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...han growth stage organisations. Since the inherent characteristics of organisations differ across OLC stages, alternative management practices are considered appropriate at different stages (Kazanjian, 1988; Smith et al., 1985) with Kallunki and Silvola (2008) finding that the use of activity based costing was used to a greater extent in the maturity and revival stages than in the growth stages. Similarly, we argue that the interactive and diagnostic approaches to using controls will be more (or less) effective in influencing organisational performance within specific OLC stages. For example, Agbejule (2007, p. 6) states that ‘the diagnostic use of MAS is likely to be more effective in situations where change is either limited or non-existent’. Alternatively, it is expected that the interactive approach will be more appropriate in circumstances where the search for new opportunities is encouraged. counting44 S. Su et al. / Management Ac Hence, we predict that the suitability of the interactive and diagnostic approaches to using controls will vary across Miller and Friesen’s (1984) four life cycle stages (birth, growth, maturity, revival), hypothesising that the association between the interactiv...