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Quality initiatives in the West have produced limited long‐term success compared with equivalent initiatives in Japan. Some claim that this is due to the absence of explicit links between strategy and operational initiatives. The paper aims to tests this claim and suggests an approach that better supports quality management initiatives. The paper is based on a combination of literature review and case studies. It supports the assumption that an explicit link between strategy and operational initiatives is a critical success factor in deriving long‐term benefits from quality initiatives. It is an equally important feature of best practice performance management system design and the paper finds that quality management initiatives can be implemented more successfully, when associated with a robust corporate performance management approach based on modern strategic control principles. The paper demonstrates how the latest evolution of balanced scorecard – third‐generation balanced scorecard – adheres to such control principles and illustrates how it supports effective application of a number of popular quality management tools. The limited success of quality initiatives, along with the continued popularity of some of these tools, suggests that any approach, which effectively helps decrease the risk of failure, would carry significant value.

This paper proposes a progressive, multi-level framework for diagnosing maintenance performance: rapid performance health checks of key performance for different equipment groups and end-to-end process diagnostics to further locate potential performance issues. A question-based performance evaluation approach is introduced to support the selection and derivation of case-specific indicators based on diagnostic aspects.

The case research method is used to develop the proposed framework. The generic parts of the framework are built on existing maintenance performance measurement theories through a literature review. In the case study, empirical maintenance data of 196 emergency shutdown valves (ESDVs) are collected over a two-year period to support the development and validation of the proposed approach.

To improve processes, companies need a separate performance measurement structure. This paper suggests a hierarchical model in four layers (objective, domain, aspect and performance measurement) to facilitate the selection and derivation of indicators, which could potentially reduce management complexity and help prioritize continuous performance improvement. Examples of new indicators are derived from a case study that includes 196 ESDVs at an offshore oil and gas production plant.

Methodological approaches to deriving various performance indicators have rarely been addressed in the maintenance field. The proposed diagnostic framework provides a structured way to identify and locate process performance issues by creating indicators that can bridge generic evaluation aspects and maintenance data. The framework is highly adaptive as data availability functions are used as inputs to generate indicators instead of passively filtering out non-applicable existing indicators.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences between public and private organizations in the paths of business excellence models and to identify the key drivers for creating business results and customer satisfaction.

The partial least squares structural equation modeling technique is used to compare the path coefficients and to identify the key driver constructs for creating business results.

The variation in endogenous constructs is found to be more difficult to explain or predict for private organizations than for public organizations, despite the fact that the performance of private organizations is almost always higher than or equal to the performance of public ones in all criteria. The effect of “leadership” on “management of processes” is significantly higher in public organizations than in private ones. However, “management of processes” in public organizations does not seem to translate into “results.” The effect of “strategic planning” on creating business “results” is negative for public organizations and remains inconclusive, due to insufficient evidence, for private organizations.

The results may not be generally applicable to other countries. However, they do support the move toward more tailor-made models for specific sectors.

It is necessary to review the national business excellence model in order to fit specific sectors.

This is the first study to investigate the differences between private and public organizations in the Swedish business excellence model.

Today, many IC approaches and company cases of IC reporting exist, but a common framework is lacking. This article explains policy and business perspectives for IC reporting and analyses the current IC approaches for defining essential drivers and policy strategies for such a framework. Focusing on external reporting and ‘value in use/stakeholder’ criteria is seen as a set of drivers that can combine policy and company perspectives and at the same time ensure involvement of a larger part of the business community and a framework recognisable to users of IC reports.

The aim of this paper is to discuss a theoretical framework for increased integration of a company's communication policy, corporate language policy and corporate information portal with a view to facilitating communication management.

The paper draws on selected theoretical contributions on corporate language policy with special emphasis on theoretical considerations on the type of language policies developed and implemented in companies and organisations and on corporate communication with special emphasis on van Riel's common starting points. The empirical basis of the paper is a triangulation of questionnaire data, content analysis data and interview data.

The paper argues that corporate communication has not sufficiently included the operational part of a company's corporate communication. The paper makes the case for a theoretical integration framework based on van Riel's common starting points (CSPs), and argues that corporate communication also needs to include the corporate language policy and the corporate information portal, defined as a modern information directory offering communicators concrete communication data for use in concrete text production situations.

