This exploratory study examines the socio-cultural aspects of Management Control System (MCS) in a medium-sized Chinese Indonesian plastic sheet manufacturing company. The study is concerned with the influence of a specifically Indonesian construction of ethnicity on the culture and practices of Chinese capitalism in Indonesia. Chinese Indonesians have a unique position in Indonesian society. Despite being a minority (3-4%) of the total Indonesian population, they hold the largest share of Indonesian private domestic capital. Economically, they are the backbone of the country's development. However, the group was discriminated against extensively in the social, cultural, political and economic spheres, particularly during the New Order era (1966- 1998). The term pariah entrepreneurship has been applied to describe the vulnerability of this ethnic group, which was subject to social harassment and public resentment from other ethnic groups in Indonesia (the so-called pribumi ethnic groups). Consequently, the ethnicity dimension is very strong and inseparable from its daily life. In this study, MCS is defined as a system within social, cultural, political, and economic enviromnents used by management to ensure that employees achieve organisational objectives. The theoretical framework stems mainly from Merchant's models of control variation, namely; result, action, and personnel/cultural controls (Merchant 1998), the anthropological concept of ethnicity, and organisational cross- cultural analysis (Lachman 1994). The framework is extended to incorporate issues of Chinese and Javanese cultures and the ethnicity of Chinese Indonesians. The research method used in this case study is a combination of ethnography and grounded theory. It is further believed that an interpretive approach can elaborate the complexity of the case. It is argued that three socio-cultural factors shape the company's MCS: Confucian culture, Javanese culture, and ethnicity (i.e. ethnic tensions between the Chinese employers and pribumi/Javanese employees). The influences of Confucian culture come from the owners of the company who are personally involved in daily management. They also adopt Javanese culture to help control the pribumi/Javanese employees. Ethnicity plays a significant role in determining how controls are exercised. Based upon these findings, further propositions are made for further theoretical development.