Search results

English social housing providers are increasingly turning to social impact measurement to assess their social value. This paper aims to understand the contextual factors causing this rise in the practice, specifically within this sector; the mechanisms that enable it to be effectively implemented within an individual organisation and the outcomes of successful implementation for individual organisations and more widely across the sector and beyond.

A realist theory-based approach is applied to the study of a small number of social housing organisations and leaders within the sector to explore the use of social impact measurement. The paper addresses three questions: Why is social impact measurement being adopted in this sector? How is it successfully implemented? And what happens (outcomes) when it is successfully implemented? Addressing these questions necessitates deeper insight into the contextual pressures that have brought to the fore social impact measurement within the sector and the beneficial outcomes the practice provides (or is anticipated to provide) to social housing providers. The methodological approach of Realist Evaluation (Pawson and Tilley, 1997, 2004) is used to structure and analyse the empirical data and findings into a programme theory for social impact measurement. Realist Evaluation provides a programme theory perspective, seeking to answer the question “what works, for whom and in what circumstances?”. In this research, the “whom” refers to English social housing providers and the circumstances are the contextual conditions experienced by the sector over the past decade. The programme theory aims to set out the links between the contextual drivers for social impact measurement, the mechanisms that bring about its implementation and the outcomes that occur as a result. Within this, greater detail on the implementation perspective is provided by developing an implementation theory using a Theory of Change approach (Connell et al., 1995; Fulbright-Anderson et al., 1998). The implementation theory is then embedded within the wider programme theory so as to bring the two elements together, thereby creating a refinement of the overall theory for social impact measurement. In turn, this paper demonstrates its importance (the outcomes that it can achieve for organisations and the sector) and how it can effectively be implemented to bring about those outcomes.

Social housing providers use social impact measurement both internally, to determine their organisational priorities and externally, to demonstrate their value to local and national governments and cross-sector partners then to shape and influence resource allocation. The practice itself is shown to be an open and active programme, rather than a fixed calculative practice.

The intensive nature of the research means that only a limited number of cases were explored. Further research could test theories developed here against evidence collected from a wider range of cases, e.g. other types of providers or non-adopters.

The research makes a strong contribution to practice in the form of a re-conceptualisation of how social impact measurement can be shown to be effective, based on a deeper understanding of causal mechanisms, how they interact and the outcomes that result. This is of value to the sector as such information could help other organisations both to understand the value of social impact measurement and to provide practical guidance on how to implement it effectively.

As the practice of impact measurement continues to develop, practitioners will need to be aware of any changes to these contextual factors and consider questions such as: is the context still supportive of impact measurement? Does the practice need to be adjusted to meet the needs of the current context? For instance, the recent tragedy at Grenfell Tower has led to a reconsideration of the role of social housing; a new Green Paper is currently being drafted (Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2018). This may have a number of implications for social impact measurement, such as a rebalancing of emphasis on outcomes relating to environmental improvements, towards outcomes relating to the well-being of tenants.

Existing literature is largely limited to technical guides. This paper links theory-based evaluation to practice contributing to social housing practice.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a systems approach can be used to facilitate the development of an organizational performance measurement system.

Based on a review of the literature, the paper introduces the implications for applying a systems approach to organizational performance measurement. To demonstrate the transition from theory to practice, a case study is provided to show how a sustainable development performance measurement system was developed at a Canadian electric utility. The case study involved extensive consultation with over 25 experts.

The paper finds that a systems approach is useful in developing the process and that a set of formal systems criteria is useful in developing the structure and content of a performance measurement system. These concepts are highlighted throughout the case study example.

The case study section was based on findings from a single organization. Further work is required to validate the findings within other organizations.

The paper shows how a robust sustainable development performance measurement system may be developed at an electric utility. The overarching emphasis on integration of the system with the case utility's mainstream initiatives demonstrates that a performance measurement system must build on what the organization already has in place. The systems‐based approach and formal systems criteria used in the paper may be transferable to other organizations.

The paper shows that a systems approach provides both the structure and flexibility needed to guide the design, implementation, and evolution of a sustainable development performance measurement system within existing organizational infrastructure.

