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Social enterprises (SEs), part of the third sector, are hybrid organizations combining the pursuit of social scopes with commercial business solutions. In seeking for social value, they pair for-profit and non-profit features, thereby compensating for shortcomings of both the public sector and the commercial market. Therefore, the performance management of such organizations assumes a crucial relevance. Among the available tools, the balanced scorecard (BSC) aims to capture performance multidimensionality, at the same time fostering legitimacy towards stakeholders.

In general terms, the BSC has the limit to follow a linear and static logic of construction and functioning. For this reason, scholars combine it with system dynamics (SD) to create dynamic balanced scorecards (DBSCs). However, literature seems to devote scarce attention to the adoption of such analytic tools in the third sector, particularly in SEs. This chapter wants to contribute to bridging this gap by proposing a tailored application in the context of a social cooperative, active in the clothing recycle and in the re-integration of disadvantaged social categories. By referring to previous literature about DBSC, two modelling strategies are identified: the BSC-driven and the SD-driven. The latter, based on inductive reasoning, is the one privileged for the study because of its wider flexibility. The modelling outputs consider different perspectives than the ones within traditional BSCs, contain elements of circular causality and show how financial and non-financial performances interplay and co-determine each other. Insights from the proposed model can be useful to support both decision-making and stakeholder engagement.

The globalisation of markets, emerging concepts of sustainable development, and circular economy have defined the boundaries within which organisations must compete and address the needs of key stakeholders. As circumstances change, boundaries are often replaced by the relationships between companies and the communities they serve. Consequently, strategy has become a central aspect of sustainable leadership and the foundation for implementing strategic management in a dynamic system of relationships. Every company is born and grows within social and economic ecosystems. Drawing on the metaphor of biology, ecosystems are described as dynamic interconnections among various elements that influence and foster entrepreneurship. Interconnections between players (such as marketplaces, organisations, governments, and universities) create a flow of expertise, abilities, knowledge, experience, and tangible resources. Economic and social ecosystems involve various actors and components that continuously coexist and interact, leading to the creation of numerous mutual relationships. Consequently, it is crucial for managers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the internal and external environments. Various decision-making tools and strategies can be used to achieve this goal. These tools were developed to assist managers, researchers, and consultants in making informed decisions under complex scenarios. This chapter presents several decision-making strategies and tools, including the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix, General Electric (GE) matrix, Balanced Scorecard (BSC), PEST, PESTEL analysis, and SWOT analysis.

Adapting to external and internal transformations is a difficult task that managers and scholars must face while attempting to keep their organisations alive and well-established. This chapter explores the various decision-making tools that can assist practitioners and scholars to improve their understanding of the external scenario to determine the contemporary appropriateness of these approaches for analysing the environment and their implications for various types of organisations. The chapter investigates the barriers and drivers of these methods and proposes existing alternative paradigms created by academics and practitioners to analyse and comprehend the context. It demonstrates how these decision-making tools can be implemented by providing examples and case studies.

This paper investigates the effectiveness of the Ambidextrous Scorecard (ASC) in facilitating the integration of organizational ambidexterity in four-star Puebla City hotels for managing exploitation and exploration activities. It proposes an integrated approach to ambidexterity and introduces the ASC as a tool explicitly targeting hotels’ challenges and opportunities.

The study analyzes survey data from 41 hotels (85.42% response rate). Our methodology involves a literature review, the Delphi technique for questionnaire validation, and data collection through Google Forms. Statistical tests confirm the reliability and validity of the approach for assessing the effective integration of exploitation and exploration activities.

The paper highlights how the ASC promotes an integrated approach to managing both activities. By incorporating exploitation activities (cost reduction, strategic alliances), and facilitating exploration activities (process innovation, new market attraction), the ASC empowers hotels to streamline operations, develop novel offerings, and achieve enhanced operational efficiency and innovation.

