This thesis investigates the entanglement of management control systems (MCSs) and sociotechnical imaginaries (STIs) within global-local dynamics. While existing research recognizes the role of aspirations and perceptions in control, it often treats imaginaries as pre-existing mental states rather than social phenomena forged in the translation of MCSs. Accordingly, this study aims to bring forward the ideational aspects of global-local control, focusing on how imaginaries shape and are shaped in the global-local enactment of management control and how “localities” are ideationally constructed.
Drawing on a qualitative case study of a living wage control system in a Europe- China garment supply chain, the thesis advances three core arguments: first, sociotechnical imaginaries motivate management control by providing visions of desirable futures and assumptions about social orders in distant contexts; second, imaginaries are probed and forged through the (re)production of MCSs; and third, imaginaries of self and other are co-produced, as control work simultaneously constructs collective identities.
The thesis contributes to the MCS literature by reconceptualizing “localities” as ideationally constructed collectives stabilized through shared STIs rather than fixed geographical or organizational sites. Empirically, it complicates governance accounts by integrating managerial and worker perspectives across the entire supply chain. Ultimately, it introduces an imaginary-centered explanation for why sustainability governance outcomes can diverge from designer expectations.
- Dreamscapes in Global-Local Management Control: Sociotechnical Imaginaries in Living Wage Control Mechanisms in Global Supply Chains
- Yiwen Lu - Stockholm School of Economics, Department of Accounting
- Torkel Strömsten - Stockholm School of Economics, Department of Accounting
- Stockholm School of Economics; Doctor of Philosophy (PHD)
- Doctor of Philosophy (PHD), Stockholm School of Economics
- Stockholm School of Economics
- 261
- 9789177313779; 9789177313786
- Department of Accounting
- English
- Dissertation