The balanced scorecard in the education sector: A literature review

Abstract

Several studies with quantitative, qualitative or theoretical approaches have been carried out, focusing on the application of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) in the educational sector. However, despite the literature on the subject, it is difficult to draw an overview of the use of the BSC in this sector. In order to fill this gap, our research carried out a systematic literature review (SLR) on the BSC methodology implemented in the educational sector. The Web of Science and Scopus databases are used as a source of article collection. A bibliometric analysis was performed using 65 articles extracted from these databases. The results suggest that the most discussed topics within the study are: 1) the diversity of the BSC in the education sector; 2) strategic management with the BSC; 3) statistical methods to manage the BSC and 4) the strategy map of the BSC. The qualitative approach was dominant in the analysed studies, but the reasonable number of studies with quantitative approaches is worth attention. The study contributes to the literature by reviewing prominent cited references and documents that cited them and the results provide the landscapes and research gaps for the main lines of research for further development.

Keywords:

• Balanced Scorecard
• Performance Management
• Performance Measurement
• Education Sector
• Literature Review

1. Introduction

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a management tool that integrates a set of metrics, which enables the manager to have a comprehensive view of his business, combining financial and operational performance measures. It requires a balanced view of business performances, according to four different perspectives: learning and growth, focusing on employee capabilities, information systems and the organizational climate that will create long-term growth; internal processes, with an emphasis on internal process excellence; customers, seeking to create value for targeted customers; and financial, with a focus on improving profitability and shareholder satisfaction (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). The experiences showed that innovative CEOs used the BSC not only to clarify and communicate strategy, but also to manage strategy (Kaplan & Norton, 1996).

Over the years, different organisations have successfully used the BSC to measure and evaluate their performance (Dimitropoulos et al., 2017; Ndevu & Muller, 2018; Půček & Špaček, 2014). This tool has been implemented over time in many different business sectors, such as the manufacturing, merchandising, and service industries (Al Jardali et al., 2020). Educational institutions are not an exception to this case (Breus et al., 2017; Manville et al., 2019; Mateos-Ronco & Hernández Mezquida, 2018), and universities around the world have also implemented BSC to improve performance and achieve strategic objectives (Beard, 2009; Eltobgy & Radwan, 2010).

The ever-progressive need to improve the management of the educational system so that it corresponds to the modern demands of society has led to the application of organisational performance measurement systems as tools of strategic control (Peris-Ortiz et al., 2019). One of the most common tools, for performance measurement, has been the BSC, developed by Kaplan and Norton (1992).

The BSC architecture starts with a transparent definition of the institution’s mission, vision and strategy. Thus, the management acquires relevance in establishing these parameters, which encompasses the universality of the most relevant stakeholders. To implement the BSC properly, it is convenient to open channels and focus processes to establish adequate communication throughout the organisation (Alani et al., 2018). The stakeholders’ requests for information must be promptly met, and the communication channels must always be open, as they will always be an element of collaboration for improving the institution’s services (Kettunen, 2015).

The increasing pressure experienced by the educational system to match its audience’s needs has led several universities to apply management control systems such as the BSC (Peris-Ortiz et al., 2019). The result of applying the BSC in universities shows that this management tool results in a successful application of strategy, makes it easier to coordinate the strategic and operational spheres, efficiently measures organizational performance and lays the foundations for measuring the achievement of the university’s objectives, based on established indicators (Hladchenko, 2015).

The implementation of the BSC in organisations has a certain degree of difficulty, and consequently, there is a delay, despite this, the BSC is an effective strategic management tool to establish an alignment between all elements of the higher education institution (HEI), making the application process easy to assimilate for the members of the university (Hladchenko, 2015). However, the BSC implementation in HEIs is still incipient, requiring, for this reason, adaptations. Managers need to understand the relevance of the integral measurement of the financial and non-financial performance embedded in the BSC model (Yaakub & Mohamed, 2019).

Although still timid, the use of the BSC has allowed substantial successes in the universities’ organisational performance, mainly because the compensation, promotion and evaluation structure is based on various indicators. The clarity with which it is evaluated and the incisive objectivity of the indicators make the researchers’ objectives suit those of the affiliated institutions (Peris-Ortiz et al., 2019). These conclusions correspond to those of Pietrzak et al. (2015), who reported how beneficial the use of a well-architected and constantly updated BSC pattern is in improving the university’s organisational performance.

