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The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of the role of the balanced scorecard in strategy implementation.

This paper provides a review of strategy implementation literature to identify the main inhibitors of successful strategy implementation and then proceeds to critically review the balanced scorecard and evaluate the contribution it can make to strategy implementation, in particular how it may be able to mitigate the problems associated with strategy implementation.

It is argued in the paper that the balanced scorecard, subject to the adoption of suitable processes, can address the key problems associated with strategy implementation including communication, the role of middle managers and integration with existing control systems. The study raises a series of research questions and proposes avenues for further research.

More than half strategies devised by organisations are never actually implemented. At a time of increasing competition and globalisation; shorter lead times and increased customer sophistication, the effectiveness of strategy implementation is even more important. The findings of this study will provide the basis for research that will improve this vital management activity.

The effective implementation of corporate strategy is often overlooked in strategic management literature. There is still recognition that there is a need for further research. By combining two eclectic fields of research, i.e. strategy implementation and performance measurement, it is proposed that new insights can be gained to inform future practice.

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify the evolving applications of balanced scorecard and strategy map in the healthcare sector. This paper seeks to describe a number of innovative approaches adopted by healthcare organizations and health systems in their implementation of Kaplan and Norton's strategy map and balanced scorecard. Although strategy map and balanced scorecard are useful strategic management tools, policy makers and decision makers should be well‐informed about implementation issues and challenges of their adoption in healthcare organizations and health systems.

The paper is based on a literature review of the applications of strategy map and balanced scorecard in healthcare organizations and health systems. Also publications of the Ministry of Health and Long‐Term Care and its agencies are examined to assess the strategic priorities and plans for Ontario's health system.

From the literature review and case studies cited, an increasing use of strategy map and balanced scorecard was found in the healthcare sector. The implementation is both unique and innovative. Moreover, strategy map and balanced scorecard are effective communication and strategic management tools in aligning and integrating the strategic goals of various levels within the health system.

The paper gives an account of the different implementation approaches of strategy map and balanced scorecard in the healthcare sector; thereby providing policy makers and decision makers with choices on how to implement the strategic management tool in their organizations.

The literature review and case studies described here highlight the value and applications of strategy map and balanced scorecard in the healthcare sector.

This paper compares balanced scorecard and intellectual capital and finds important differences between their theoretical underpinnings, which suggest that the breath of indicators will work differently in organisations.

Analysing texts about balanced scorecard and intellectual capital, the paper discusses not the obvious similarities – that they are both integrated performance management systems – but four more aspects: strategy, organisation, management, and indicators. Comparing these four dimensions the paper discusses the differences arising from the very different theories of strategy that they presuppose: competitive advantage versus competency strategy.

The paper suggests that the very different notions of strategy that underpin the balanced scorecard and the intellectual capital approach make such comprehensive performance management systems behave in very different ways – the difference between a tightly coupled and a loosely coupled system accounts for this.

The main limitation is that the paper is primarily a literature study and therefore it is not certain that in practical situations companies will necessarily adopt the theoretical perspectives mobilised behind balance scorecard and intellectual capital.

The usefulness of that paper is that practitioners may understand the breath of implications of a shift in strategic focus and realise the various organisational conditions that can help mobilise the use of indicators in different ways.

The paper's analysis shows how the two models assume how indicators work in an organisational systems and concludes that the differences are significant and that therefore there are considerable differences in how a system of indicators may work in the context of balanced scorecard compared with the context of intellectual capital.

This article looks at the alignment of performance management system with the strategy, structure, and organizational outcome in Canadian health care organizations. In this study, balanced scorecard is the framework adopted for assessing the health care organization's performance management system (PMS) and outcome. CEO and clinical unit managers were surveyed for their perceptions on their organization's strategy, autonomy structure, PMS, and organizational performance. Path analysis was the methodology used in examining the relationship about the above organizational variables. The results indicate that patient satisfaction is the primary and most significant perspective of the depicted balanced scorecard in organizational performance. Patient satisfaction and research criteria, on the other hand, are the significant perspectives of a balanced scorecard in an organization's PMS, which are linked to strategy, autonomy structure, and organizational performance. Moreover, the results show that the strategy/structure links operated as suggested. Surprisingly, strategy on service innovation has a negative impact on the organizational outcome of patient satisfaction. Uncertainty from continuous development and organizational change in pursuing service innovation and cost-cutting measures in response to fiscal constraints are plausible explanations of the adverse impact reported.

