Improving product development is a complex task for many companies. One challenge is to avoid over-engineering and only include the functionality that customers are willing to pay for. Another challenge is to reduce costs in close co-operation with suppliers. This is a complex task because suppliers often have their own goals and are rarely located at the same physical place. Handling these two challenges is the domain of target costing. Emerging first from Japanese companies such as Toyota, Nissan and Olympus, target costing has become a critical element in achieving long-term profitability. Previous research on target costing has been paradoxical because even though it deals with product development, it has not incorporated the complexity of the product development process. More specifically, current models of target costing assume that the product development process can largely be planned and controlled by a single company. For complex multi-technology products, such as airplanes and industrial robots, this is far from true. By drawing on product development theories, and conducting an in-depth case study at ABB Robotics, this thesis explores target costing in the development of complex multi-technology products. The result is a framework that identifies challenges and problems in target costing processes, but also shows that target costing relies on both planning and improvisation to cope with tensions and contradictions in close customer and supplier relationships. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, 2011

AB Svenska Spel är ett statligt ägt monopolföretag som levererar spel och lotter till det svenska samhället. I detta examensarbete har AB Svenska Spel och dess avdelning ombudsekonomi verkat som fallföretag. Avdelningen, vilken är placerad vid huvudkontoret i Visby, valdes ut då ekonomichefen deklarerade att deras arbetssätt upplevdes ineffektivt av medarbetarna. Examensarbetet inleddes med en förstudie där olika förbättringsområden inom avdelningen identifierades, där ett beslut sedan fattads att två av dessa områden som skulle vara i fokus i examensarbetet. De delar i avdelningen som skulle granskas var kreditbevakning samt arbetsflödet och de interna överlämningarna. Gemensamt för de identifierade förbättringsområdena var att dessa kunde ses som symtom på att avdelningen inte arbetade systematiskt med kvalitetsutveckling eller med en tydlig verksamhetsstyrning. Detta innebar i praktiken att avdelningens övergripande ramverk, riktlinjer och målstyrning helt saknades. Vad avdelningens funktion och syfte var, hur medarbetarna bidrog till resterande organisation eller hur de bidrog externt till det svenska samhället kunde inte redogöras för. Inte heller någon dokumenterad information om detta återfanns och var inte uttalad. Medarbetarna kunde vidare inte redogöra för hur avdelningens interna arbetsmoment och arbetsuppgifter tillsammans bidrog till en enhetlig avdelning som gemensamt arbetade mot samma riktning. Följaktligen arbetades ett övergripande ramverk fram för avdelningen genom att insamlat material har kombinerats med existerande teorier om verksamhetsstyrning, till exempel offensiv kvalitetsutveckling och processkartläggning. För att skapa en helhet har avdelningens uppdrag och huvudprocess identifierats och sedan brutits ned i nya riktlinjer och arbetsdokument som rör kreditbedömningarna och på så sätt har arbetet konkritiserats och effektiviserats. Resultatet är att en röd tråd skapats mellan AB Svenska Spels övergripande vision och målbild och avdelningen ombudsekonomi genom att en anpassad affärsidé och vision skapats vilken är en förlängning på ett formulerat uppdrag. För att ytterligare konkritisera hur avdelningen kan styras samt hur mätning och nyckeltal kan användas har ett balanserat styrkort skapats. Vidare har resultatet med examensarbetet bidragit till att systematiska angreppssätt presenteras för att främja analys och ständiga förbättringar. Genom att anpassa hörnstensmodellen till avdelningen har nya värdegrunder skapats som ska verka som en stabil grund för långsiktigt hållbart arbete. Då examensarbetet inte inkluderar att resultatet som presenteras i denna rapport implementeras på avdelningen eller kan påvisa en reell effekthämtning har en åtgärdsplan och förslag till fortsatt arbete tagits fram och överlämnats till avdelningschefen. Detta ska möjliggöra att det systematiska arbetssättet fortskrider, förbättras ytterligare och det förändrade tankesättet bibehålls. / AB Svenska Spel is a state-owned company that delivers games and lottery to the Swedish society. In this essay, Svenska Spel and its unit ombudsekonomi acted as a case company. The unit, which is located at the Headquarters in Visby, was selected when the Chief Financial Officer declared that the employees felt that their workflow was ineffective and in need of change. Ombudsekonomi is part of the Finance Department and works with the company's establishment