The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard: A Systematic Review of Its Use in Research and Practice

Description

Rising awareness about the limitations of measuring organisational success merely with financial metrics has spurred interest in multidimensional performance measurement and management systems – or performance measurement packages (Jakobsen et al. 2011) – such as the balanced scorecard (BSC) (Kaplan and Norton 2001). Moreover, the increasing strategic importance of environmental and social aspects as well as related performance metrics have inspired debates about further extensions, sometimes referred to as the sustainability balanced scorecard (SBSC) (Figge et al. 2002).While a previous review examined the actual design (or architecture) of the SBSCwhen used for strategic performance measurement and management within companies (Hansen and Schaltegger 2013), this paper aims to explore the different uses of the SBSC in research and practice. Though a plethora of research using ‘SBSC’ as a label has emerged, the use of the concept is by no means consistent. As related knowledge is widely scattered, we conduct a ‘systematic review’ (Tranfield et al. 2003) of the SBSC with the aim of mapping the field. Major research databases (e.g. EBSCO Host, Scopus) were queried based on a specified search string and results were subsequently screened on the level of title, abstracts and full text. Overall this led to a sample of 69relevant articles. We find that the SBSC is not only used as strategic performance measurement and management system, but also as reporting system, as framework for external performance benchmarking studies, or more generally as structuring framework for accounting research. Each of these types of use is further explored in the review and implications for future research are given.

AB - Rising awareness about the limitations of measuring organisational success merely with financial metrics has spurred interest in multidimensional performance measurement and management systems – or performance measurement packages (Jakobsen et al. 2011) – such as the balanced scorecard (BSC) (Kaplan and Norton 2001). Moreover, the increasing strategic importance of environmental and social aspects as well as related performance metrics have inspired debates about further extensions, sometimes referred to as the sustainability balanced scorecard (SBSC) (Figge et al. 2002).While a previous review examined the actual design (or architecture) of the SBSCwhen used for strategic performance measurement and management within companies (Hansen and Schaltegger 2013), this paper aims to explore the different uses of the SBSC in research and practice. Though a plethora of research using ‘SBSC’ as a label has emerged, the use of the concept is by no means consistent. As related knowledge is widely scattered, we conduct a ‘systematic review’ (Tranfield et al. 2003) of the SBSC with the aim of mapping the field. Major research databases (e.g. EBSCO Host, Scopus) were queried based on a specified search string and results were subsequently screened on the level of title, abstracts and full text. Overall this led to a sample of 69relevant articles. We find that the SBSC is not only used as strategic performance measurement and management system, but also as reporting system, as framework for external performance benchmarking studies, or more generally as structuring framework for accounting research. Each of these types of use is further explored in the review and implications for future research are given.

Period	11.06.2014 → 13.06.2014
Event title	Herbsttagung der wissenschaftlichen Kommission Nachhaltigkeitsmanagement des Verbandes der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft e.V. Betriebswirtschaft in Zeiten der Krise
Event type	Conference
Conference number	76
Location	Leipzig, GermanyShow on map