The purpose of this paper is to present a balanced scorecard model methodology to develop an approach for decision making for the motor homes industry that is used to communicate and evaluate achievement of the corporate mission and strategy. The index, success indicator, gives management a “bottom line” result including non‐financial as well as financial measures based on the targeted improvement efforts as well as the actual result. The comprehensive set of measures helps to focus their organization's strategic objectives in the areas of financial, customer, learning, and growth.

The qualitative analysis and the quantitative survey of the motor homes industry were summarized to develop generalized measures and applications as a basic for formulating a special balanced scorecard model.

Various financial, customer, learning, and growth metrics were identified for a possible template for an actual balanced scorecard.

This paper focuses on a methodology for use by the manufactured home industry that would quantify the intuitive understanding needed to project the possible results. The advantage of using the analysis and the “success indicators” would be to give a “bottom line” result (financial and non‐financial) based on corporate efforts within the industry as presented in the simulation. Further modeling would be necessary to investigate changes in multiple measures.

The strategy cannot be executed if it cannot be understand, and it cannot be understood if it cannot be described.

This paper develops an approach for decision making by formulating a specific balanced scorecard model for the motor homes industry.

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC), first introduced by Kaplan and Norton in 1992, is described as a comprehensive performance measurement system as well as a strategic management tool. Over the past decade, the BSC has attracted increasing attention in mainstream management accounting research. A review of the literature identifies five main areas of criticism relating to the BSC. Using particularly Nørreklit’s (2000, 2003) criticisms of the BSC’s assumptions, this research gained views (using both a pilot and follow up survey of New Zealand companies) on the number and titles of perspectives in the BSC; the existence and understanding of cause‐and‐effect relationships; whether or not the BSC was perceived as a strategic control model; the number of performance measures and perceptions of the ability to judge performance based on those measures; and the credibility and effectiveness of the BSC as a management solution. The findings show that the BSC is not used extensively by the firms studied but those that do use it take full advantage of the BSC’s flexibility, using broader perspective names, as needed, to incorporate the desired aspects of organisational performance. There appears to be no concern over whether the cause‐and‐effect relationships meet a set of academic criteria relating to empirical verification and logical independence. However, Nørreklit’s (2000) criticism that the BSC fails to increase strategy awareness finds some support. The findings also contradict the suggestion that the BSC necessitates an excessive number of performance measures which could be detrimental to managerial performance evaluation. Finally, the criticism that the BSC is merely a trend, popularised by management consulting firms, is also not supported.

The purpose of this paper is to create a model called “Balanced score for the balanced score card” and to provide an objective benchmarking indicator for evaluating the achievement of the strategic goals of the company.

The paper uses the concepts of “Balanced scorecard” proposed by Robert. S. Kaplan and David P. Norton. This paper also adopts the model given by Brown P.A. and Gibson D.F. and the extension to the model provided by P.V. Raghavan and M. Punniyamoorthy. Preference theory is used to calculate the relative weightage for each factor, using the process of pair wise comparison. The balanced score for balanced scorecard provides a single value by taking into account all the essential objective and subjective factors – be it financial or non‐financial. It also provides a suitable weightages for those parameters. The target performance and the actual performance are compared and the analysis is made.

Information from a leading organization was obtained and the balanced score for a balance scorecard was calculated for that organization. The variations were analyzed through this model. The depth and objectivity in the analysis is highlighted.

