This research explores how management control systems are designed and used in an organization to help align strategic investment decisions with the firm's strategy. It contributes to the stream of accounting research whose purpose is to shed light on the relationship between management control and strategy. The focus of this research is on the strategic investments in manufacturing plant and equipment because the capital investment in this area constitutes an important business activity over which effective control must be exercised to ensure the best possible quality of the firm's investment programmes.

One of the most striking developments in the financial services industry over the past years has been the increasing convergence of banking and insurance. It is expected that this trend will still gain in importance all over the world. Given the new scope of competition, it has become extremely important for financial intermediaries to reassess their overall business strategies. This book presents some empirical evidence regarding the performance consequences of this new strategic direction. It concentrates on two main questions. Do financial conglomerates outperform specialized banks and specialized insurance companies? Are there significant differences in diversification approach of financial conglomerates and to what extent do these differences influence performance? These questions are theoretically answered and empirically illustrated in the book. For the empirical research, we have examined the Belgian and the Dutch financial services industry.