Regarding the theoretical framework, the literature on the BSC application in the educational sector does not highlight a specific theory. What we could notice in some studies were references to two theories: the Theory of the Business (Drucker, 1994) and the Fuzzy Theory (Zadeh, 1965). Drucker defines his theory of the business as: “ … the assumptions that shape any organisation’s behaviour, dictate its decisions about what to do and what not to do, and define what the organisation considers meaningful results. These assumptions are about markets. They are about identifying customers and competitors, their values and behaviour. They are about technology, its dynamics, and a company’s strengths and weaknesses. These assumptions are about what a company gets paid for. They are what I call a company’s theory of the business” (Drucker, 1994, pp. 95–96). With the theory of business Drucker (1994) suggested that business assumptions could be skillfully used as a management process to coordinate environmental signals and use them to control the organisation. Thus, the studies based on the Business Theory, treat the strategic map as an idea associated with this theory since it represents a set of principles, being the connections between the objectives of the map, the real strategic assumption (McDevitt et al., 2008; Pietrzak et al., 2015; Umashankar & Dutta, 2007). Fuzzy Theory has as its essence the conversion of linguistic expressions into ordinal numbers. When using this theory to manage the strategic map, the linguistic expressions used for map evaluation are converted into ordinal numbers. In practice, Fuzzy Theory is combined with Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), and the methods applied with this combination can be: decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), analytic network process (ANP), analytic hierarchy process (AHP). In summary, this theory combined with MCDM is used to identify the cause-and-effect relationships between the perspectives of the strategic map, such as pointing out which objectives in the map are considered more relevant (Nazari-Shirkouhi et al., 2020; Özdemir & Tüysüz, 2017; Tseng, 2010; Zangoueinezhad & Moshabaki, 2011).

Although the literature reviewed did not allude to institutional theory, nor DiMaggio and Powell’s (1983) isomorphism, it was observed in the study of Schobel and Scholey (2012) the existence of federal government pressure for less spending caused an HEI to draw up a BSC with emphasis on financial indicators. Likewise, the pressure directed against educational institutions to meet social needs has required several higher education entities to adopt organisational performance measurement methods as strategic regulation tools. One of the most commonly implemented methods is the BSC (Peris-Ortiz et al., 2019).

Some studies address the BSC in the educational sector, as a tool used in performance evaluation (Abdelraheem & Hussien, 2022; Yakhou & Ulshafer, 2012; Yu et al., 2009) or in the construction of the institution’s strategic map (De Andrade Guerra et al., 2018; Kettunen, 2015; Mohamed et al., 2021). Other studies analyse the BSC in conjunction with the MCDM as a way to measure the importance of the services provided and the university’s activities (Nazari-Shirkouhi et al., 2020) or to help universities with short-term planning (Zolfani & Ghadikolaei, 2012).

However, despite the existence of literature on the subject, it is difficult to outline an overall picture of the use of BSC in the education sector. To bridge this gap, our research aims to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) on the BSC methodology implemented in the education sector. The literature review articles we have identified on this topic presents a different and more limited focus. For example, Al-Hosaini and Sofian (2015) did a literature review only on the perspectives applied to the BSC in HEIs, and they have not defined a clear research protocol. On the contrary, our review presents a broader aspect and is not restricted only to HEIs but to the entire scenario of the BSC application in the educational sector. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first SLR with this approach.

With this in mind, we want to gain a comprehensive understanding of the contributions of the literature on the BSC applications in the education sector. Specifically, we ask the following research questions: (i) What is the state of the art on the use of BSC in the education sector? (ii) How is the BSC being used in the education sector? (iii) What are the research trends in the field? Thus, this work has the following objectives: to identify and synthesise the current state of the art of research on the BSC application in the educational sector and point out potential areas for future studies.

2. Method

In management research, the SRL becomes an essential tool to manage the breadth of knowledge embedded in a specific theme. The goal of a literature review process includes: (i) enabling researchers to map and access the existing intellectual territory and, on the other hand, (ii) identifying gaps and raising questions that could be answered in future studies (Tranfield et al., 2003).

