The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether family influence impacts on the degree of utilization of the management control systems (MCS), and the relationship between the former and performance. To this end, this study was carried out using a sample of 900 Spanish SMEs, both family and non-family businesses. The findings show that family businesses use less management control systems than non-family firms and that the use of MCS has a positive influence on business performance. This study

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... s useful for firm managers and practitioners as it can encourage them to develop systems that allow control of the firm direction and improve the firm's competitiveness.