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Information on the study "Influence of Analytics Tools on Management Control - Status Quo of the 3,000 Largest German Companies"
Thank you for your interest in our study "Influence of Analytics Tools on Management Control - Status Quo of the 3,000 largest German Companies".
On this page, we have compiled information on the initial results of the study. You will also find information on the conception and methodological procedure of this questionnaire project. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions. The relevant contact details can be found at the end of this website.
Why are we investigating the topic of analytics tools in management control?
Digitization in controlling is a much discussed topic in the practical literature. Unfortunately, however, there are hardly any empirical scientific publications that decisively describe the influence of digitalization on management control. This is especially true for the use and influence of analytics tools on management control. For this reason, we have decided to investigate the use and design of analytics tools in management control in order to close the research gap and make the findings available to practitioners.
How was the data collected?
The data collection method chosen was a survey using a standardized questionnaire. The data was collected in two waves. All large companies headquartered in Germany were defined as the population. The aim was to survey the 3,000 largest (in terms of sales in fiscal year 2019) German companies.
Who participated in the study?
414 companies returned the questionnaire to us or completed the online version of the questionnaire, which corresponds to a gross response rate of 13.86%. However, 92 questionnaires had to be excluded from this response because they were incomplete, for example. Thus, a final response of 322 questionnaires or a response rate of 10.78 % could be achieved.
What significant findings did initial descriptive analyses reveal?
- Only about one third of the companies have an independent analytics department.
- The Corona pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of the controlling department, but less the use of analytics tools.
- The role of management control employees as score keepers is still more pronounced than that of the business partners.
- A variety of different analytics tools are used in the companies, with self-developed enterprise solutions dominating.
- The benefits of analytics tools are seen primarily in informational and transactional, less in strategic and transformational benefits.
- When using analytics tools, external data sources, especially social media data, are underutilized.
- The technological characteristics of analytics tools examined were judged by companies to be at a rather low level, with the exception of data visualization techniques.
- Information from analytics tools is perceived as increasing productivity, improving quality and facilitating monitoring.
- On average, neither significant role ambiguity nor significant role conflicts can be found among controlling managers.
How was the evaluation and communication of the obtained data and relevant results carried out so far?
Within the scope of previous analyses (status: January 2022), an exclusively descriptive evaluation of the results was carried out. These were made available to study participants as part of an evaluation report in December 2021 (URL:
https://cloudstore.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php/s/LBje43rKyN354KT or https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa2-766909). In addition, a more interactive discussion of the results obtained with the study participants took place in January 2022 as part of an online workshop via Zoom.
In the long term, the chair is pursuing the goal of identifying hypothesis-based correlations in the data based on comprehensive statistical analyses and publishing these as part of scientific journals.
Which sponsors does the research project have?
The research project is financed solely by funds from the Chair of Management Accounting/Controlling at the TU Dresden. We do not receive any other financial support.
The Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaftslehre e.V. supports the project ideally by allowing us to use their logo on our questionnaire.
Who can you contact with further questions about our research project?
Please do not hesitate to contact the initiators of this study if you have any questions about our questionnaire in particular or our research project in general:
© brw
Chairholder
NameMr Prof. Dr. Thomas W. Günther
Room SCH B337
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© TUD/Kretzschmar
Research associate
NameMs Dipl.-Wi.-Ing. Xenia Börner
Room SCH B335
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Research associate
NameMelanie Mischer (M. Sc.)
Raum SCH B334
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Thank you very much for your interest in our research project!