SLR was initiated in the medical sciences by Beecher (1955) and then extensively used in the social sciences (Bittencourt et al., 2016; Conway Dato-on & Kalakay, 2016; Eloranta & Turunen, 2015; Liñán & Fayolle, 2015). The SLR distances itself from the usual narrative reviews by the appeal to a transparent, systematic and replicable process, aiming to increase this review process (Tranfield et al., 2003).

We then defined some research questions that should be answered by this SLR:

Question 1: What is the state of the art on using BSC in the education sector?

Question 2: How is the BSC being used in the education sector?

Question 3: What contributions does this SLR bring to future research?

After formulating the research question, it is necessary to define the search terms. The first term was “balanced scorecard” this was searched in quotes so that no article on balanced scorecard was left out. Given the research objectives, this term was associated with the educational sector. For this purpose, a set of four terms was searched: (universit*, “higher education institution*”, “higher education sector”, “education sector”).

The data for this work were collected in two databases: Scopus and Web of Science. These databases were chosen because they correspond to some of the largest research repositories and are usually used in literature reviews. The decision to use two databases aimed to decrease the risk of missing documents because these databases have different publication coverage. On the other hand, Scopus and Web of Science use different search mechanisms, which makes it impossible to use the same parameters for both. Table 1 shows the search procedures.

Table 1. Research procedures used

Database	Search Field	Keywords
Scopus	Title, abstract, keywords.	[“balanced scorecard” and (universit* or “higher education institution* or “higher education sector” or “education sector”)]
Web of Science	Topic

Source: Elaborated by the authors

The search procedures were performed in September 2022. Regarding Scopus and Web of Science, we had the following results: when applying the terms [“balanced scorecard” and (universit* or “higher education institution* or “higher education sector” or “education sector”)], a total of 578 documents were selected (244 in Web of Science and 334 in Scopus). Next, we applied the filters: languages (English); research areas (education, educational research, management, business, economics, accounting); document types (article) without time restriction, which led to the exclusion of 431 documents. Subsequently, 15 articles were excluded for duplication (they were present in both bases). Another screening was used, this time based on the abstract reading, which led to the exclusion of 57 articles for being considered without connection with the research objective, and for not specifically addressing the use of the BSC methodology in the education scenario. After these screening steps, all the retained articles were read in full, of which 10 more articles were left out for being considered irrelevant for the purposes of the research, such as, for example, the study conducted by Buytendijk et al. (2010) which talks about strategic maps, without referring to the specific context of educational institutions. Or yet, the study by Bobe and Kober (2020) which investigates whether the personal characteristics of university rectors, including age, gender, educational background and tenure, are associated with the use of university management control systems without, however, talking specifically about the BSC.

Finally, after this process, 65 articles were retained for further analysis. A summary of the criteria used and the search process is presented in Figure 1. The 65 articles that resulted from the search were analysed as follows: (i) all articles were analysed were analysed using the software R. Bibliometrix; (ii) a content analysis was developed to answer the research questions formulated, as well as to identify opportunities for new lines of investigation.

Figure 1. Summary of the search process performed

Source: Prepared by the authors

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Descriptive analysis of the results

In accordance with one of the objectives of this research, regarding the state of the art of the literature that deals with the implementation of the BSC in the education sector, this subsection analytically summarises the body of literature using several parameters: annual scientific productivity; the most relevant journals; authors with higher scientific production, Sankey diagram.

Research on the use of the BSC methodology in the education sector only emerged at the beginning of the century with Hedley et al. (2002), with a study that aimed to produce a property management tool, for the United Kingdom’s higher education sector, with the use of asset indicators (Figure 2). The year of the study coincides with the period in which the BSC started to gain great visibility as a strategic management tool developed by Kaplan and Norton (2001). We can observe that the numbers of publications on this theme vary greatly over the years, suggesting that it is a theme that always returns to the academic world.

