Does the Balanced Scorecard make a difference to the strategy development process?

Abstract

A great number of strategy tools are being taught in strategic management modules. These tools are available to managers for use in facilitating strategic decision making and enhancing the strategy development process in their organisations. A number of studies have been published examining which are the most popular tools; however there is little empirical evidence on how their utilisation influences the strategy process. This paper is based on a large scale international survey on the strategy development process, and seeks to examine the impact of a particular strategy tool, the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), upon the strategy process. Recently, it has been suggested that as a strategy tool, the BSC can influence all elements of the strategy process. The results of this study indicate that although there are significant differences in some elements of the strategy process between the organisations that have implemented the BSC and those that have not, the impact is not comprehensive.

Keywords:

• strategy development process
• performance measurement/management
• balanced scorecard
• survey

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the helpful comments provided by Professor Jarzabakowski, and the support of the editors of this Special Issue.

Notes

1 This model was further developed in Dyson et al, 2007, subsequent to this research.

2 Later became learning and growth.

3 The alumni database includes students from many disciplines, such as engineering, computer science, natural sciences etc who undertook joint degrees with the Business School (Tapinos, 2005).

4 The questions in the questionnaire: ‘Please state the extent to which you feel that the following statements are true within your organisation for 1 meaning ‘‘strongly disagree’’ to 7 meaning ‘‘strongly agree’’. In our organisation strategy development process: (i) is considered effective; (ii) is considered efficient’.

5 We defined SMEs according to EU's (EU, 2003) criterion for the number of employees.

6 We thank an anonymous reviewer for indicating this discussion point.