process for new customers, accounts receivable and management of the company's collection of debts. This essay began with a pre-study which intended to identify areas of improvement within the department, which then would form the basis for this essay. The pre-study pointed out several  primarily, development of the unit's credit surveillance, head process and workflow, as well as internal handovers. Common for all identified areas was that the unit didn ́t plan their work systematically or with total quality management, which is to be seen as a symptom of the lack of overall framework, policies and well-defined goals. The employees couldn ́t describe the function and purpose of the unit, or how they contributed to Svenska Spels organization or to the Swedish society. Neither could they express how the unit's internal actions and tasks together contributed to the common cause or how to work together to reach it, and we couldn't find any (for the unit) defined goals, vivion or overall assignment. Therefore, a general framework was put together combining theories of total quality management and processes, mapping with the official strategies, vision and goals that were found in the Svenska Spel annual report. To enable this, information was collected, modified and reformulated to fit the unit's work situation. A mission, vision and strategy was made and new processes were established. This, together with new guidelines and documents for work practices, should make it possible for all the emplyees to work against the same goal in an effective and rationalized way that creates more value for the unit. The result of this essay is the creation of a main thread from Svenska Spels overall existing framework down to the unit's work, as well as a new defined goal. To illustrate how this work can be implemented in different perspectives, a balance scorecard has been created including suggestions for measurement and key performance indicators. Furthermore, the result of this essay contributes to the unit's systematic approach to promote the analysis and continuous improvement based on fundamental proposed values. However, this project does not include implementation of the results and is therefore not going to ensure the outcomes. An action and application plan for further work will be handed over to the unit's Team Leader. This ensure that the systematic work approach progress, is further improved and that the proposed mind set is maintained.

Le management par indicateurs est devenu un véritable phénomène de société. Rares sont les contributions traitant de la mesure des dysfonctionnements provoqués par les indicateurs. Pourtant, selon certains sociologues, la société serait malade de la gestion. Nous proposons d’étudier les effets pervers des indicateurs de contrôle de gestion et de rechercher les moyens de les éviter. A partir d’observations exploratoires et d’une revue de littérature, nous avons dressé une typologie des effets pervers et une liste de principes de management à respecter pour les réduire. Nous avons ensuite testé nos propositions dans une grande entreprise industrielle du secteur de l’aéronautique. Compte tenu des résultats obtenus, nous soutenons que le management par indicateurs peut être dangereux pour l'entreprise. Quand un indicateur est utilisé à des fins de jugement, son utilisation a davantage de chances d'avoir de multiples effets pervers qui dégradent la performance au lieu de l'améliorer. Ces effets pervers sont des invariants qui peuvent être modélisés sous la forme d'une typologie. Pour les éviter ou les réduire, les managers doivent appliquer certaines méthodes de management. Ils doivent aussi posséder une bonne connaissance du terrain et du processus de construction de l'indicateur. / Management by indicators has become a social trend. There are few research works on the role played by indicators in dysfunctions within the firms. However, according to some sociologists, society would be negatively affected by management practices focused on indicators. We proposed to study pernicious effects of indicators of management control and to look for means to avoid them. From exploratory observations and a review of literature, we have built a typology of pernicious effects and a short list of management principles to reduce them. Next, we have tested our theories in a big firm of the aeronautic sector. Considering the results of the research, we defend that management by indicators can be dangerous for the firm. When an indicator is used by a manager to judge his subordinates, it is likely to cause several pernicious effects which reduce performance instead of increasing it. These pernicious effects can be modelized with a typology. To avoid or to reduce them, managers should apply some management methods. They should also have knowledges on the tasks and the organization on the one hand, and on the process of construction of the indicator on the other hand.