Figure 2. Annual scientific production on the use of the BSC methodology in the education sector

Source: Prepared by the authors

The distribution of journals (Table 2) suggests that, not coincidentally, the largest number of publications is strictly linked to a journal of the education sector, the International Journal of Educational Management, where they addressed the BSC in a multifaceted way, for example: examine the concept of BSC and discuss how it should be applied to programs/HEIs in the Indian context; focus on the comparative analysis of the BSC of four HEIs. We can also observe that of the journals that have more than one article published, half are linked to the educational sector: International Journal of Management in Education; Journal of Education for Business; Tertiary Education and Management. Regarding the editors, these do not present uniformity among the journals that made more than one publication. Some publishers were: Taylor & Francis Ltd, Emerald Group Publishing Ltd and Springer.

Table 2. Journals that publish research on the BSC in the education sector

Periodicals (top 08)	Frequency	Relative % Frequency	Accumulated frequency%
International journal of educational management	6	28,57	28,57
Measuring business excellence	3	14,29	42,86
Accounting perspectives	2	9,52	52,38
Independent journal of management & production	2	9,52	61,90
International journal of management in education	2	9,52	71,43
Journal of business economics and management	2	9,52	80,95
Journal of education for business	2	9,52	90,48
Tertiary education and management	2	9,52	100,00
Total	21	100,00

Source: Prepared by the authors using bibliometrix R-package

The top ten authors by the number of publications are presented in Table 3. This is particularly useful for researchers looking for references or research collaborations. The author with the highest number of articles is Kettunen, J. (three publications), who currently holds the position of Chancellor, University of Applied Sciences, Turku, Finland. His published articles were: Strategic planning of regional development in higher education; The implementation of the Bologna process, and Stakeholder relationships in higher education, the first two in 2006 and the last in 2015.

Table 3. Distribution of authors by number of publications

Authors	Articles
Kettunen J	3
Chang C	2
Chen S	2
Cugini A	2
Ghadikolaei A	2
Lira A	2
Michelon G	2
Naas I	2
Philbin S	2
Pilonato S	2
Total	21

Source: Prepared by the authors using the R-pac bibliometrix

Biblioshiny presents a very interesting output, the Sankey diagram, where we can visualise several attributes simultaneously. In Figure 3, we present a three-field chart (Sankey Diagram), listing the respective authors (middle), the author’s keywords (left side) and their cited references (right side). Through this diagram, we can bring some interpretations: (i) current positivist studies on the theme in question, normally adopt the DEMATEL and ANP method as statistical methods, a conclusion perceived through the authors’ keywords, (ii) Kaplan and Norton remain the most cited references, of this management and performance measurement methodology, developed by them, for almost 3 (three) decades.

Figure 3. Sankey diagram relating authors (middle), author’s keywords (left side) and cited references (right side)

Source: Prepared by the author using Biblioshiny

3.1.1. Research methods

In Table 4, we present the methodologies addressed in the studies, where research with qualitative approaches, mostly case studies, proved to be the most common, reflecting 43% of the articles evaluated. We observed that the number of quantitative studies was reasonable and deserves attention. As for the mixed methodology, the number of studies is reduced, unfortunately, because the mixed study is richer (Greene et al., 1989).

Table 4. Research methods on the use of BSC methodology in the education sector

Method	Frequency	Relative Frequency%	Accumulated frequency%
Qualitative empirical research	28	43	43
Quantitative empirical research	21	32	75
Mixed empirical research	7	11	86
Conceptual research	9	14	100
Total	65	100

Source: Prepared by the authors

3.1.2. Authors’ keywords

In the keywords most used by authors, on the BSC applied to the education sector, the expressions “balanced scorecard” and “higher education” stand out (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Cumulative frequency of keywords used over time in the BSC theme applied to the education sector

Source: Prepared by the authors using Biblioshiny

We realise that the studies in this area mainly address performance management in HEIs. We call attention once again to the statistical methods DEMATEL and ANP because they seem to be widely used in the BSC literature applied to the education sector, in the positivist current studies, these methods help to identify which perspectives, as well as which objectives, are more relevant in the strategic map. The cumulative frequency of the keywords used over time and their trend are shown in Figure 4.