The paper proposes a CSP‐based theoretical integration framework and makes the case for a Holy Trinity in corporate communications based on the communication policy, the corporate language policy and the corporate information portal.

There have been many new initiatives within the Danish educational system during the last few years. These initiatives are based on an unshakable belief that “…within a knowledge and service society continuous competency development is decisive … for companies’ ability to compete” (Ministry of Education, 1997, p. 22). In other words, there are new demands on both companies and employees. This paper seeks to describe the nature of education and training provision in Denmark. Labour market policies and infrastructure are examined, the education system is described and analysed and recent empirical data on corporate training and development are discussed. Finally, an attempt is made to indicate key challenges facing the Danish learning environment into the future.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the role of learning in performance measurement.

The authors develop a theoretical framework combining workplace learning theory with purposes of performance measurement. The authors elaborate this framework empirically by identifying critical incidents from a case set within a context containing a broad range of different performance measurement activities. Finally, the authors discuss the results and the possible implications for using the theoretical framework in order to better understand facets of learning regarding the design of performance measurement.

Workplace learning theory provides a deeper understanding of how the mechanisms of performance measurements support control or improvement purposes. The authors propose a tentative framework for learning as a driver for performance measurement and four facets of learning are identified: reproductive, rule-oriented, goal-oriented and creative learning.

The empirical material is limited to the healthcare context and further studies are needed in order to validate the findings in other settings.

The authors argue that all managers must consider what kind of learning environment and what kind of learning outcomes best serve the interests of their organisation. Purposeful and carefully designed organisational arrangements and learning environments are more likely to induce intended learning outcomes.

Previous connections between the fields of “performance measurement” and “workplace learning” often lack any deeper conceptualisations or problematisations of the concept of learning. In this paper, the authors provide a more nuanced discussion about the process of learning in performance measurement, which may provide a basis for further research and scholarly attention.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the research on internationalization in small firms and research on managerial behavior, and it aims to develop new research questions that can enhance the understanding of the interface between these two areas.

A literature review of internationalization of small firms is carried out. It is concluded that understanding of managerial behavior in small international firms is in need of improvement. Therefore, the literature on managerial behavior is described, scrutinized and deployed in the context of small firms' internationalization.

No previous research has combined the research on small‐business internationalization and managerial behavior. Hypotheses that can be empirically tested and new research questions that can yield a better understanding of the internationalization processes in small firms are developed.

The hypotheses developed in this study have not yet been tested empirically. Further research is suggested to confirm and elaborate these propositions.

As the propositions in this study are not tested their practical implications are limited at present. However, earlier research has shown that there is a link between managerial behavior and firm behavior. Managers may be inspired by the study to reflect upon this link and adjust their behavior in ways that can improve their firms' international development.

In this paper the research on internationalization in small firms is merged with the research on managerial behavior. By adding knowledge from the latter research tradition, the understanding of small‐firm internationalization should be advanced through raising novel issues and applying new methodological tools.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the emergent properties perspective from the field of biology can be applied to the field of intellectual capital. Much attention has in recent years been directed towards problems of accounting for intellectual capital and how the value of intellectual capital at one level of an organization influences the value of intellectual capital at higher or lower levels of the organization.

Through a literature review an emergent properties framework was developed. This framework was applied to an intellectual capital perspective with empirical illustrations.

In this paper, it is argued that the inherent difficulties of understanding the interdependencies of intellectual capital across different levels of an organization can be traced to a lack of understanding of the differences between synergetic effects, causal relationships and emergent properties. The paper illustrates through examples how an emergent properties perspective can be mobilized in relation to the field of intellectual capital.

The paper is conceptual in nature and reports the theoretical propositions from an ongoing empirical project. The lack of empirical content limits the strength of the conclusions.

The paper is a step in the direction of enhancing the understanding of the different levels of intellectual capital by applying the biological perspective of emergent properties. Although this perspective in itself may not constitute a general testable theory of intellectual capital, it is the hope, at least, that it may provoke thought, development and further research in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how tactical choices create value within a business model of a small company in the fashion outlet industry.

The generic two-staged competitive process framework from Casadesus-Masanell is used to analyze the fashion retailer MyFashionOutlet.

This paper argues that tactical choices made within a business model have a positive effect on the revenue of this company.

As to practice, the findings provide better insights into the levers of change within a constant business model. For academics, the authors provide guidelines for applying the framework to future research and identify potential limitations of the use.