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The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between external environment and organisational culture, and the subsequent relationship of organisational culture with the adoption of management control systems in large Brazilian companies.

The research involves 109 of the “Best and Biggest” companies in Brazil, as designated by the Brazilian financial magazine Exame. Data are collected by a research questionnaire distributed electronically to senior managers of the sample companies. The data are analysed by multivariate structural equation modelling.

The results show that a significant relationship exists between the constructs of “external environment” and “organisational culture”, thus indicating that the environment exerts a significant influence on planning, execution, control elements, and managers' characteristics and skills. The results also show a significant relationship between the constructs of “organisational culture” and “management controls”, thus indicating that organisational culture has a strong influence on the choice of management control systems in practice in the companies.

Although isolated studies have investigated various aspects of the external business environment, organisational culture, and management control systems, few studies have explored the relationships among them.