The appropriateness of performance measurement in the service sector: A case study

Abstract

The development of performance measures in service companies has not kept abreast with their manufacturing counterparts despite the unprecedented growth of this sector in recent decades. The objective of this paper is to contribute towards a better understanding of the design of performance measures in the service sector. More specifically, the objective of the paper is to develop a framework that can test the appropriateness of a service company’s performance measures. Two case studies in the service sector were employed to test the research question. The results indicate that the suggested framework is capable of testing the appropriateness of a service company’s performance measures in any service sector. The usefulness of the study is that the expanded standardised framework contributes to the literature of performance measurement, as well as facilitates the design of performance measurement systems in the service sector.

Key Words:

• performance measures
• service company
• strategy
• balanced scorecard
• environment
• framework