We acknowledge limitations due to its specific focus on the hotel industry in Puebla City, suggesting that the results may not be universally applicable. We recommended that further investigation be conducted into the application of the Ambidextrous Scorecard (ASC) across different sectors and regions to enhance understanding of organizational ambidexterity. Exploring the impact of integrating exploitation and exploration activities across corporate areas could offer valuable insights for implementing the ASC in diverse business settings.

The paper indicates that hotels can achieve ambidexterity by integrating exploitation and exploration activities using the Balanced Scorecard. This approach enhances competitiveness, allowing hotels to anticipate and respond to market trends quickly. It highlights the significance of considering ambidexterity across all organizational areas to ensure sustained adaptability and performance in dynamic environments.

This paper introduces the concept of integrated ambidexterity and the ASC as a novel tool for managing the balance between innovation and efficiency. The ASC transcends the hotel industry, potentially benefiting various service sectors by facilitating a more integrated approach to organizational performance.

This study aims to explore the serendipitous discovery of integrated reporting (IR) by Alpha, an Italian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). Alpha piqued the curiosity when the authors discovered that it experimented with IR alongside other management accounting practices, such as the Balanced Scorecard. As the authors reflected on Alpha’s experiences, the authors had to opportunistically develop a new framework to understand the change that was taking place at Alpha fully. Thus, the authors developed the serendipitous drift framework. This study contributes to addressing the gap between management accounting research that sees change as a planned, ordered process versus research that sees it as an unmanageable drift.

The authors ground the research on a qualitative methodology based on a single case study. This methodology allows us to focus on understanding what has happened at Alpha to discover new themes and provide theoretical generalisations. The authors developed the framework using middle-range thinking and fleshed it out using empirical findings from the case study. Middle-range thinking implies going back and forth between the theory and the empirical material. Therefore, the authors develop the serendipitous drift framework from prior theories and use it to inform the empirical study. In turn, the empirical material collected in Alpha helps refine and flesh out the serendipitous drift framework. The framework explains how Alpha leveraged serendipity to steer change towards favourable outcomes for them.

The authors find that the search for change undertaken by Alpha’s managers was non-specific but purposeful. Their dispositions were sagacious enough to recognise the potential value found in management accounting practices, such as IR and the Balanced Scorecard. They chanced upon new and unforeseen practices through trial and error, iteration, internal engagement and networking.

Overall, the results indicate that Alpha’s managers shaped the disorder of management accounting changes, even though it followed unexpected, uncertain and messy paths. Indeed, appropriate informal controls can act as a frame of reference for choosing, adapting and implementing new management accounting practices to shape the disorder. Informal controls can both guide and bound the experimentation process towards desirable outcomes.

The authors contribute to management accounting change theory by developing a framework rooted in serendipity and drifting theories. The framework identifies how searching, sagacity and chance are essential for making positive, unexpected discoveries. Therefore, the authors provide novel insights on how and why IR and other management accounting practices are eventually translated and adopted in the case company. Moreover, the serendipitous drift framework has the potential to help managers frame cultural controls to actively seek opportunities for valuable serendipitous eureka moments through networking and experimentation.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to combine a holistic model – in our case the balanced scorecard – with the time-driven activity-based costing model. The inspiration for this stems both from Kaplan and Norton and from the intense discussions and use of business analytics (BA) and performance management (PM). Second, to use numerical experiments – more specifically Monte Carlo simulation – to design and explore four hypothetical scenarios within such a holistic model. The paper also aims to emphasise the role played by statistics in increasing the confidence in using such a framework.

The author runs four numerical experiments using different assumptions to show how a decision-maker can improve the outcome by making small changes in the key performance indicator (KPI) input variables.

The paper gives recommendations for the assumptions that each decision-maker has to consider when setting out to conduct this kind of analysis. Small changes in some input variables may completely change the output and hence the decision result.

