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This study examines whether different strategy archetypes deploy specific performance metrics to support their strategic goals and priorities. If so, does alignment of strategy and metrics positively impact organisational performance?

The conceptual framework and hypotheses are couched in Contingency Theory. The role of business strategy as a moderating variable is tested using MANOVA, followed by post hoc pairwise comparisons. The results are based on cross-sectional survey data from 372 manufacturing and service organisations in Italy.

The overall contingency effect of business strategy in selecting and deploying performance metrics and their effect on organisational performance is supported. However, the group-wise post hoc analyses show support only for Prospectors but not for Defenders and Analysers.

This research lends further support in favour of the Contingency Theory from a new geographic context (Italy) that there are no universally best performance metrics that drive organisational performance. However, more research is needed to understand why the theory only holds for certain strategic archetypes and not across all archetypes.

Managers can direct resources and effort towards designing and deploying the “right” type of performance metrics suitable for their strategic orientation and thus optimise organisational performance.

This is a rare study that tests the moderating role of business strategy using all four strategic archetypes of the Miles and Snow typology. It deploys both financial and non-financial measures and uses a very large sample of both manufacturing and service organisations from a relatively unexplored region of the world. The study provides additional evidence in favour of the Contingency Theory whilst advocating for more research to refine our understanding of why the contingency perspective is not so important for firms that are not the first-in.

To understand human resource (HR) practices outcomes on HR decision making, strategic human resource management (HRM) and organizational performance by exploring the HR data quality along with descriptive and predictive financial and non-financial metrics.

This work utilizes the grounded theory method. After the literature was reviewed, 113 HR managers of multinational and national companies in India were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire. The collected interview data was analyzed with NVivo 8.0 software.

It is interesting to uncover the descriptive and predictive non-financial and financial metrics of HR practices and their influence on organizational performance. It was found that HR data quality moderates the relationship between the HR practices outcome and HR metrics. This study found that HR metrics help in HR decision-making for strategic HRM and subsequently affect organizational performance.

This study has uniquely provided the descriptive and predictive non-financial and financial metrics of HR practices and their impact on HR decision making, strategic HRM and organizational performance. This study highlights the importance of data quality. This research offers insights to the HR managers, HR analysts, chief HR officers and HR practitioners to achieve organizational performance considering the various metrics of HRM. It provides key insights to the top management to understand the HR metrics' effect on strategic HRM and organizational performance.

This study seeks to explore the powerful role(s) of institutionalised performance measurement systems or metrics in smart city governance in a politically and militarily sensitive developing country.

This study extends the application and contribution of a multi-level institutional framework to previous management accounting literature on the potential relationship between performance measurement and smart city governance. The value of utilising a multi-level framework is to broaden and deepen theoretical analyses about this relationship to include the effect of political pressure from the military regime at the macro level on the institutionalisation of a performance measurement system at the micro-organisational level. Taking the New Cairo city council smart electricity networks project (Egypt) as an interpretive qualitative single-case study, data collection methods included semi-structured interviews, direct observations and documentary readings.

Performance measurement systems or metrics, especially in politically and militarily sensitive smart cities, constitutes a process of cascading (macro-micro) institutionalisation that is closely linked to sustainable developments taking place in the wider arena of urban policies. Going a step further, accounting-based performance metrics, arising from political and military pressures towards public-private collaborations, contribute to smart city management and accountability (governance). Institutionalised measurement systems or performance metrics play a powerful accounting role(s) in shaping and reshaping political decisions and military actions in the city council.

Theoretically, this study goes beyond the cascading institutionalisation process by arguing for the powerful role(s) of institutionalised accounting and performance measurement systems in smart city decision-making and governance. Empirically, it enriches previous literature with a case study of a developing Arab Spring country, characterised by an emerging economy, political sensitivity and military engagement, rather than developed and more stable countries that have been thoroughly investigated. It is also among the first politically engaged accounting case studies to highlight public-private collaborations as a recent reform in public sector governance and accountability.

