Exploring the Role of Management Control Anchor Practices in New Product Development

Abstract

This paper shows how certain management controls become more guiding than others in the management of new product development (NPD). We detail how the opportunity space within which managers maneuver NPD can be underpinned by a hierarchically arranged management control infrastructure governed by management control anchor practices that enable ‘anchored prioritizations’ through which some concerns become ‘more important’ than others. As the anchor practice in our case was an integrative liaison device, we also contribute to research that emphasizes the use of social controls in NPD settings. As management control anchor practice, integrative liaison devices can go beyond the ‘pure’ sharing and integration of knowledge and play a crucial role in framing accountability-induced conflicts and negotiations. We also contribute to the notion of management control anchor practices by considering the dynamics between a constitutive rule and the strategies used to enact it. Management control anchor practices play a crucial role in the light of ‘conservative dynamism’ where strategies through which a constitutive rule is enacted are constantly adjusted. A key role of a management control anchor practice hereby is to avoid the emergence of a state of excessive proliferation where strategies are formed merely based on opportunism or short-term contingencies.