3.2. Content analysis

A content analysis of the articles is carried out after the bibliometric analysis in order to determine what issues relating to the BSC in the education sector have been studied. From this content analysis, four clusters were identified: 1) the diversity of the BSC in the education sector; 2) strategic management with the BSC; 3) statistical methods to manage the BSC, and 4) the BSC strategy map (Figure 5). We will next analyse each of these clusters.

Figure 5. Clusters found in the literature on the BSC in the education sector

Source: Prepared by the authors

3.2.1. Cluster 1: DIVERSITY of the BSC in the education sector

This research area includes 30 articles. The definition of this nomenclature for this cluster occurred after realising that the BSC can be used in a multifaceted way within the educational sector. Al Jardali et al. (2020) aimed to generate a performance management system pattern grounded in the BSC architecture that would lead the scorecard to effectively function at Arts, Sciences and Technology University in Lebanon (AUL), the study developed an adaptable BSC to be used at AUL and presumably in private HEIs to increase and calibrate their organisational performance.

Abdelraheem and Hussien (2022) evaluated the effect of the BSC non-financial perspectives on the performance evaluation of a non-profit college. They concluded that the customer and internal processes perspectives affect performance evaluation, but the learning and growth perspective does not.

On the other hand, the study of Kettunen and Kantola (2006) identified the responsibilities of the bodies and institutions involved in the implementation of the Bologna Process and revealed how the BSC perspectives could be used to disseminate the objectives of the plans and analyse the concreteness of the successful use of the strategies. The study was used to analyse the objectives of European educational policy starting from different perspectives.

Lira and Naas (2015a, 2015b) conducted their studies in Brazilian HEIs with a positivist approach, aiming to show how these organisations use performance indicators to measure their main activities. The studies concluded that the use of performance indicators appears more effective at public HEIs than at private ones. Another curious result is that, as a considerable number of private HEIs, few are the institutions with performance indicators grounded on numerical and statistical information encompassing their most important activities. This worries their managers as to managerial vigilance.

In summary, as already defined in the nomenclature of this cluster, the BSC is used in the education sector in a very versatile way. Some examples of this versatility are given here: In their study, Umashankar and Dutta (2007) examined the concept of BSC and discussed how it should be applied to HEIs in the Indian context, showed a successful model adaptable with appropriate changes to the management of educational institutions in India, whether these are universities, private or autonomous educational institutions; Cronje and Vermaak (2004) compared the components of a possible BSC for university accounting departments in South Africa and Australia. They concluded that BSC serves as a potential tool to support planning and increment of accounting education space.

Fuchs et al. (2020) proposed a scorecard as a management tool to support the green marketing strategies in HEIs, adapted the original BSC for an increment in the management of green marketing for universities, based on four dimensions: community members, university members, product and strategy; Peris-Ortiz et al. (2019) aimed to understand the influence of using a BSC on universities’ research and innovation performance, resulting in similar patterns of indicators to measure performance in public universities. Furthermore, these indicators developed beneficially after the BSC use.

Some studies address the role of the BSC in IT management (Beard & Humphrey, 2014; Jairak & Praneetpolgrang, 2013). Beard and Humphrey (2014) proposed potential fields of impact of information technology (IT) on BSC measurements across all findings. The illustrated BSC interpretation is based on the performance standards of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in Education. Jairak and Praneetpolgrang (2013) implemented a BSC for IT governance in a Thai university, from a regional perspective, the document created strategic guidance for IT governance in Thai universities.

Finally, Al-Hosaini and Sofian (2015) pointed out the most relevant BSC perspectives for HEIs, concluding that, although the four original perspectives were: financial, customer, internal process and learning and growth, the findings indicated that universities and HEIs, as non-profit organisations, are suggested to apply other non-financial perspectives, such as community participation, innovation, strategic partnership and excellence in scientific research.

3.2.2. Cluster 2: strategic management with bsc

Here, 15 articles are framed. Alani et al. (2018) analysed and researched the efficiency of the BSC use, as a management tool, in performance evaluation and, consequently, in the quality of the services provisioning of a university institution, concluding that the very high commitment of stakeholders and senior management is an essential support for the BSC application success. Along the same line Belov et al. (2020) created a synthetic scheme for analysing university administration based on the conception of the BSC. The elaborated scheme grants a thorough assessment of the peculiar features of the university. It allows it to be implemented to analyse the quality of management, as well as referendums the model to solve a whole range of problems of university administration.