Introduktion: Valet av gymnasieskola, vilken skola och program en elev väljer att studera vid, är ett val alla i årskurs nio i Sverige måste ta. Ett av dessa val är om eleven ska studera vid en kommunal eller fristående skola. Idag verkar inte skillnaderna vara så stora som de var i början av 90-talet, så finns det ens några skillnader mellan en kommunal och en fristående gymnasieskola idag? Givetvis finns det många faktorer i skolans värld som går att jämföra, men vi har valt att fokusera på ekonomistyrning och ledarskap. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka och öka förståelsen för vilka skillnader det finns inom ekonomistyrning och ledarskap på gymnasieskolor med olika huvudmän, samt att se om det finns något samband mellan ekonomistyrningen och ledarskapet. Metod: Vi använder oss av en deduktiv ansats i uppsatsen eftersom vi har utgått ifrån kända teorier och ett antal hypoteser som vi testat mot den insamlade empirin. Teorierna ledde till de observationer och resultat vi fått fram i studien. Vi har också använt oss av flermetodsforskning, huvudsakligen är detta en kvalitativ studie men den kompletteras av en kvantitativ metod. Studien utformas som en fallstudie och vi undersöker fyra fall. Insamling av data till denna studie gjordes genom intervjuer och enkäter. Slutsats: Gällande de fall vi har undersökt kan vi se att det inte finns några större skillnader mellan kommunala och fristående gymnasieskolor inom ekonomistyrning och ledarskap. Den största skillnaden är den politiska styrningen, annars kopplas variationerna mer till den enskilda individen och inte till huvudmän. Slutsatserna som vi har dragit i denna uppsats kan inte generaliseras eftersom studien gjordes på så få fall. En större och djupare studie behövs för att kunna generalisera resultaten.

Bakgrund: Till följd av en förändrad marknadssituation blir tidigare differentieringsverktyg snabbt till standardiserade normer och idag pressas företags vinstmarginaler hårt. Lean har länge applicerats i tillverkningsindustrin i syfte att uppnå en ökad effektivitet och samtidigt växer intresset för tjänstefiering, en omställning som ämnar skapa en värdeökning i företags kunderbjudanden. Respektive koncept antas kunna stärka ett tillverkningsföretags position på marknaden, men trots en ökad kombinerad tillämpning av koncepten i praktiken finns det få forskare som har studerat kombinationen. För företagsledare kan det tänkas viktigt att få svar på om koncepten går att samordna utan problem eller om en avvägning krävs. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att utifrån ett verksamhetsstyrningsperspektiv beskriva kompatibiliteten mellan lean och tjänstefiering i tillverkningsindustrin, för att identifiera betydelsefulla aspekter att beakta vid en kombinerad tillämpning av lean och tjänstefiering. Metod: Med ett deskriptivt fenomenologiskt perspektiv samt en kvalitativ strategi har studien sökt att besvara syftet genom en enfallsstudie. Empirisk data har främst samlats in med hjälp av intervjuer som har genomförts med åtta anställda i ledande positioner, men även genom vissa dokumentstudier samt observationer. Genomgående är studien uppbyggd kring tolv beslutskategorier inom verksamhetsstyrning, vilka har styrt insamlingen av både teoretisk och empirisk data samt har fungerat som utgångspunkt för studiens analys. Slutsats: Studien redogör för en hög kompatibilitet mellan lean och tjänstefiering, vilket i synnerhet bygger på en gemensam utgångspunkt i kundvärde. Samtidigt presenteras flertalet motstridiga samt gynnsamma aspekter att ta hänsyn till vid en samordning av koncepten och dessutom identifieras aspekter som visar på potentiella samverkande effekter. Dessa resultat kan tänkas vara värdefulla för företag och företagsledare som står inför denna kombination av managementkoncept, men antas även bidra till den påbörjade forskningen inom området. / Introduction: When in ninth grade, students in Sweden must make choices of which upper secondary school and which study programme to attend. Included in these choices is whether the student is going to attend a public school or a private school. The differences between the two kinds of schools does not seem to be as big nowadays as they were in the early 1990s, so the question is: are there any differences left between public and private schools? There are of course many factors in the school environment that can be compared and analysed, but we have chosen to focus on management control and leadership. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate and increase the understanding of the differences there might be between public and private upper secondary schools regarding management control and leadership, as well as to see whether there are any relations between management control and leadership. Method: We used a deductive approach when working on this paper, since we used known theories and a number of hypotheses that we later tested against the collected empirics.The theories led to the observations and the results that we obtained in the study. We carried out a multimethod research. The main focus was on the qualitative approach that we complemented with the quantitative approach. The data collection for this paper was done through interviews and surveys. Conclusion: Regarding the cases we have investigated, we can see that there are no major differences between public and private upper secondary schools when it comes to management control and leadership. The biggest difference is the political governance. Other variations observed are more connected to individuals than to the responsible authority. However, the conclusions we have drawn in this paper cannot be generalised since the study was based on solely a few cases. A larger and deeper study is required to generalise the results.

