Management Control Systems in a Fast Growing Start-up

Abstract: Fast growing start-ups create most of the new jobs today. Therefore, it is interesting for the society and economy to know how the design of management control systems (MCS) contributes to the success in a fast growing start-up. The aim of this paper is to increase the knowledge about how MCS is designed in a fast growing start-up four years from start, and to investigate if culture should be seen as a MCS. To answer this, a case study of a four year old company was made. Information was collected through 15 interviews, questionnaires and participant observation. The starting point for this paper was the earlier research by Davila and Foster, who are the foremost researchers in the field of fast growing start-ups. This is complemented with a cultural aspect presented by Malmi and Brown as well as MacNeill and Boyd. The results in this paper show that the number of MCS increases as a company grows, and that the number of employees is connected to the number of implemented MCS on both company level as well as on department level. In this case study, the company uses culture as a MCS leading to fewer formal MCS. By using culture as a MCS, the company receives several advantages, such as managing other offices without more MCS, increases its teamwork and creates a happy and familiar atmosphere. This indicates that culture could be considered a MCS and that the research by Davila and Foster should be complemented with this aspect.