This provides a single bench marking measure to evaluate how far the firm had been successful in achieving the strategies. The paper has adopted the preference theory which limits the weightage to be accorded to the factors concerned. However, further refinement can be provided by the usage of analytic hierarchy process for arriving suitable weightages.

The organization can calculate the balanced score by themselves, by assigning appropriate importance to the activities – as they deem fit. It is a tailor made benchmarking information system created by the firm for itself.

This is of value to the top management to identify the important activities and setting suitable target measures to be achieved in those activities. The variations are arrived by comparing the targeted performance with the actual. This will help the firm to take suitable actions under those parameters where there are significant deviations.

Without doubt Robert Kaplan has been, in the last decade, and continues to be the most influential thinker in the field of performance management, and his Balanced Scorecard is the most successful concept in this field. The article is a summary of an interview with Robert Kaplan, co‐author of The Balanced Scorecard, Translating Strategy into Action (Harvard Business School Press, 1996). The Balanced Scorecard, measures that drive performance (Harvard Business Review, January/February 1992) and The strategy‐focused organization, how balanced scorecard companies thrive in the new business environment (Harvard Business School Press, 2000).

Models of value creation that have been proposed for supporting value-based management are described and analyzed, including the Balanced Scorecard, the Baldrige Quality Award Criteria, the Deming Management Method, the Service-Profit Chain, and the Skandia Intellectual Capital Model. These models are compared, their potential for guiding the identification of value drivers and performance measures for value-based management is assessed, and management issues that must be addressed if such models are to contribute to long-run value creation are explored. These issues include causally linking value drivers to each other and to financial outcomes, the extent to which the models take a dynamic, or whole-system, view of value creation, and whether multiple value drivers should be explicitly weighted and combined to form a “value index.” Finally, the substantial body of research evidence linking intangible value drivers to financial outcomes is reviewed, and some directions for further research are offered.

This paper aims to present a step-exchange strategy for balance control of a walking biped robot when a lateral impact acts suddenly. A step-out strategy has been recently proposed for balance control when an unknown lateral force acts to a biped robot during walking. This step-out strategy causes a robot to absorb the impact kinetic energy and efficiently maintain balance without falling down. Nevertheless, it was found that the previous strategies have drawbacks that the two foots should always be on the ground (double-support mode) after being balanced and the authors think it is difficult to continue walking after being balanced. Unlike the existing balance strategies, the proposed step-exchange strategy is to not only maintain balance but also to lift one leg in the air (single-support mode) after being balanced so that it is easy for a biped robot to keep walking after being balanced.

In the proposed step-exchange strategy, forward Newton–Euler equation, angular momentum and energy conservation equation were derived. Hill-climbing algorithm is utilized for numerically finding a solution. To verify the proposed strategy, a biped robot by Open Dynamics Engine was stimulated, and experiments with a real biped robot (LRH-1) were also conducted.

The proposed step-exchange strategy enables a walking biped robot under a lateral impact to keep balance and to keep a single-support mode after exchanging a leg. It is helpful for a biped robot to continue walking without any stop. It is found that the proposed step-exchange strategy can be applicable for maintaining balance even if a biped robot is moving. Even though this proposal seems immature yet, it is the first attempt to exchange the supporting foot itself. This strategy is very straightforward and intuitive because humans are also likely to exchange their supporting foot onto the opposite side when an unexpected force is acting.

The proposed step-exchange strategy described in this paper can be applicable in the situation when the external force is applied in the +Y direction, the left leg is the swing leg and the right leg is the stance leg, or it can also be applicable in the situation when the external force is applied in −Y direction, the right leg is the swing leg and the left leg is the stance leg (Figure 2 for ±Y force direction). If an impact force acts to the side of the swing leg, the other step-exchange strategy is needed. The authors are studying this issue as a future work.

The authors have originated the proposed step-exchange strategy for balance control of a walking biped robot under lateral impact. The strategy is genuine and superior in comparison with the state-of-the-art strategy because not only can a biped robot be balanced but it can also easily continue walking by using the step-exchange strategy.