Management Control System (MCS), as a broader conceptualization has gained increasing popularity among scholars as a viable approach to achieving organizational economic, environmental, and social responsibility objectives over the last two decades (Gond et al., 2012; Nishitani et al., 2021). Nevertheless, a clear consensus on adopting MCS as a holistic approach to achieving sustainable development is unnoticed. Accordingly, this paper reviewed and synthesized prior holistic MCS research adopted towards achieving corporate sustainability over the last thirty-three years. Consequently, 38 English peer-reviewed journal articles published in the Web of Science and Scopus databases from 1988 to 2021 were analyzed using a systematic literature review methodology. The review revealed significant findings for future scholars. During the last five years, the holistic approach of MCS has substantially been developed as a distinct stream of research based on the methods, theories, topics, and frameworks to address sustainable development dimensions. However, most prior holistic MCS research has still been adopted to examine corporate sustainable development through the lens of economic success. Although prior scholars equally adopted traditional and emerging MCS approaches, most of these studies focused particularly on one or two dimensions of corporate sustainability. While eco-control and environmental MCS have gained substantial attraction from prior scholars to achieve diverse economic and environmental objectives, the adoption of the sustainability control system (SCS) is still appearing. Notably, both conventional and emerging MCS studies have adopted the same holistic MCS frameworks to examine all dimensions of sustainability performance. Consequently, this review revealed fruitful avenues for further research to advance holistic MCS as a distinct management accounting and control strand to contribute to sustainable development.