Sayed (2013) examined the use of the BSC at universities. The research, grounded on information accessible in journals and university websites, concludes that higher education centres generally encounter obstacles when employing an analysis approach endorsed by formulas and presumably are bewildered as to the weight to give to a specific performance measure.

Matherly and El-Saidi (2010) observed that eighteen months after the BSC development and the implementation of strategic decisions, improvements were achieved in most strategic performance indicators. It also led to an increase in enrolment in the initial year after a five-year phase of no change in enrolment. Employee engagement levels increased after disseminating the university vision and teaching its values to staff and faculty.

Some studies were carried out using the BSC as a comprehensive strategic management tool for the educational sector. Chan (2007) provided the students with the opportunity to analyse the BSC use in universities through action research at St. Thomas University. Thomas University, which it was outlined the mission and vision parameters, and it was identified goals and strategies to achieve the organisation’s objectives; Philbin (2011) pointed out how the management of higher education entities is enhanced with the use of an integrated scheme of performance measurement grounded on the BSC, concluding that the definition of scorecard reports that include economic and non-economic measures has the potential to enhance the operational management of a higher education entity by employing achievable benefits to the stakeholders.

Schobel and Scholey (2012) show the implementation of the BSC in the area of distance HEIs and highlight the importance of financial strategies, they concluded that HEIs with well-defined financial strategies linked to educational outcomes would be well positioned for success, even with the change of their funding models.

The gains arising from using the BSC at universities are based on a balanced package of indicators encompassing the university’s mission and objectives, in addition to financial indicators. Furthermore, it displays to the external public that the university reaches the expectations of accountability and legal demands. (Ramírez, 2011).

Camilleri (2021) investigated the performance of HEIs through the view of stakeholders, internal organisational capacity and financial perspectives. Briefly, the study concluded that frequent dialogues about performance with academic staff would help HEI leaders identify their institutions’ value-creation activities.

AL-Dahiyat (2020) created a standard for measuring the strategic performance of HEIs from the perspective of BSC, the study identified forty-two financial and non-financial performance indicators to measure the strategic performance of the University of Mutah, grouped into the following dimensions: governance and management, teaching and learning, launching new programs, scientific research, cultural exchange and delegation, diversity of financial resources, adequacy of internal support services, community development and reputation.

3.2.3. Cluster 3: statistical methods for managing the bsc

In this Cluster, 15 papers discuss the importance of statistical methods, especially the MCDM, for better BSC management.

When we seek to ascertain which statistical methods are used on the BSC application in the educational sector, we realise that the MCDM is the most used. This method includes the DEMATEL, ANP and AHP. DEMATEL method can be used to identify the most important cause-and-effect relationship in the strategic map, while ANP and AHP can be used to know which are the most important strategic objectives (Ramasamy et al., 2016; Zolfani & Ghadikolaei, 2013).

An architecture with the junction of BSC and AHP displays an implementable and efficient analysis pattern for an evaluative development of HEI performance, potentially being equally implemented in different entities (Ramasamy et al., 2016).

With this approach, the study of Zolfani and Ghadikolaei (2013) developed an architecture for analysing private universities in Iran, pointing out in this research that the internal process is the most effective perspective over others of BSC. Thus, universities should focus on this characteristic because this perspective greatly influences others. The five most important objectives were brand, academic excellence, product quality, student satisfaction, and budget control. Another study with the same authors (Zolfani & Ghadikolaei, 2012) showed that after applying the ANP method, fundraising was the most important strategic objective from a financial perspective. On the other hand, academic excellence was the most important objective from the customer perspective and quality faculty from the internal process perspective. Finally, teaching/learning innovations were the most important strategic objectives for learning and growth. This leads us to conclude that when implemented in diverse environments, this method will create equally diverse responses.

Boj et al. (2014) developed a methodology based on ANP to identify, measure and manage the relevance of intangible assets in achieving the strategic objectives of an organisation defined in the context of the BSC. Using this assessment, management becomes aware of the most relevant strategic goals to be achieved.

