Management control systems in accounting firms: an Egyptian perspective

This research examines the management control system (MCS) of a non-Big4 local Egyptian member firm (EMF) with the objectives of understanding and explaining how EMF's MCS is shaped by its idiosyncratic features as an accounting firm, as well as, its membership of a global network (NonA). The research situates accounting firms within the broader context of professional service firms, whose unique features, coupled with accounting firms' cost/quality conflict dilemma, require a control package approach. MCS is construed as a package of bureaucratic and clan controls. The research is theoretically informed by Ouchi's (1979, 1980) control typology, Malmi and Brown's (2008) notion of a package. A case study approach is used relying on interviews, documentation and observations in an interpretative qualitative research design