Bakgrund: Kvalitetsbrister inom utkontrakterad äldreomsorg har ofta uppmärksammats av svenska media. Anledningen till detta har många gånger relaterats till dålig uppföljning av kontrakt och verksamhet. Svenska kommuner har bristande kunskaper kring hur de bör styra och följa upp verksamheter. Misslyckande grundas ofta i svårigheterna i att styra och kontrollera utkontrakterade verksamheter. Tidigare forskning har belyst denna problematik och konstaterat att styrningen måste anpassas efter verksamheters komplexitet men hur uppföljningen bör användas kvarstår att undersöka. Syfte: Syftet är att ta reda på hur kommuner använder styrning och uppföljning vid utkontraktering av verksamheter av olika komplexitet samt identifiera faktorer av betydelse för användandet. Genomförande: Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär med en deduktiv ansats men med inslag av induktion. En flerfallstudie har genomförts av tre fall av utkontrakterade verksamheter av olika komplexitet. Två kommuners verksamheter har studerats tillsammans med de tillhörande privata leverantörerna. För insamling av data till den empiriska referensramen har intervjuer och dokumentstudier genomförts. Slutsats: Hur kommuner använder styrning och uppföljning bör anpassas efter verksamhetens komplexitet. De faktorer som är av betydelse för användandet varierar beroende på komplexiteten. Studiens resultat visar på att det finns ett flertal faktorer som spelar roll för om uppföljningen kommer att bidra till förbättrad kvalitet och minskad risk för misslyckande. Det är således inte endast uppföljningen i sig som är problemet. Forskningsbidrag: Denna studie har bidragit till att öka förståelsen för hur kommuner kan använda sig av styrning och uppföljning samt hur uppföljningen bör utformas beror på verksamhetens komplexitet. Studien har identifierat att det finns ett behov av vidare forskning kring hur olika komplexa verksamheter bör styras och följas upp. / Background: Quality deficiencies in outsourced elderly care have often been highlighted by Swedish media. The reason for this has often been related to poor monitoring of contracts and operations. Swedish municipalities have insufficient knowledge about how to control and monitor activities. Failure is often found in the difficulties in controlling outsourced operations. Previous research has highlighted this problem and found that governance must be adapted to the complexity of operations, but how this and the monitoring should be used by municipalities remains to be investigated. Purpose: The purpose is to investigate how municipalities use management control and monitoring when outsourcing activities of different complexity and to identify factors of importance for the use of management controls. Implementation: The study is of qualitative nature with a deductive approach with elements of induction. A multiple case study has been conducted with three cases of outsourced activities of different complexity. The activities of two municipalities have been studied together with the associated private suppliers. For the gathering of data interviews and document studies have been conducted. Conclusion: How municipalities use management controls and monitoring should be adapted to the complexity of the outsourced activity. The factors that are important for use vary depending on the complexity. The study's results indicate that there are a number of factors that play a role for if the monitoring will contribute to improved quality and reduced risk of failure. Research contribution: This study has helped to increase understanding of how municipalities can use management control and monitoring and shown that there is a need for further research.

