TY - JOUR

T1 - Diffusion of the Balanced Scorecard

T2 - motives for adoption, design choices, organisational fit, and consequences

AU - Lueg, Rainer

AU - Carvalho e Silva, Ana Luisa

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 University of South Australia.

PY - 2022/7/3

Y1 - 2022/7/3

N2 - The purpose of this exploratory study is to understand how the motives behind a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) adoption affect the BSC's design, organisational fit, and consequences from a diffusion theory perspective. Using semi-structured interviews, we follow up on three organisations that are long-term adopters of the BSC. We find that the motives for adopting the BSC do not follow the conventional model whereby early adopters have economic (rational) and late adopters non-economic (social) motives, but that these motives interact during the diffusion process. These organisations reframed the BSC and bundled it with other practices to achieve a better cultural, technical and political fit (i.e. top-management-related factors and IT systems). Cultural misfits are the most formative and can overpower technical and political aspects of fit. This has led to management practices that differ from the original design of the BSC. Also, we critically assess consequences of the BSC adoptions. Even adopters emphasising economic motives for adopting the BSC did not attempt to assess its ex-post financial impact. Thereby, our study contributes a critical view on fashionable management innovations.

AB - The purpose of this exploratory study is to understand how the motives behind a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) adoption affect the BSC's design, organisational fit, and consequences from a diffusion theory perspective. Using semi-structured interviews, we follow up on three organisations that are long-term adopters of the BSC. We find that the motives for adopting the BSC do not follow the conventional model whereby early adopters have economic (rational) and late adopters non-economic (social) motives, but that these motives interact during the diffusion process. These organisations reframed the BSC and bundled it with other practices to achieve a better cultural, technical and political fit (i.e. top-management-related factors and IT systems). Cultural misfits are the most formative and can overpower technical and political aspects of fit. This has led to management practices that differ from the original design of the BSC. Also, we critically assess consequences of the BSC adoptions. Even adopters emphasising economic motives for adopting the BSC did not attempt to assess its ex-post financial impact. Thereby, our study contributes a critical view on fashionable management innovations.

KW - adoption

KW - Balanced Scorecard

KW - critical management studies

KW - diffusion as classification

KW - diffusion theory

KW - organizational culture

KW - performance measurement

KW - upper echelons

KW - Management studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85109348546&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/01559982.2021.1930341

DO - 10.1080/01559982.2021.1930341

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85109348546

VL - 46

SP - 287

EP - 313

JO - Accounting Forum

JF - Accounting Forum

SN - 0155-9982

IS - 3

ER -