Purpose: Research on management control for innovation has shifted from viewing control as primarily constraining to recognizing that control can also enable innovation. However, common ways of classifying control such as mechanisms, tools or types of use can understate what makes management control in innovation settings distinctive. This paper aims to propose a vocabulary to support richer explanations of how management control both constrains and enables innovation over time.

Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on the management control literature and the papers in this Special Issue, the authors develop a vocabulary that foregrounds six dimensions of management control that become especially salient in innovation contexts. These dimensions are Temporal, Reflexive, Adaptive, Performative, Pluralist and Strategic (TRAPPS).

Findings: The TRAPPS vocabulary highlights six dimensions of management control that become especially salient in innovation settings. While innovation unfolds across multiple time horizons and phases (Temporal), it also involves learning about and reconsidering the effects of control (Reflexive) and sometimes requires reconfiguration as innovation paths shift (Adaptive). It is further shaped by sociomaterial arrangements that make some possibilities visible and actionable while pushing others into the background (Performative). It is influenced by multiple stakeholders and competing evaluative criteria (Pluralist) and by priorities and resource commitments that set direction (Strategic). The TRAPPS vocabulary therefore helps to show how different papers in the Special Issue foreground different dimensions and, in turn, reveals openings for future research.

Originality/value: The TRAPPS vocabulary of six dimensions can be used independently or alongside more general management control frameworks. In doing so, these dimensions highlight questions that may be overlooked when controls are treated as stable tools or mechanisms and provide a vocabulary for understanding management control for innovation.