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The purpose of this paper is to examine management control integration through the lens of process theory. Based on a case study of the FOODS project, an open innovation project between Unilever and its partners, we show how the integration of countervailing management controls (known as “dynamic tension” in management control literature) unfolds over time. We argue that Unilever and its partners were able to effectively integrate countervailing controls, even though we do not observe these simultaneously at the same time. The FOODS project demonstrates that shifting between countervailing management controls across the distinct phases of an open innovation process that lasted approximately three-and-a-half years allowed the partners to balance their diverse strategic and operational objectives. In that sense, countervailing management controls were integrated into the open innovation process, but …