Adaption of Management Control Mechanisms for Swedish companies operating in Australia

Abstract: Successful companies that are founded and established in Sweden are likely to at some point look to expand outside of Sweden. When they do so they will need to adapt the company to the environment and circumstances that are present in the local market they are expanding to. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate Swedish companies’ use of control mechanisms when running a subsidiary in Australia. Applying the theoretical framework by Malmi and Brown (2008), four Swedish companies operating in the Australian market were selected. Ikea using culture as an asset make them an interesting comparison to three highly reputable tech-companies that both differ from Ikea in age and size. It was found that cultural control mechanisms were heavily featured among the respondents' respective companies, and reward and compensation control mechanisms were altered the most when operating in Australia compared to Sweden.