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This paper asks the question of whether more environmental uncertainty affects the design of performance measurement systems in terms of a greater variety of performance measures and whether this leads to more management satisfaction with the performance measurement system and improved firm performance.

Information processing theory is used to frame the hypotheses and findings. A questionnaire was sent to the 300 largest companies in Iceland, where environmental uncertainty has been prevalent.

The results indicate that increased uncertainty leads to a larger variety of non-financial performance measures, such as customer measures. A positive relationship is found between management satisfaction with the performance measurement system and firm performance. However, the variety of performance measures was not linked to management satisfaction or firm performance.

The results suggest that managers increase the variety of performance measures when uncertainty increases. However, it is not the variety itself that increases management satisfaction or improves firm performance.

Performance measurement design is affected by environmental uncertainty. Managers focus on important stakeholder groups such as customers under such conditions and can consult research and practice for the purpose of customer relationship management and customer profitability measurement to improve measurement selection.

This work focusses on performance measurement system design, examining the use of more than 50 different performance measures, and differentiates between small and medium-sized firms and between service and non-service firms.

Research on how performance measurement systems affect employees’ perceptions of workplace fairness is important. As organizations often rely on their performance measurement systems to communicate information to their employees, it is useful to ascertain if and how the developments of performance measurement systems that are far more comprehensive than traditional financial systems affect employees’ perceptions of informational fairness through the information communicated to employees. Informational fairness refers to employees’ perceptions of workplace fairness that is based on the amount and the truthfulness of information that organizations provide to their employees. Based on a sample of managers from manufacturing organizations, the Partial Least Square results indicate that comprehensive performance measurement systems (comprehensive PMS) have a significant direct effect on job-relevant information. They also indicate that comprehensive PMS have an indirect effect on informational fairness via job-relevant information. In contrast, systems that are based on financial measures have no significant effects on job-relevant information and informational fairness. These results demonstrate how comprehensive PMS (through the communication of a greater amount of job-relevant information) can be used to engender employees’ perceptions of high workplace fairness.

The essential investments in new product development (NPD) made by industrial companies entail effective management of NPD activities. In this context, performance measurement is one of the means that can be employed in the pursuit of effectiveness.

A number of approaches have been suggested in the literature for maintenance performance measurement, including use of the balanced scorecard (BSC). However, its application towards assessing maintenance contribution to business objectives is limited. Currently, a framework integrating maintenance activities in a supply chain environment is lacking in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to develop a maintenance performance measurement framework using BSC for multi echelon repair inventory systems (MERIS) comprising of modular electronic equipment. The paper also suggests a large number of performance measures/indicators (PMs/PIs) pertaining to both maintenance and supply chain components including a few BSC implementation issues for such types of supply chains.

The paper analyses a base model of a large maintenance organization and after carrying out SWOT analysis, identifies strategic themes/objectives for performance measurement. Performance measures for various objectives are identified for MERIS and implementation strategy including cascading of BSC is suggested. The developed performance measurement model is also validated using an action research (AR) based approach.

A performance measurement system (PMS) for MERIS using BSC approach has been developed and an implementation strategy suggested. AR methodology is used for developing BSC for an organization using the selected performance measures. The importance of cause‐effect relationships between various performance objectives and measures is also established.

Quantification of each of the developed PMs/PIs and establishing an effective information system for MERIS are the limitations of the present work and may be taken up for more research.

The paper will be useful for practitioners in the field of MERIS of electronic repairables wherein relevant PMs/PIs can be selected for implementation as per the requirement of the application.

The paper is of value by being original, as no work towards performance measurement of MERIS using BSC concept (as applicable for non‐profit organizations like military, government, NGOs etc) is reported in literature so far. The paper is relevant in this context and its contribution lies in the area of performance measurement.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between strategy, structure and environmental uncertainty, and the design and the use of performance measurements systems. The paper provides empirical evidence on the contextual factors associated with the use of financial and non‐financial measures, process and outcome measures and the deployment of innovative performance measurement systems in manufacturing business units.

A questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 200 Canadian manufacturing organizations. Respondents were asked to indicate to which extent they use different measures. They also had to mention if they had adopted an innovative performance measurement approach such as the balanced scorecard. The questionnaire also included questions to classify organizations as prospectors, defenders or analyzers and to measure the levels of decentralization and perceived environmental uncertainty.

The results show that there is a significant association between strategy, organizational structure and environmental uncertainty and the use of non‐financial and process measures. They also indicate that there is an association between strategy and environmental uncertainty and the deployment of innovative performance measurement systems.

Since the 1990s, performance measurement has become an important issue for both academics and practitioners. The professional literature has suggested that managers should design innovative performance measurement systems such as balanced scorecards that include financial and non‐financial measures and also process and outcome measures. This paper provides a better understanding of the factors that affect the implementation of innovative performance measurement systems.

The paper presents one of the few studies that provide a better understanding of the contingent factors that influence the design and the use of innovative performance measurement systems.

The purpose of this paper is to define measures that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can use for evaluating continuous innovation and to analyze types of SMEs, according to the innovation measures they use and their characteristics in terms of size and operational and financial performance.

The data were gathered with the help of a structured survey questionnaire from a cross-section of firms in both the manufacturing and service sectors in Finland. The data were analyzed in terms of factor and cluster analyses.

Three measures of continuous innovation and three types of SMEs were defined based on their continuous innovation measures. It was found that firms using all three types of innovation measures also register above-average financial and operational performance compared to those that do not.

This study attempts to improve the precision of performance measurement and the management of continuous innovation in firms by expanding and refining existing measurement guidelines and principles. In particular, this work approaches the subject of continuous innovation measurement from the standpoint of SMEs.

This paper succinctly critiques the benchmarking literature and the performance measurement literature in regards to the novel concept of lead benchmarking as a possible means of achieving increased radical and innovative transformation in organizations. For the purposes of the paper, a working definition of lead benchmarking and performance measurement is: benchmarking and performance measurement, which focuses on analysing forward looking, predictive and future performance comparisons. This critique distinctly highlights that the currency of benchmarking and performance measurement needs a radical and indeed innovative transformation to adhere to the dynamics of the business environment. This critique raises various questions of interest. These issues will be investigated later through further research by conducting rich empirical research, whereby descriptions and explanations will be developed of the what, where, who, how and why of the benchmarking concept and the extent to which organizations carry out lead benchmarking

The effectiveness of performance measurement is an issue of growing importance to industrialists and academics alike. Many organisations are investing considerable amounts of resource implementing measures that reflect all dimensions of their performance. Consideration is being given to what should be measured today, but little attention is being paid to the question of what should be measured tomorrow. Measurement systems should be dynamic. They have to be modified as circumstances change. Yet few organisations appear to have systematic processes in place for managing the evolution of their measurement systems and few researchers appear to have explored the question, what shapes the evolution of an organisation’s measurement system? The research reported in this paper seeks to address this gap in the literature by presenting data that describes the forces that shape the evolution of the measurement systems used by different organisations.

This paper investigates the success and failure of performance measurement system design interventions in ten companies. In each case, the senior management team was facilitated through a management process to redesign their performance measurement systems. Analysis of the initial pilot case studies suggested three important differences between companies that proceeded to implement the measures agreed during the process and those that did not. Post intervention semi‐structured interviews with the directors and managers directly involved revealed two main perceived drivers of implementation and four perceived factors that block implementation. The results are of specific interest for performance measurement system implementation but have wider implications for our view of management commitment in change management.

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.