Rahimnia and Kargozar (2016) provided a model for Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM) to prioritise its goals. The DEMATEL method was used to process data in questionnaires and discover casual relationships among the university’s goals. They indicated that “competent and productive human resources committed to Islamic values and professional ethics” has higher relevance among FUM goals, while “achieving educational excellence, especially in graduate programs and research”, has lower relevance.

Nazari-Shirkouhi et al. (2020) created a BSC architecture based on the entities’ strategic objectives. An MCDM model to evaluate the performance of a non-profit university in Iran was applied in the study. Thus, the cause-and-effect relationships between the BSC perspectives and indicators are analysed, thus underpinning the decisions of the university administrators.

These methods seem suitable for research with BSC since it is perceived in various literature (Wu et al., 2011; Zangoueinezhad & Moshabaki, 2011).

3.2.4. Cluster 4: BSC strategic map

Five articles fit in this cluster. In the De Andrade Guerra et al. (2018) study, a BSC strategic map is developed for the implementation and monitoring of environmental education programs in universities, the BSC strategic map developed by them illustrates the cause and effect relationships between descriptors and strategic objectives and can be used as a guide for universities to bring more clarity and focus to their environmental education programs.

Another indication for using the BSC strategic map is managing university departments, which is recognised as a tool of great importance for measuring performance. In addition, the BSC strategic map helps monitor and build the mission and set departmental goals, being recommended for broader use by the authors (Cugini et al., 2011). Subsequently, Cugini et al. (2014) explored a specific performance measurement model through the BSC strategic map for an academic department of an Italian public university.

The use of the BSC strategic map exposes that the group divides among themselves points of view, sticks to relevant issues and determines organisational preferences. The manner of use also instructs the academic and administrative group regarding the relevance of performance management, measurement and evaluation (Cugini et al., 2011).

Kettunen (2015) developed a stakeholders map based on the BSC perspectives to highlight the most relevant stakeholders and how their relationship in higher education happens. The stakeholders’ maps are of great importance to reach the desired quality because the HEIs should identify them in order to collect feedback on the relationships among them and improve their processes.

Mohamed et al. (2021), through their case study at the University of Science and Technology of Southern Taiwan (UCTST), created a strategic map with 10 objectives, each strategic objective within each perspective has relevant strategic measures with quantitative targets and detailed initiatives to explain how to implement the strategy.

4. Conclusions

4.1. Main findings

This research aimed to identify and synthesise the current state of the art of research on the application of the BSC in the educational sector and point out potential areas for future studies. Through the conclusions we reached, we identified that the research regarding the BSC in the educational sector has been occurring for some time since we found that the first publication occurred in 2002 (Hedley et al., 2002) that is, ten years after the methodology emergence, developed by Kaplan and Norton (1992). Another fact that we noticed concerns the variety of authors who have developed research on the theme studied since of the 64 articles evaluated in our study, only three have the same authorship (Kettunen, 2006, 2015; Kettunen & Kantola, 2006). In other words, there is a great diversity of authors which may indicate some lack of depth on this theme.

The journal that publishes the most on this topic is the International Journal of Educational Management, where 6 papers were published. This journal addressed this theme in a very diverse way, with studies that resort to quantitative methodologies (Hladchenko, 2015), qualitative (Simon et al., 2019) and conceptual (Umashankar & Dutta, 2007). Another interesting detail is that these studies are distributed over several years, between 2007 and 2019, demonstrating that the journal has always had an interest in the topic and, perhaps, is the ideal place to publish scientific articles on the subject. Since the journal explores research in the following areas: innovation in educational management across the spectrum; development of educational delivery mechanisms; creation of an environment in which resource management provides more efficient results, and sharing new initiatives with international applications.