The paper shows why practitioners and researchers need to better understand the limitations of deterministic analysis to make realistic models when combining more accounting models. To choose the relevant probability distributions for the input resources is an important issue for the decision-maker as they have a very large impact on the result.

The real value of the paper lies in making students and practitioners as well as researchers aware of the opportunities for stochastic modelling and also to point at the problems and limitations of combining elements from BA with performance measurement and management.

The growing importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, as well as related performance planning, measuring and reporting, has spurred interest in linking corporate sustainability and performance management systems (PMSs). In this context, the aim of this paper is to provide companies with a framework for implementing the requirements of the corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD) through a sustainability balanced scorecard (SBSC). The framework will further the integration of sustainability with corporate governance.

The framework was grounded in the relevant literature and the CSRD requirements.

This paper provides companies with a novel framework for implementing the requirements of the CSRD through a SBSC. The framework specifies four key steps (i.e. identifying material themes, initial assessment, strategic formulation and action, and sustainability reporting) to integrate sustainability with corporate governance.

The framework supports managers’ decision-making processes in linking sustainability with strategy and providing a basis for integrating sustainability with corporate governance in organizations. The paper provides a way to practically address the CSRD requirements.

This is the first study integrating the emerging CSRD requirements with corporate governance. The paper advances discussion and debate by management scholars on how a SBSC can be practically implemented, providing details on how this may be achieved.

This study aims to identify key research clusters (or sub-fields) in the field of performance measurement research, analyse its historical development and propose future research avenues.

Several bibliometric analysis methods, including co-citation analysis and text mining techniques, were used to review papers published on performance measurement research.

This study reveals eight main clusters of research in this field, ranging from theoretical-focused clusters (e.g. strategic performance measurement) to practical-focused clusters (e.g. design of performance measurement). These clusters are further categorised into four groups based on the size and degree of connectedness. Regarding the analysis of historical development, the established clusters, such as supply chain management, remain important, while newer clusters, such as hospitality and humanitarianism, have recently gained increasing interest.

This study applies citation-based clustering, a type of bibliometric literature review method that has been underused in the field of performance measurement. Moreover, the results obtained from this study are also distinct from those of previous studies, offering valuable insights especially for researchers. With a comprehensive understanding of the field, researchers can use it to understand the key literature, observe ongoing developments within their specialisation and inform their future research directions.

This study aims to respond to calls for more research to understand how sustainability control systems (SCSs) feature (or do not feature) in short-term operational and long-term strategic decision-making.

An in-depth case study of a large multinational organisation undertaking several rounds of sustainability reporting is presented. Data collection was extensive including 26 semi-structured interviews with a range of employees from senior management to facility employees, access to confidential reports and internal documents and attendance of company meetings, including an external stakeholder engagement meeting and the attendance of the company’s annual environmental meeting. A descriptive, analytical and explanatory analysis is performed on the case context (Pfister et al., 2022).

Simon’s (1995) levers of control framework structures our discussion. The case company has sophisticated and formalised diagnostic controls and strong belief and boundary systems. Conventional management controls and SCSs are used in short-term operational decision-making, although differences between financial imperatives and other aspects such as environmental concerns are difficult to reconcile. SCSs also provided information to justify company actions in short-term decisions that impacted stakeholders. However, SCSs played a very limited role in the long-term strategic decision. Tensions between social, environmental and economic factors are more reconcilable in the long-term strategic decision, where holistic risks and opportunities need to be fully identified. External reporting is seen in a “constraining” light (Tessier and Otley, 2012), and intentionally de-coupled from SCSs.

This paper responds to recent calls for rich, holistic and contextually-grounded perspectives of sustainability processes at an extractives company. The study provides novel insight into how SCSs are used (or not used) in short-term or long-term decision-making and external reporting. The paper illustrates how a large company is responding to sustainability pressures within the unique contextual setting of New Zealand. The study outlines the imitations of existing practice and provides implications for how sustainability-based internal controls can be better embedded into organisations.