Performance measurement systems (PMSs) are at the heart of most organisations. The aim of this study is to examine the attitudes of top-level managers towards the incompleteness of PMSs.

This paper draws on an in-depth field study conducted in an energy and environmental services provider based in New Zealand. The data, which were obtained from 20 semi-structured interviews, were triangulated against on-site observations and company documents.

The findings suggest that whether the incompleteness of a PMS is considered problematic or non-problematic depends on the role that the PMS plays in implementing a firm’s strategy. The authors show that when the PMS is mainly used to trigger improvement activities on and around strategic objectives and managers perceive adequate improvement activities to exist, then they consider the incompleteness of the PMS in relation to these strategic objectives to be non-problematic.

This study contributes to the nascent literature on managerial attitudes towards the incompleteness of PMSs by identifying conditions under which the incompleteness is considered problematic or non-problematic. The authors also contribute to the literature on the association between design qualities of PMSs and firm performance by suggesting that poor design qualities of a PMS (such as incompleteness) may not always translate into poor firm performance.

This paper seeks to measure in a quantitative way the degree of alignment among a set of performance measures between two organizations.

This paper extends Venkatraman's test of coalignment to assess the alignment of a set of performance measures governing a contractual inter‐organizational relationship. The authors applied the test and present coefficients of misalignment across three sets of measures: those used by a service provider involved in the research, those used by customers contracting the services, and those documented in 11 contracts studied.

Results confirmed a high degree of alignment between target and actual operational performance in the contracts. The alignment of customers' financial objectives and contracts' operational metrics was low. Calculations show poor alignment between the objectives of the provider and the contribution received from the contracts.

Some limitations of the conclusions include the small sample of contracts used in the calculations. Further research should include not only actual contracts, but also failed ones.

It is possible that misaligned goals, represented in misaligned performance measures, lead to tensions in intra‐firm relationships. If these tensions are not addressed properly the relationship could be unstable or terminated prematurely. This method of measuring alignment could detect early potential dangers in intra‐firm relationships.

This paper extends Venkatraman's test of coalignment to assess the alignment of a set of performance measures governing a contractual inter‐organizational relationship. Management researchers and business professionals may use this methodology when exploring degrees of alignment of performance measures in intra‐functional and inter‐firm relationships.

The purpose of the present analysis is to show that HR systems are not always designed in ways that consider the well‐being of employees. In particular, performance metric methods seem to be designed with organizational goals in mind while focusing less on what employees need and desire.

A literature review and multiple case‐study method was utilized.

The analysis showed that performance metrics should be revaluated by executives and HR professionals if they seek to develop socially responsible organizational cultures which care about the well‐being of employees.

The paper exposes the fact that performance appraisal techniques can be rooted in methodologies that ignore or deemphasize the value of employee well‐being. The analysis provides a context in which all HR practices can be questioned in relation to meeting the standards of a social justice agenda in the area of corporate social responsibility.

The objective of this paper is to identify the features of an effective e‐business performance measurement system, as well as the practices in organisations with distinctive e‐business performance metrics. From this it was hoped to identify a set of best practice recommendations.

A case study methodology is used to examine the performance measurement practices of 12 potentially exemplar organisations that have made efforts to develop distinctive performance metrics for e‐business. Qualitative data are collected from interviews with key informants from each organisation, with supporting data generate from company documents.

The study has uncovered a variety of approaches to e‐business performance measurement, with no common framework apparent. Whilst the case organisations show significant differences in the level of success achieved in developing suitable measures, there is evidence of a common concern to link e‐business performance to organisational objectives. However, there is a general unwillingness to embark on major overhauls of existing performance measurement systems.

The acknowledged weakness of case study research is that it can only investigate a limited number of situations. This raises the issue of the generalisability of the findings to a wider population. However, in the absence of empirical work in this area, the case organisations provided examples of superior practice in e‐business performance measurement when compared to organisations more generally.