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has emerged as a core concept in the field of entrepreneurship. Yet, there continue to be questions about the nature of EO and how best to conceptualize and measure it. This chapter makes the case that EO has grown beyond its roots as a firm-level unidimensional strategy construct and that a new multidimensional version of EO is needed to capture the diverse manifestations and venues for entrepreneurial activity that are now evident around the world – global entrepreneurial orientation (GEO). Building on the five-dimension multidimensional view of EO set forth when Lumpkin and Dess (1996) extended the work of Miller (1983) and Covin and Slevin (1989, 1991), the chapter offers an updated definition of EO and a fresh interpretation of why EO matters theoretically. Despite earnest efforts to reconcile the different approaches to EO, in order to move the study of EO and the theoretical conversation about it forward, we maintain that as a group of scholars and a field, we need to acknowledge that two different versions of EO have emerged. Given that, we consider original approaches to measuring EO, evaluate formative measurement models, consider multiple levels of analysis, call for renewed attention to EO configurations, and discuss whether there is a theory of EO.

The purpose of this paper is to present a business process measurement framework for the evaluation of a corpus of business processes modelled in different business process modelling approaches. The results of the application of the proposed measurement framework will serve as a basis for choosing business process modelling approaches.

The approach uses ideas of the goal question metric framework to define metrics for measuring a business process where the metrics answer the questions to achieve the goal. The weighted sum method (WSM) is used to aggregate the measure of attributes of a business process to derive an aggregate measure, and business process modelling approaches are compared based on the evaluation of business process models created in different business process modelling approaches using the aggregate measure.

The proposed measurement framework was applied to a corpus of business process models in different business process modelling approaches and is showed that insight is gained into the effect of business process modelling approach on the maintainability of a business process model. From the results, business process modelling approaches which imbibed the principle of separation of concerns of models, make use of reference or base model for a family of business process variants and promote the reuse of model elements performed highest when their models are evaluated with the proposed measurement framework. The results showed that the applications of the proposed framework proved to be useful for the selection of business process modelling approaches.

The novelty of this work is in the application of WSM to integrate metric of business process models and the evaluation of a corpus of business process models created in different business process modelling approaches using the aggregate measure.

The purpose of this paper is to identify practical ways to overcome the specific performance measurement challenges of knowledge‐intensive organizations. By reviewing performance measurement, service management and human resources management literature the paper recognizes two aspects that are crucial for the success of knowledge‐intensive organizations: the performance and well‐being of individual knowledge workers and the ability to provide value for the customer. The authors evaluate three measurement solutions for measuring these aspects, in three empirical settings.

Qualitative case approach, carried out as an action research, is used with empirical data obtained through interviews, workshops and analysis of documentation related to measurement systems. The empirical study consists of three case studies where two main phases were carried out: investigating the status of existing measurement practices; and development and evaluation of new measurement approaches and tools.

The results of the evaluation of proposed measurement approaches provide understanding of their potential in different workplaces. Eventually, this potentially supports the managers of knowledge‐intensive organizations in developing not only the measurement practices but also the overall performance of their organizations.

As the key academic contribution, the study provides new understanding on the potential of selected measurement approaches in overcoming the specific performance measurement challenges in knowledge‐intensive organizations. The results take into account the perspectives of an individual knowledge worker, a customer and an organization as a whole. In many previous studies, the main focus has been solely on the organizational perspective.

This study seeks to provide a broad ranging review that identifies, summarises and integrates the different multi-level approaches contributing to advances in research on measuring IC. This furthermore sets out and highlights an agenda for future research.

Deploying a systematic and thorough review of the literature, the authors were able to identify 60 articles and identify the main theories applied and the respective methodological orientations of these articles across three levels of analysis: micro, meso and macro.

The study's findings suggest that the literature on measuring IC has approached the theme across three different levels –micro, meso and macro. In addition, the results enable the identification of seven dimensions to IC: competitive advantage, economic value generated, resources and capacities, corporate governance, IC components, innovation management and the dissemination of IC.

The mixed-methods approach, which combines a traditional systematic literature review with ontological thematic analysis, casts light on the core aspects that led to the identification of a new approach in the academic literature on measuring IC.

This study puts forward a holistic model with measurements for IC across the three levels of analysis as well as the respective criteria for choosing the variables.

This study represents a first attempt to analyse the emerging literature on IC measurement through a multi-level approach; integrating and extracting the potential theoretical contributions in this field of knowledge; proposing an integrated model as well as a theoretically relevant and innovative research agenda that opens up paths to future research projects.

The purpose of this paper is to present a refined framework providing clarity in terms of the components of profitability and productivity change from the perspective of the firm level.

The literature is analysed with a scoping study and a systematic literature review. Productivity measurement approaches are compared using data at the product level.

