Environmental management control systems: a conceptualization and a review of the empirical evidence

Abstract

The integration of sustainability in general and environmental aspects in particular into management control systems (MCS) are now being addressed in MCS research. We argue that the concept of environmental management control systems (EMCS) provides a promising approach for integrating presently fragmented lines of inquiry concerning the internal drivers and managerial processes that may foster firms' environmental performance. Addressing the apparent fragmentation of research on EMCS, we develop a ‘positioning framework’ to locate EMCS within the topic of sustainability and to show how EMCS relates to other subsystems of management, especially to environmental management accounting (EMA) and to environmental management systems (EMS). Second, applying the ‘invisible college’ approach, which delivered responses of 22 eminent scholars, we analyze scholarly perspectives on useful conceptual frameworks for EMCS. Third, we specify the concept of EMCS and elaborate its elements by drawing on the general MCS framework of Malmi and Brown (2008), which we integrate in our ‘positioning framework’ to structure instruments and concepts that have been discussed in the literature. Finally, we summarize current empirical research on EMCS by means of an integrative literature review. The integrative literature review allows us to summarize the existing empirical evidence and to outline what we know and do not know about EMCS. Our findings suggest different avenues for future research: Exploring interfaces between the different dimensions of our ‘positioning framework’ (e.g., different configurations of EMCS elements; combinations of design and use of EMA instruments and EMCS elements; intergenerational controls; potential trade-offs between the dimensions of sustainability), addressing so far neglected aspects of the EMCS framework (e.g., clans; organizational and corporate governance structures), and focusing on more profound theoretical foundations, construct validation, and potential associations of EMCS with innovativeness, capabilities, and organizational learning.