THE BALANCED SCORECARD: ADOPTION AND APPLICATION

Technological advances and increasing competition are forcing organisations to monitor their performance ever more closely. The concept of the balanced scorecard offers a systematic and coherent method of performance measurement that in particular concentrates on assessing present performance in the light of an organisation’s strategy and takes into account the importance of the various policy aspects. In this paper we study the extent to which the concept contributes to the desired improvement of performance. To this end, we examine the motives for adopting the concept and the decision-making process around this adoption. We study the functioning of the balanced scorecard as a means to control performance, assuming that its functioning is linked to an organisation’s problems and is influenced by other control instruments used. This is why we have done case research.