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Presently, knowledge about the design of multiple perspectives performance measurement and management systems (PMMS), comprising financial and non-financial measures, in Australian business organisations, is limited. The empirical findings of a questionnaire-based study provide evidence to describe PMMS implemented in a sample of the Australian listed organisations, including information on levels of PMMS use, PMMS types, perspectives and measures.

This volume of Advances in Management Accounting (AIMA) begins with a paper by Neumann, Cauvin, and Roberts on the issue of information overload and multiple constituency values. Stakeholder advocates call for including more environmental and social disclosures but do not consider how these additional disclosures might lead to information overload and impair the use and interpretation of corporate performance measures. As we know, shareholders and boards of directors are most concerned with market data such as earnings per share, dividend rates, and market value growth. The authors suggest here that management control system (MCS) designers must consider information overload, primacy, and information markers before expanding the MCS to include social and nonfinancial disclosures. Management accountants are accustomed to providing performance measures within an organization and MCS usually have an internal focus. CFOs are often not accustomed to balance the needs of stakeholders with those of managers and owners. Companies and CFOs will face an information overload dilemma in making these determinations, and the users will be overloaded in sifting through the multiple dimensions of information that are increasingly being provided. The bias toward financial performance measures will distort both the provision and use of sustainability performance measures.

Although there is a growing research stream on Performance Measurement and Management Systems (PMMS) in Ecosystems literature, current research offers limited theoretical insights into how PMMS deal with two types of strategies in uncertain ecosystems: ecosystem-based strategy – EBS (at the focal firm level) and ecosystem strategy – ES (at the ecosystem level). This study aims at identifying how PMMS are employed to deal with different types of strategies in uncertain ecosystems.

The authors employed an inductive, rich multiple case approach in five focal firms with platform ecosystems. Data collection involved multiple sources of information (primary and secondary data), combing retrospective and longitudinal perspectives. Data analysis combined replication and comparison logic with coding.

This study identifies four major distinctive dimensions of Ecosystem PMMS under uncertainty: (1) Integrative Performance (considering the different ecosystem actors’ performance), (2) Interdependence Performance (mutual, yet not necessarily convergent amongst ecosystem partners), (3) Regulative Performance (paradoxical in nature, having to cope with both flexibility and stability) and finally (4) Phased Learning Performance (non-linear).

Our primary contribution is a new framework for PMMS literature: a performance measurement and management system for dealing with strategies in ecosystems. This framework enables managing performance regarding both types of strategies (EBS and ES) and their interplay in uncertain ecosystems.

The ecosystem management requires focal firms to measure and manage the overall ecosystem’s performance, and it varies according to the type of strategy adopted in each case. Our framework provides dimensions that guide firms to build and implement PMMS for an ecosystem consistent with the ES. Therefore, it may improve performance, especially in uncertain business contexts.

The findings enrich PMMS literature in an ecosystem context related to the ES in uncertain environments.

Considering performance measurement and management systems (PMMS) to be “mission-critical” information systems for many business organisations, calls have been made for researchers to shift from studying the use of such systems to studying their “effective” use, and in so doing to focus on their characterisation as information technology (IT) artefacts. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

In seeking to answer these calls, the authors apply Burton-Jones and Grange’s theoretical framework to study the dimensions, contextual drivers and benefits of the effective use of PMMS. This is done through a field study of 16 PMMS artefacts as used in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In characterising, contextualising and valuing the effective use of PMMS, this study provides answers to the following questions: What constitutes the effective use of PMMS? What are the user, artefactual and task-related drivers of such use? And what are the benefits for SMEs of using performance measurement and management (PMM) systems effectively?

With regard to the design of a PMMS artefact, the findings imply that one should concentrate on those artefactual attributes that most enable informed action on the part of owner-managers, as it is these actions have the greater consequences for the realisation of IT business value in SMEs. Moreover, the nomological network resulting from this research provides the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of a diagnostic tool meant to develop the PMM function in SMEs.

This study provides further empirical grounding and understanding. This study provides further empirical grounding and understanding of the concept of effective use, as well as further applicability and actionability to this concept and to the nomological network of its dimensions, contextual drivers and benefits in the case of PMMS and in the context of SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize the notion of relations underlying performance measurement models (PMMs) and explicate the ample exciting research opportunities that this reconceptualized viewpoint offers.

This is a conceptual paper, which primarily builds on and extends the contemporary research that challenges the traditional viewpoint that cause-and-effect relations are a necessary element of every PMM.

The reconceptualized viewpoint suggests that a PMM can be built on any combination of cause-and-effect, finality and logical relations, as opposed to only cause-and-effect relations. This paper presents several exciting research opportunities that the reconceptualized perspective offers.

The different types of relations underlying PMMs and their appropriate validation techniques are a relatively novel concept and also, a complex phenomenon which has received very limited attention in the accounting literature. This paper extends this nascent literature by outlining the research implications of this novel concept.

