How Management Control Systems Can Help Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Develop Resilience

Due to their limited resources, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often employ less formalized management control systems compared with larger enterprises. However, SMEs can greatly benefit from management control systems. For instance, such systems can generally support the professionalization and growth of SMEs but can also foster SMEs in developing organizational resilience. The present chapter focuses on the latter aspect and provides an integrative review of existing research on how management control systems can help SMEs develop resilience. We map the existing literature on this topic by drawing on the five types of management control systems classified by Malmi and Brown (Manag Account Res 19(4):287–300, 2008) and the three dimensions of organizational resilience proposed by Duchek (Bus Res 13(1):215–246, 2020). Our results show various ways in which SMEs can benefit from management control systems when aiming to increase their resilience. At the same time, we also highlight that additional research is needed to understand more fully the contribution that management control systems make to SMEs’ resilience.