Cette thèse questionne l’utilité avérée du dispositif dit de Reporting Intégré en tant que nouveau dispositif de contrôle pilotage. Une revue rétro-exploratoire des outils de contrôle existants est utilisée pour caractériser des attributs utiles à une nouvelle instrumentation du contrôle-pilotage. Une première mise à l’épreuve théorique montre que le RI possède ces attributs. Sur la base des définitions d’auteurs de référence en systémique, la réflexion a révélé l’existence d’un système technico-organisationnel formé par le contrôle, l’organisation et la technologie. Aussi, guidée par la modélisation systémique, la deuxième étape du processus a été l’identification des conditions permettant d’accueillir et d’utiliser effectivement le dispositif dit de RI au cœur du système. Une enquête exploratoire auprès d’une trentaine de groupes cotés a été réalisée pour mettre à l’épreuve ces conditions d’accueil sur les phases de conception, d’ingénierie et d’exploitation du dispositif. Mais cette enquête a surtout cherché à discuter de l’utilité avérée du dispositif dans un objectif de contrôle-pilotage, sur la base des attributs précédemment caractérisés. Les résultats révèlent deux niveaux de lecture : un premier niveau qui montre qu’a priori le dispositif possède effectivement de nombreux attributs. Un deuxième niveau qui révèle une croyance avérée plus qu’une utilité avérée dans de nombreuses organisations. Les discours indiquent aussi que le RI est d’avantage dédié aux stratèges globaux plus qu’aux stratèges locaux. / This research challenges Integrated Reporting usefulness as a new internal management control system. A review of existing management control tools has enabled to characterize useful management control tools attributes. First part of this research has been dedicated to test theoretically Integrated Reporting. In-depth analysis of IIRC Framework shows IR possesses theoretically those attributes. But this theoretical adherence is not sufficient: IR needs to be set up at the heart of a technical and organisational system. Guided by systems modelling approach, second step has been the identification of conditions allowing reception and effective usage of IR at the heart of the system. An explanatory survey conducted among about thirty listed companies has been realized to test those conditions on think, build and run phases. But this survey has overall dedicated to debate IR usefulness, on the basis of attributes previously characterized. Results can be read at two levels: first level shows that IR actually meets expectations in terms of management control effectiveness. Second level reveals more strong belief than strong usefulness in many organisations. Verbatim also shows that IR is more dedicated to global decision-makers than local decision-makers.

Toute entreprise ambitieuse et évolutive ne pourra nier la contribution cruciale de la fonction contrôle de gestion sociale dans sa performance. Cependant, cet apport est encore le sujet de multiples recherches. Plusieurs auteurs se sont mobilisés pour tenter d'éclairer cette "boite noire". En dépit de ce qui a été validé, il reste encore beaucoup d'aspects à découvrir. Dans la littérature, on trouve différentes approches théoriques à travers lesquelles plusieurs auteurs ont tenté de valider la pertinence de ce lien. Nous avons retenu l’approche de contingence pour identifier les facteurs qui influencent les pratiques du contrôle de gestion sociale dans les entreprises marocaines et qui peuvent par conséquent améliorer la performance de ces entités. Suivant un raisonnement hypothético-déductif, un modèle explicatif des pratiques de contrôle de gestion sociale est proposé. Notre modèle intègre une variable à expliquer « amélioration de la performance », douze variables explicatives de type organisationnel et comportemental, et une variable intermédiaire « Caractéristiques du contrôle de gestion sociale ». Ce modèle est ensuite testé empiriquement. Les données collectées sont traitées en utilisant une analyse exploratoire et une autre confirmatoire par les méthodes des équations structurelles. / Even if the role of the function social management control in the improvement of the performance of companies are more and more recognized more than before, this link is still subject of several searches. Several authors tried to light this "black box". In spite of what was validated, many still remain to discover. In literature, we find various theoretical approaches through which several authors tried to validate the relevance of this link. We held the approach of possibility to identify the factors which influence the practices of the social management control in the Moroccan companies and which can consequently improve the performance of these entities.

O controle interno está associado ao contexto da governança das organizações. Na administração pública brasileira, compete aos Poderes Executivo, Legislativo e Judiciário a manutenção de um sistema de controle interno integrado, conforme previsto na Constituição Federal. Os aspectos relacionados à governança são contemplados na Teoria da Agência, em que a relação entre principal e agente é marcada pela assimetria de informações e pelos conflitos de interesse. O objetivo deste estudo é investigar a evidenciação de princípios de governança nos relatórios de auditoria elaborados pelo órgão de controle interno da Marinha do Brasil. Trata-se de pesquisa descritiva, documental e ex post facto, conduzida pelo método de estudo de caso no Centro de Controle Interno da Marinha (CCIMAR). Devido à quantidade de material disponibilizado pelo órgão, o estudo foi limitado à investigação dos relatórios de auditoria de avaliação da gestão de 2012, tendo as unidades auditadas sido previamente selecionadas pelo Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU). Em 2012, o CCIMAR produziu seis relatórios de auditoria de avaliação da gestão, representando, portanto, a amostra de conveniência desta pesquisa. Para orientar a investigação, definiu-se um quadro de referência contemplando e integrando os princípios de governança abordados pelos seguintes estudos: Cadbury Committee (1992); Nolan Committee (1995); Ministério das Finanças da Holanda Timmers (2000); IFAC (2001); ANAO (2003); OECD (2004); e IBGC (2009). Os princípios finalmente selecionados para investigação foram Accountability, Equidade, Integridade e Transparência, associados, respectivamente, às palavras-chave prestação (ões) de contas / prestar contas, tratamento justo, confiabilidade / fidedignidade das informações / dos dados e disponibilidade / divulgação das informações / dos dados, definidas pelos contextos dos significados destacados no quadro de referência. Sendo assim, os princípios e as palavras-chave formaram o referencial de análise para investigar os relatórios de auditoria e receberam tratamento quanti-qualitativo. Após exame das ocorrências dos princípios e das palavras-chave nos relatórios compulsados, os resultados indicaram que: (1) o princípio da Accountability estava associado ao cumprimento de prazos e formalidades legais requeridas nos processos de prestação de contas públicas; (2) o princípio da Equidade foi evidenciado, essencialmente, na perspectiva interna das unidades auditadas, sendo percebido nas recomendações que contemplavam a atuação mais consistente e efetiva dos respectivos conselhos de gestão no gerenciamento das organizações; (3) o princípio da Integridade foi abordado nos relatórios tanto como atributo pessoal (integridade moral) dos agentes públicos, quanto como característica necessária das informações reportadas nos documentos emitidos pelos órgãos públicos; e (4) a Transparência foi mencionada como o princípio que proporciona a diminuição da assimetria informacional entre os stakeholders, permitindo que tenham acesso às informações relevantes, tais como a aplicação dos recursos públicos destinados às organizações da Marinha do Brasil. / Internal control is associated to organizational governance. In the Brazilian public administration, it is incumbent upon Executive, Legislative and Judiciary to maintain a system of integrated internal control, as stated in the Federal Constitution. Control issues relating to governance are grounded in Agency Theory, whereby the relationship between principal and agent is marked by asymmetric information and interest conflicts. This study aims to investigate whether governance principles are disclosed in the audit reports prepared by the Brazilian Navy internal control agency. This is a descriptive, documentary and ex post facto research, supported by the case study method in CCIMAR, the Brazilian Navy Internal Control Center. Due to the amount of material available at CCIMAR, data collection has been limited to the examination of audit reports relating to managerial assessment as of 2012; audited units were previously selected by the National Audit Court (TCU). In 2012, CCIMAR has produced six audit reports on managerial assessment, representing the empirical evidence to be treated in the present research. In order to guide the investigation, a reference framework was created that synthesized governance principles recurrent in the following studies: Cadbury Committee (1992); Nolan Committee (1995); The Netherlands Ministry of Finance Timmers (2000); IFAC (2001); ANAO (2003); OECD (2004); and IBGC (2009). Four principles were selected to be investigated, namely Accountability, Fairness, Integrity and Transparency, which were associated, respectively, to the keywords accounts presentation, fair treatment, trustworthiness of information / data and availability / disclosure of information / data, defined according to the contexts of meanings appearing in the reference framework. Those principles and keywords were taken to characterize the audit reports and were then treated via a quanti-qualitative approach. Upon checking occurrences of principles and keywords in sampled reports, findings indicated that: (1) the Accountability principle was associated to meeting deadlines and legal formalities for public accounts presentation; (2) the Fairness principle was evidenced, essentially, in the internal perspective of audited units, being perceived in recommendations contemplating the more consistent and effective acting of administration boards; (3) Integrity emerged in reports as a personal attribute (moral integrity) of public agents as well as a necessary characteristic of information reported in the documents issued by public bodies; and (4) Transparency was mentioned as the principle helping decrease informational asymmetry between stakeholders, allowing them access to relevant information, e. g. the use of public resources for Brazilian Navy organizations.

O presente estudo buscou analisar os principais impactos sofridos pelos sistemas de controle de gestão das empresas em decorrência de sua internacionalização e consequente aumento da complexidade de suas operações. A pesquisa buscou analisar também algum afastamento ou aproximação da literatura pesquisada, sobre a forma como este processo de internacionalização acontece. Assim sendo, foram feitas comparações entre as características de controle e de internacionalização encontradas na literatura e as situações encontradas nas empresas entrevistadas nesta pesquisa. Para possibilitar tais comparações, foi realizada uma revisão da literatura sobre as teorias acerca do controle de gestão nas empresas, sobre os processos de internacionalização e também sobre as teorias de internacionalização de empresas, descritas pelos principais autores destas áreas. Definido o plano de referência, foi adotado o método de estudo de caso aplicado em três das maiores empresas do estado do Rio Grande do Sul, a Gerdau S/A, a Fras-le S/A e a Forjas Taurus S/A, a fim de explorar mais aprofundadamente os reais procedimentos e controles encontrados nestas empresas, de tamanha relevância para a economia Gaúcha e Brasileira, observando suas características em relação ao plano de referência proposto. Com base nas entrevistas presenciais realizadas, foi possível verificar a real importância dos sistemas de controle de gestão nas companhias internacionalizadas e o grande desafio que as empresas atravessam para conseguir monitorar e planejar, de forma eficiente, as complexas atividades realizadas em diferentes locais do mundo. Os principais achados indicam que os sistemas de controle sofrem vários impactos para adaptação aos diferentes mercados, sendo identificadas relevantes mudanças estruturais, conceituais e de acompanhamento e controle nos casos analisados. Deve-se destacar a grande impotância dos investimentos em tecnologia, pesquisa e desenvolvimento e a atenção constante que as empresas devem dispensar ao capital intelectual para a obtenção de eficiência e qualidade nas operações. Quanto às características do processo de internacionalização, foram encontradas aproximações relevantes entre teoria e prática. / This study investigates the main impacts in control systems of enterprises due to its internationalization and consequent increase in complexity of their operations. The research sought to examine further some clearance or approach in the literature, about how this process of internationalization happens. Therefore, comparisons were made between control and internationalization characteristics found in the literature and the real situations in the companies interviewed in this research. To enable such comparisons, we performed a literature review on the theories of management control in companies on the processes of globalization and also on the theories of internationalization of firms, described by the principal authors of these areas. Set the reference plane, was adopted the method of case study applied in three major companies in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Gerdau S/A, Fras-le S/A and Forjas Taurus S/A in order to seek a deeper exploration on the actual procedures and controls found in these companies, such relevance to the Brazilian and regional economy, noting their characteristics in relation to the reference plane proposed. From the interviews conducted in person, it was possible to verify the real importance of systems of management control in companies internationalized and the great challenge that companies go through to get to monitor and plan effectively, the complex activities that are held in different locations around the world. The main findings indicate that the control systems suffer various impacts to adapt to different markets and could be verifyed other some important structural, conceptual and monitoring and control changes in the cases analyzed. It is worth mentioning the great impotance of investments in technology, research and development and constant attention that companies should pay to the intellectual capital to achieve efficiency and quality in operations. Relevant approaches were found between theory and practice about the characteristics of the internationalization process.