This study identifies several gaps between the academic literature and current management practice, suggesting that researchers should consider the impact of theory on the process of organisational performance management. It also offers advice for organisations with respect to absorbing e‐business measures into their current performance measurement systems.

This paper offers empirical understanding of the application of performance metrics to e‐business and identifies several inconsistencies between academic theory and real‐world practice.

This paper explores the concepts of knowledge-centric organizations in the performing arts sector to understand how specific organizational practices relate to measures of financial and operational performance.

A quantitative analysis of 368 small and mid-sized nonprofit performing arts organizations in the USA was undertaken via primary data on organizational practices and secondary data on performance metrics. Structural equation modeling was used to validate the latent construct of knowledge centricity and to test hypotheses on how knowledge centricity impacts financial and operational performance, and is influenced by firm-level demographic variables.

Results show several distinct performance metrics that are statistically associated with knowledge-centric practices of the organizations analyzed.

This article investigates the knowledge centricity of organizations, a relatively nascent theoretical concept, which is of significant relevance in today’s knowledge-driven economy. The findings can serve as a basis to further investigate strategic approaches that arts organizations can undertake to remain sustainable and operate effectively in a knowledge-driven society.

It provides critical insights into management practices and approaches that can be instituted to drive improved organizational performance.

Building on the extant literature, this article develops a conceptual framework of knowledge centricity and defines a knowledge-centric organization. It thoroughly investigates the latent construct of knowledge centricity, identifies how knowledge centricity impacts financial and operational performance of nonprofit performing arts organizations, and provides grounding for future studies.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that divergent financial performance triggers different rationales for the decision to downsize (excuses, justifications, apologies or denials) and that organizational financial performance post-downsizing varies based on the initial downsizing rationale.

A mixed methods approach paired content analysis of 178 downsizing announcements from 2005 to 2011 with organizational financial data pre and post-downsizing event. Paired sample t-tests determined mean differences in organizational financial performance pre- and post-downsizing based on six commonly used organizational performance measures (accounting and human resources metrics). Longitudinal performance trends were evaluated using event history analysis.

Organizational experiencing both financial growth and decline engage in downsizing, but organizational financial performance varies based on downsizing rationale. For example, organizations engaging in excuse-based downsizing experienced significant levels of volatility and decline pre-downsizing, but growth post-downsizing. However, organizations engaging in justification-based downsizing experienced financial decline pre-downsizing, but no significant additional decline post-downsizing.

Collection of information over multiple business or economic cycles, or categorizing organizations based on industry, organizations size or number of employees may provide additional information on the relationship between downsizing and organizational financial performance.

Organizational performance pre- and post-downsizing varies based on downsizing rationale. Additionally, metrics used to evaluate downsizing success or failure should be considered carefully.

The authors help explain divergent results in existing research on the relationship between downsizing and organizational financial performance by identifying downsizing as a multi-dimensional event. The study indicates that organizational experience both financial growth and decline engage in downsizing, but rationalize the downsizing differently (according to social accounts).

Planned learning can be applied to a range of education and training interventions and events in an organization. Its value can be directly measured through observable performance improvement of trainees in job contexts following the planned learning highlighting transfer of learning. More specific and directly connected organizational metrics need to be identified. The connections should be both to the trainee performance and learning and to the broader organizational performance. Reports a redefinition of training evaluation resulting from the authors work with members of a global manufacturing training department. The effort was undertaken to create a process for the department to demonstrate the impact of planned learning on key organizational performance measures. The value‐added from training was established when the direct relationships between training (planned learning) and systematic job performance improvements were observed that were drawn from and directly linked to broader organizational productivity and performance metrics. From those successful field experiences and the training evaluation literature, proposes a refinement within the traditional four‐level evaluation process akin to a new level 3.5 – performance impact, to fit between Kirkpatrick’s model of level 3 (behavior) and level 4 (results).