Purpose – To show the properties of performance measurement and management systems (PMMS) used dialogically and the association between the dialogic use of PMMS and the characteristics of the organizational relationships between parent companies and foreign subsidiaries.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Data were collected through a questionnaire e-mailed to large foreign subsidiaries of multinational firms operating in various industries. Hypotheses regarding factors associated with the extent to which PMMS are used dialogically between parent companies and foreign subsidiaries were tested based on responses to 136 usable questionnaires (45% response rate).

Findings – PMMS are used more dialogically within relationships between parent companies and subsidiaries characterized by subsidiary strategic role and organizational interdependence. Measurement diversity and perceived comprehensiveness of PMMS are higher if PMMS are used more dialogically. Finally, the dialogic use of PMMS is positively associated with subsidiary size and the emphasis on collaboration in the parent company’s national culture.

Originality/Value – In contrast to prior management accounting research that is focused on the outcomes of different styles of use of PMMS, this study shows organizational characteristics and PMMS properties associated with the dialogic use of PMMS. Moreover, this study advances the traditional view of the international business literature that conceives PMMS as bureaucratic systems employed by parent companies to coercively control foreign subsidiaries.

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on supply chain performance measures and metrics (PMMs). It provides a critical evaluation of 234 articles published in past 24 years.

The paper examines the studies published from 1991 to 2014 by adopting the bibliometric technique of citation and co-citation analysis.

The analysis of the results indicate that the number of articles on supply chain PMMs is increasing at its fastest pace in the past few years. Furthermore, the study identifies some of the most influential articles on performance measurement and metrics. Finally, it concludes that there has been a transition from traditional to more sophisticated performance measurement system.

This study focuses only on supply chain performance measurement and metrics and excludes research on performance management and control. Thus, researchers may explore and extend this area of research.

To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first study to review the literature on supply chain PMMs by using citation and co-citation analysis. The study includes 234 articles over the time of 24 years (1991-2014).

Several well‐known managerial accounting performance measurement models rely on causal assumptions. Whilst users of the models express satisfaction and link them with improved organizational performance, academic research, of the real‐world applications, shows few reliable statistical associations. This paper seeks to provide a discussion on the “problematic” of causality in a performance measurement setting.

This is a conceptual study based on an analysis and synthesis of the literature from managerial accounting, organizational theory, strategic management and social scientific causal modelling.

The analysis indicates that dynamic, complex and uncertain environments may challenge any reliance upon valid causal models. Due to cognitive limitations and judgmental biases, managers may fail to trace correct cause‐and‐effect understanding of the value creation in their organizations. However, even lacking this validity, causal models can support strategic learning and perform as organizational guides if they are able to mobilize managerial action.

Future research should highlight the characteristics necessary for elaboration of convincing and appealing causal models and the social process of their construction.

Managers of organizations using causal models should be clear on the purposes of their particular models and their limitations. In particular, difficulties are observed in specifying detailed cause and effect relations and their potential for communicating and directing attention. They should therefore construct their models to suit the particular purpose envisaged.

This paper provides an interdisciplinary and holistic view on the issue of causality in managerial accounting models.

Managerial usage of performance measurement and management systems (PMMS) is commonly far from what theory advocates as ideal. Based on this, the purpose of this paper is to identify the justifications for using PMMS and how much each of them explains the actual use of these systems.

An empirical survey was conducted with 149 manufacturing companies’ managers as respondents. Descriptive statistics analysis and factorial analysis were performed with multivariate analysis to test proposed hypotheses.

The results for all the companies surveyed are similar for the four dimensions – monitoring, focus, strategic decision-making and legitimization. Only monitoring dimension presents a difference between larger and smaller companies. There is no difference in the other three dimensions. As for the source of capital, there is no difference in any of the four dimensions. It evidences that companies do not seem to be mature enough in the full usage of their PMMS.

Data are related only to a sample of São Paulo manufacturing companies and should not be fully considered in different contexts without the proper awareness of ambiance differences.

There is still room for organizations to improve their performance measurement systems as managers could learn how to better avail themselves of the information from the PMMS. Brazilian policymakers could support this process through policies and programs that incentivize manager to gain education in PMMS.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should be supported by policymakers (through learning programs or internal monitoring incentives) to improve their measurement performance systems usage capabilities.

Discussion was based on data from an emerging country where there are mostly SMEs and companies have to deal with more contingencies and restrictions. Although the lack of resources tends to diminish a more effective usage of these systems, PMMS are mostly directed to monitoring issues.

Project management as a field of practice and research is characterized by impressive amounts of normative literature and extensive collections of best practices promising to improve project performance. On the other hand, research proving the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed tools is limited. Project management methodology (PMM) evaluation is important but complicated and scarce. This paper evaluates a specific PMM designed to improve project performance.

Based on a multiple, embedded and comparative case study the paper evaluates 71 projects within and across 17 organizations.

The paper identifies conflicting indicators of PMM failure and success in terms of project speed and impact, and the results indicate the complexity, contextuality and challenge inherent in PMM evaluation.

Contributions include empirical evidence and contextual knowledge on the effectiveness and efficiency of a specific PMM, as well as a new conceptual model and a novel methodological design for PMM evaluation.