Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the literature on third sector performance measurement system design.

A systematic literature review was undertaken. The abstracts of 917 articles identified from a database search were examined and, of these, 110 papers were put forward for full paper review. Totally, 55 papers were subsequently selected for the literature synthesis.

The findings examine the important questions of why and how the performance of third sector organizations is measured. The analysis of the sample of works suggests a potential methodological mismatch between the rationale for measuring the performance of third sector organizations and the measurement methods that are currently employed.

The study raises provocative questions about the usefulness of third sector performance measurement approaches, which may lead third sector managers to critically examine current practice.

As the papers in the synthesis are drawn from a broad range of journals, the review provides a multi-disciplinary discussion of the key themes of third sector performance measurement system design. Recent studies have been published simultaneously, suggesting that there has been limited opportunity for synthesis of this work. This study therefore offers a springboard for further research in this area.

Firms are increasingly held accountable for the welfare of workers across entire supply chains and so it is surprising that standard forms of governance for socially sustainable supply chain management have not yet emerged. Assessment initiatives have begun to develop as a proxy measure of social sustainable supply chain management. This research aims to examine how social sustainability assessment initiatives instigate and use institutional pressures to drive third-party accreditation as the legitimate means of demonstrating social sustainability in a global supply chain.

Ten assessment initiatives focused on assuring social sustainability across supply chains are examined. Data are collected through interviews with senior managers and publicly available secondary material.

The findings show how the social sustainability assessment initiatives act by instigating institutional pressures indirectly rather than directly. Coercive pressures are the most prevalent and are exerted through consumer and compliance requirements. The notion of pressures operating as a chain is proposed, and the recognition that actors within and outside of a supply chain are crucial to the institutionalization of social sustainability is discussed.

Studies on sustainable supply chain management often focus on how companies sense and act upon institutional pressures. To add to the extant body of knowledge, this study focuses on the sources of the pressures and demonstrates how assessment initiatives use coercive, normative and mimetic pressures to drive the adoption of social sustainability assessment in supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework that explains how performance management (PM) affects the organisational effectiveness in the third sector.

The authors adopt a two stage process in developing the theoretical framework; a systematic review of literature and theoretical developments of the framework. The underlying principles for developing the theoretical framework are mainly based on prior theoretical justification and empirical research in management accounting and international development fields.

Drawing upon contingency theory, the authors propose a theoretical framework explaining how the contingency variables affect PM and organisational effectiveness in the third sector. The authors discuss the justification for contingency theory as well as its weaknesses in the PM research. The authors also highlight how a modified Performance Management and Control Framework could be used to identify PM practices in the third sector. The organisational effectiveness can be measured using the four domains the authors suggest in this paper. Finally the authors put forward propositions that can be empirically tested in future studies.

This conceptual paper opens an opportunity for future empirical research to cross-validate the model in a large survey through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

This paper helps researchers and practitioners to understand how modern PM tools integrate with third sector characteristics to optimise the effectiveness of individual organisations.

Integrating insights across disciplines, this paper strengthens cumulative knowledge on conceptualisation of PM and effectiveness within the third sector.

This paper aims to use organisational theories to frame research questions examining how to embed social sustainability in supply chain management (SCM) by focusing on fair trade.

Drawing on previous organisational theory review papers in SCM, institutional theory and the extended resource-based view have been used as theoretical lenses to develop research questions for further studies.

The authors developed seven research questions that enable and encourage the further examination of the factors impacting fair trade supply chains, as well as identify approaches to improve social sustainability in SCM practice.

As the aim of fair trade is to rebalance inequities inherent in North–South trading relationships, further work in this area has the potential for positive economic, environmental and social impact.

The paper discusses two key themes: whether fair trade is changing SCM practices, and whether fair trade is a source of competitive advantage in supply chains. Using established theory to develop research questions encourages further examination of this important topic.

Research related to operations management (OM) in the sport industry is underdeveloped, despite sport being a continued context of study in other management disciplines. Most studies on the topic are conducted largely in isolation and not linked to the wider OM theory base. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the few studies conducted and develop a detailed research agenda to encourage future research in this interesting, important and topical context.

This paper uses a comprehensive systematic literature review methodology to synthesize the research on sport OM to date. Gaps within the literature are identified and avenues for future research to drive improved performance in multiple aspects of sport OM are suggested.

Examination of the literature shows sports OM to be underdeveloped, with little cumulative learning between existing studies and weak linkages between sport and OM research. To develop the topic further there is a clear requirement for more theory-based research as well as more rigorous empirical testing. The sport industry has special characteristics that differentiate it from the overall service industry and call for targeted research.

Sport today is a major business. The industry also contributes to individual health and well-being. This paper suggests several research directions designed to improve off-field performance in sport operations.

This paper is the first to identify and synthesize the separate studies that have been conducted on OM in sport to date in order to provide a multifaceted research agenda aimed at developing both theoretical and managerial contributions within this important yet under researched area.

Nonprofit performance measurement is receiving increasing academic and practitioner attention, but the design of nonprofit measurement systems has received limited consideration. This is in contrast to the well‐established body of knowledge that focuses on performance measurement in private and public sector organisations. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether this body of knowledge can be used to inform the design of nonprofit performance measurement systems.

A case study approach was taken to examine the performance measurement practices used in six nonprofit organisations and their associated funders and regulators. A total of 24 managers from 18 organisations took part in the study.

The study found underdeveloped and resource intensive performance measurement systems in the majority of organisations that were examined. The performance measurement literature from the private and public sectors advocates the development of relevant, balanced, integrated, strategic and improvement‐oriented performance measurement systems; concepts that have received limited consideration in the nonprofit literature. This research found that performance measurement system design principles developed for the private and public sectors were applicable to the nonprofit sector.

Whilst a range of stakeholders was included in the research, further work is required to validate the applicability of the findings to the diverse nonprofit sector. Nevertheless, given the dearth of operations management focused research on nonprofit performance measurement systems this study makes a useful contribution.

The study presents empirical evidence of the myriad criteria and processes that are used to measure nonprofit performance. The paper shows that current measurement practice is detracting from the performance of nonprofit organisations.

Despite the perceived uniqueness of the nonprofit sector, this paper shows that learning from the private and public sectors can be used to inform good practice in nonprofits. As relatively little research has been done in this area, the findings make a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge.

In the performance measurement and management research field, the applicability of performance measurement systems (PMS) in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and public administration has been considered a challenge. The diversity of these organizations makes it difficult to define proper terminology and organizational characteristics. PMS evolution has not yet been able to capture all performance dimensions of a public administration and, especially for NPO considering its dynamic and multiple goals. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework that identifies and classifies the factors that influence the design of PMSs in NPOs and public administration.

The study was developed through a systematic literature review (SLR). A set of 29 papers were intensely studied, and the results provide a multi-disciplinary and holistic set of factors.

A set of ten factors that influence the design of PMSs in NPO and public administration were found. They were categorized into three groups: factor related to purpose, stakeholders and management.

The study synthesized the literature and provided a conceptual framework of the factors that influence the design of PMSs in NPO and public administration. No individual paper collected in the SLR shows a similar organization of the factors as the present paper. The set of factors indicates the importance of this study for NPO and public administration, and how complex a PMS in an NPO and public administration can become. The conceptual model presented can further assist practitioners in developing design process observing the role that the identified factors play.