Strategic renewal and management control in the front-end of innovation: The importance of input control mechanisms

Should management control the front-end phase of the innovation process, and if so, how? This paper examines the use of management control in the front-end phase, and how the different mechanisms of control are associated with generating strategic renewal in the form of new product concepts. Input control mechanisms, more precisely goal setting and human resource allocation, are taken into closer investigation. This paper develops a framework on management control in the front-end phase. Seven management control constructs are created: input control, front-end process formalization, output- based rewarding, influence of strategic vision, informal communication, involvement in goal setting, and influence of intrinsic task motivation. This paper focuses on testing hypothesis on the relationship between input control and achievement of strategic renewal. Also, the role of technology and market uncertainty as potential moderators of this relationship is investigated. Strategic renewal is used as a front- end performance indicator. Data from the front-end phase of 133 new product development projects from different large and medium-sized Finnish companies were collected and analyzed. A factor model was used to test the validity of the management control framework, and a moderated regression analysis was used for hypothesis testing. The results show that input control is positively associated with achieving strategic renewal in the form of new product concepts. Implications of results from theoretical and practical point of views are discussed.