
characterize for industrial service companies, is offered as an interesting idea to be explored
in future research. Consequences in terms of the role of the controller are also discussed.

Table of content

Table of contents - 1
GENERAL INTRODUCTION - 3
The research question - 4
Main findings - 5
Thesis structure - 11
Bibliography - 13
Chapter 1: REVIEW OF THE MANAGEMENT CONTROL LITERATURE - 17
Introduction of the chapter 1 - 18
1. Evolution of Management control before and after Kaplan and Johnson (1987) - 24
2. Strategic change - 29
3. Simons’s typology - 41
4. Outcomes of management control systems - 58
5. Open questions - 86
Concluding remarks - 90
Bibliography - 91
Chapter 2: REVISIT OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT LITERATURE - 98
Introduction of the chapter 2 - 99
1. Challenges faced by the new management control approach as applied to a project
oriented organization: a case study as a starting point - 100
2. What can be learned from the management project literature - 106
Concluding remarks - 122
Bibliography - 124
Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY - 128
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Framework - 129
Methodology - 129
INEO Suez - 141
Bibliography - 147
Chapter 4: CASE STUDIES - 148
Section 1. Hi-Tech case - 149
Section 2: Electra case - 176
GENERAL CONCLUSION - 202
General Bibliography - 205
List of Figures and Tables - 217
Figures - 217
Tables - 217
Detailed table of contents - 218
Appendix - 225

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