The definition of total factor productivity (TFP) in the literature negatively affects the accuracy of profitability and productivity measurement. In the usual case of a dynamic output mix, TFP change encompasses biasing output mix effects relating to profitability, but not to productivity change. Therefore, this paper defines changes of a ratio of output quantities to input quantities not as TFP change, but as quantitative profitability (QP) change. A framework is proposed decomposing profitability change into price recovery and QP change, whereas the latter comprises of valid productivity change (encompassing technological, technical efficiency and productivity-related scale effects) and output mix change (encompassing proportion, quality, output switching and profitability-related scale effects).

Future research should include literature from the industrial organisation field of economics. The presented framework should be transferred to the standard production function framework used in economics.

The paper can help preventing faulty decision making or distrust due to the use of biased profitability or productivity indicators. TFP-based productivity indicators are unsuitable for most firms. To measure productivity meaningfully, firms should use adequate approaches (e.g. standard input- or adjusted total factor productivity-based ones).

The paper contributes to a more accurate performance measurement approach, as researchers and practitioners better understand the components of profitability and productivity change.

Market deregulation in the utilities sector has led to increased competition and rising customer expectations in both established and new markets. This, in turn, has forced organisations such as electricity and telecoms to make rapid, enterprise-wide changes on an increasingly frequent basis which in turn has led to problems with alignment. Misalignment can occur at many levels and can result in misused resources, loss of competitiveness, excessive cycle times, higher costs and loss of agility. The purpose of this paper is twofold. Given the lack of overarching theory, the paper begins by borrowing from contingency, dynamic capability and organisational learning constructs, to explore the role that performance measurement models can bring to improve the alignment between business strategy and functional strategy (level 1 alignment). Second, the paper analyses the role of performance measurement models in developing functional practices aligned with supply chain management (SCM) strategies (level 2 alignment).

The study adopts an exploratory theory-building approach using four case studies. These are used as key supply chains in both established and new business areas within two longitudinal university-industry research partnerships (each of three years duration). Data from repeat interviews (n=42), focus groups (n=10), documentation and observations is analysed and forms the basis for the development of a conceptual framework and a set of related propositions. The data analysis followed Radnor and Boaden's (2004) method for analysing interpretive research.

The findings show the role and impact of performance measurement models and methods on alignment at two levels, i.e. level 1 alignment – between business strategy and functional (SCM) strategy, and level 2 alignment – between the functional strategy (SCM) and SCM routines and practices.

To date, there are few studies which explore the development of theory and practice in relation to the role and impact of performance measurement models and methods in improving organisational alignment. This exploratory theory building study makes a contribution to this gap through the development of the conceptual framework and propositions.

The purpose of this paper is to present a review on the latest developments, approaches and methods in intellectual capital (IC) performance measurement.

A total of 53 research papers from high-ranking journals concerning the advances in IC performance measurement were thoroughly reviewed and classified to identify the advanced approaches and methods that have been used to evaluate IC performance.

It is clear that the current application of advanced or intelligent methods in IC performance measurement is still at the primary stage. The reviewed approaches mainly focus on two core applications. First is to assist the data collection or data handling process and second is to enhance the result computation process to obtain a more reliable and realistic value that represents the performance of IC.

This study offers a foundation and guideline for the researchers who wish to integrate advanced methods into IC performance measurement based on the reviewed advanced approaches in terms of their respective functions, strengths and limitations. It stimulates the creation of new IC performance measurement models that use advanced approaches to cope with real-life problems and dynamic conditions.

This paper contributes to the literature on IC performance measurement, in light of advances in technology. In general, five advanced approaches were identified, analyzed and discussed. Future research directions were presented to provide new insights for researchers to apply advanced methods in IC performance measurement, together with theoretical and managerial implications.

The purpose of this paper is to offer small to medium‐sized organizations (SMOs) with global business aspirations an innovative approach to performance measurement and management.

The first phase of this research is based on a literature review. The second phase capitalizes on the literature review to offer a conceptual framework aimed at improving the performance measurement approach utilized by SMOs. The advocated approach stresses performance measurement, benchmarking, and effective implementation.

The conceptual approach offered in this study represents the main outcome of this applied research. The advocated approach integrates several frameworks in an effort to address practical concerns related to performance measurement, management, and improvement.

The research offered in this study has practical and theoretical implications. The proposed approach offered by this study should be refined and validated through future research.

The approach presented in this study offers practicing managers a systematic and practical approach to performance measurement, management, and improvement.

The approach offered in this study capitalizes on several methodologies and tools to offer managers a benchmarking‐based performance management approach suitable for SMOs with global operational aspirations.