The most discussed issues relate to 4 clusters. The cluster with the most articles is designated “diversity of the BSC in the educational sector”, i.e., the BSC can be adapted to meet the most varied possible objectives in this sector, such as: determining the influence of BSC implementation on the research and innovation performance of universities (Peris-Ortiz et al., 2019), leading us to believe that the BSC is a malleable and adaptable methodology to various scenarios. The cluster “strategic management with BSC” deals with the methodology as a strategic management tool, leading the administration to beneficial results, as demonstrated by Matherly and El-Saidi (2010). The cluster “statistical methods to manage the BSC” brings methods to help managers identify which BSC perspective has greater effect on another, as well as to point out the most important strategic objectives (Zolfani & Ghadikolaei, 2013). Finally, the cluster “BSC strategic map” deals with the link to the strategic map, putting on the map peculiar issues such as developing a BSC strategic map for implementation and monitoring of environmental education programs in universities (De Andrade Guerra et al., 2018). Thus, by reading the articles that form the clusters, we were able to create a framework (Figure 6) that synthesises the addressed theme.

Figure 6. Framework for BSC in the education sector

Source: Prepared by the authors

4.2. Managerial implications

In a practical way, this research can support the understanding of managers in the educational area regarding the BSC methodology effectiveness when adequately implemented. Thus, they can lead these managers to successful gains in the organisational performance of their institutions.

4.3. Theoretical contributions

This SLR brought some theoretical contributions, a current study where we identified and synthesised the current state of the art of research on applying the BSC in the educational sector. A brief bibliometric overview was exposed. A framework was presented, which represents a holistic view of the research on the subject, which allows an easy understanding of the main themes addressed in the study of the BSC in the education sector. In addition, we pointed out new research lines to suggest thematic potentials for developing future research works for other researchers.

4.4. Limitations and future research

Systematic Literature Reviews (SLR) have become an important research methodology since they have a clear advantage over traditional literature reviews (Mallett et al., 2012). “Additionally, an SLR can improve the reliability and validity of future research questions, and thus arguably contribute to developing more relevant research endeavours” (Massaro et al., 2016:794). However, a critical element in applying this methodology is to mitigate threats to the validity of the findings (Doleman et al., 2021). All investigation, but especially systematic reviews, should be reported comprehensively and transparently to allow readers to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the research (Kroon et al., 2021; Liberati et al., 2009).

We highlight some limitations of the present study: (i) the keyword combination terms were chosen carefully, despite this, we cannot guarantee completeness, however, we believe that important studies were identified; (ii) the choice of English language articles only, as articles in other languages have their value and may further consolidate the results; (iii) other types of documents such as theses, dissertations and books were also excluded from the process; (iv) a protocol for the study was established, reviewed and discussed by all team members. This protocol allowed us to define a priori, the planned methods of investigation, screening, data extraction and evaluation, despite this, there may still be bias in the selection of studies due to personal subjectivity; (v) the search was limited to two databases, Web of Science and Scopus, other databases may be considered in future studies. However, the use of these two databases is due to the fact that some authors, Guz and Rushchitsky (2009) consider that they are the most widespread in different scientific fields. In summary, we assume that, despite possible threats to the validity of the results, we believe that our research conduct was robust in mitigating these threats.

We suggest 6 (six) future lines of research: (i) identify why the BSC initiative fails to meet expectations (is it a failure of the model, in the modifications to the original model or failures in the implementation process); (ii) there is still room for longitudinal research to investigate how the BSC and its performance metrics result in better organisational performance in the education sector; (iii) investigate the integration of the BSC and the MCDM method, for performance evaluation of educational institutions generally; (iv) analyse and explore the effectiveness of using the BSC as a management tool by applying the Alani et al. (2018) model in other educational intuitions; (v) to evaluate the use of the BSC methodology, following changes in the institution’s management; (vi) to examine the reason why senior management decided to deploy the BSC tool (mimetic, coercive or normative isomorphism).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by Foundation for Research Support and Scientific and Technological Development of Maranhão–FAPEMA, SECTI, State Government of Maranhão, under the Grant [BD-02692/20]. AQ21

Notes on contributors

Isaias De Jesus Alvares Mendes Junior

Isaias de Jesus Alvares Mendes Junior is researcher at NECE - Research Unit of the University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal and manager at the Federal Institute of Education Science and Technology of Maranhão, São Luis, Brazil.

Maria Do Céu Alves

Maria Do Céu Alves is professor of accountancy at the University of Beira Interior and researcher at NECE - Research Unit of the University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal.