| dc.description.abstract | This research aims to analyze the controllership practices adopted by firms operating in Brazil from the perspective of contingency theory. It seeks to identify practices adopted by the firms, characteristics of contingent factors, values of the performance variables and analyze the relationship between practices, factors and performance. The survey sample consists of 73 firms listed in the yearbook Valor 1000, in its 2012 edition. Data were collected through a questionnaire. The analysis was conducted through frequency distribution, cluster analysis, Fisher’s exact test, Kruskal-Wallis, and Median. Our main results, from the firms’ managers viewpoint, indicate that the most used controllership practices are the following: operating budget, performance evaluation, and tax planning. The environments of most firms are marked by dynamism, diversity, complexity, and hostility. Their structure is mechanistic. Their processes are routine, complex and standardized. They have core technology aimed at greater efficiency in the process. The higher performance of the firms in the Cluster 3 may have been favored by the factor environment, and by the alignment between the factors environment and strategy, environment and structure, strategy and technology, the degree of adoption of capital budget and the economic value added. The intermediate performance of firms in the Cluster 1 may have been due to the alignment between environment and prospector strategy, and between this strategy and the high degree of adoption of capital budget, since they show lack of fit between the factors structure and technology, structure and strategy, as well as higher degrees of adoption of target costing and standards inconsistent with the adopted strategy. The lower performance of firms in the Cluster 2 may be due to the mismatch between the factor strategy with the factors structure and technology, as well as by smaller degrees of adoption of capital budget and economic value added. It follows that a greater alignment involving contingent factors and the adoption of controllership practices can affect fhe firms’ performance. | en |
