Management Control for Circular Cities: An Integrative Framework

Purpose: Now that cities are adopting strategies for implementing the circular economy as a solution to sustainability challenges, knowledge is needed on integrating this strategy. An integrative framework is proposed on management control (MC) for implementing circular city strategies, as a starting point for future research. This research focuses on the city as an organization containing the elected politicians and the administration.
Design: A critical review of related management control research is performed to gather main insights on this topic. These insights are translated into an integrative model based on the holistic MC framework by Malmi and Brown (2008).
Findings: Circular strategies impact the whole MC package. It requires the integration of circularity in all control systems. Also, the importance of control systems has shifted from a focus on cybernetic controls to more informal controls like culture.
Implications: This framework could be a starting point for holistic research on how this new strategy could be integrated using MC to make the transition a success.
Originality: Combining different streams of MC literature and reviewing the literature will support further research on the implementation of circular city strategies.
Keywords: management control, circular city, sustainability, circular economy, public sector, local government, integrative framework