Motives, diffusion and utilisation of the balanced scorecard in Denmark

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has by now achieved great attention in Denmark but no large surveys exists concerning the motives for implementing the BSC in Denmark. A questionnaire survey of 53 respondents from Danish medium-sized and large manufacturing companies showed that areas such as "strategy work", "communication", "early warning", "nature of target figures", "focusing" and "causality" are the most important aspects when a company considers the implementation of the BSC. The main objective of a BSC is that the company can translate vision and strategy into operational terms â from management level down to day-to-day level. The level of knowledge appears to be high, about 80%, whereas less than 20% give a high priority to the BSC. In addition, we have tested significant relations between the level of priority, usage, suitability of the current system and the need for the BSC. Compared to the results in other international studies, we found that Danish companies seem to be at an initial phase of implementing the BSC.