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Purpose – To trace the rationale, features, development and application of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) over the past ten years, to provide a critical review of its key problematic effects, and to suggest a future direction. Design/methodology/approach – The shift from the industrial to the innovation economy provides a background to identifying five major problem areas of the BSC which are then discussed with reference to selected case examples. An alternative systemic scorecard is then proposed. Findings – The tyranny of the BSC as a measurement “straightjacket” is beginning to jeopardize the survival of firms, hinders much‐needed business ecosystem innovation, thereby negatively affecting customer value rejuvenation, shareholders' benefits, other stakeholders as well as societal benefits in general. A more systemic alternative is proposed. Research limitations/implications – Future research might focus on further development of the systemic scorecard in different industries and organisational settings with detailed systemic measurement techniques. Practical implications – Rather than relying on the static BSC, it would be more effective to adopt a systemic perspective in measuring/managing intangible assets. Originality/value – An alternative to the BSC is proposed that involves radical change in its underlying assumptions by moving to a more systemic, dynamic framework – a systemic management system, including a systemic scorecard.

Agility and agile manufacturing are recent organizational development philosophies that industry and academia are studying. Benchmarking is a business practice that will aid in the study, refinement, and application of agility principles. This paper focuses on two issues, benchmarking agile environments and agile benchmarking requirements. Benchmarking process, tools and metrics issues are discussed within the perspective of agility requirements. The process, tools and metrics discussion allows for a simultaneous study of the two major issues in integrating benchmarking and agility. In this paper a need for a developmental evolution in benchmarking is also observed. A number of potential directions and enablers are defined based on current practice and emerging mechanisms for agility and benchmarking.

There has been considerable agreement among researchers and practitioners, working on development issues, that unless we improve the education infrastructure in less‐developed countries they will never be able to improve their development indices. Innumerable educational reform programs in many different countries, over the last century, have been driven by this aim but few have had the desired impact on local educational systems in terms of coverage, quality and equity. Taking as an example a project recently undertaken in Colombia, we argue in this paper that a significant reason for this may well be the inappropriate theoretical paradigms and methodological approaches underpinning the majority of educational reform programs.

The near‐collapse of the world's financial system in 2008 brought into focus significant limitations in the data and analysis tools available to mitigate potential risks across the financial system. It has raised calls to provide comprehensive data and adequate tools to identify and relieve systemic risk. In this paper, an infrastructure is proposed to address the need for a new information system in systemic regulation.

The proposed infrastructure is developed using the Fed's Bank Holding Company Supervision Manual as a guideline. The model uses a data fusion approach that allows integration of inspection data, external data, and other regulatory data of different granularity. A proprietary application known as Decision Making Toolbox (DMT) is being developed with three‐tier architecture.

The integrated all‐in‐one approach will enhance the efficiency, scope, and quality of studies applied to systemic regulation and will facilitate easy decision making for effective regulation.

This concept integrates data and measures that are needed for systemic regulation. It facilitates easy decision making, by regulators with an integrated all‐in‐one information infrastructure, for effective regulation.

This paper aims to question the utility of addressing food insecurity through food assistance programmes and by separating food security into pillars, and it argues for a systemic innovation and complexity approach. This is achieved by demonstrating that food insecurity is a wicked problem and therefore needs to be addressed holistically.

To establish that food insecurity is a wicked problem, characteristics of food insecurity are aligned to characteristics of wicked problems. The need to address wicked problems holistically through a systemic innovation approach and an understanding of complexity theory is discussed by referring to the literature. How to take such an approach for addressing food insecurity is illustrated by describing the use of an online tool that takes a systemic innovation and complexity approach.

Given food insecurity is a wicked problem and needs to be addressed holistically, the focus when addressing food insecurity should not be on programmes or pillars. Instead, it needs to be on increasing the coherence and building the adaptive capacity of food insecurity solution ecosystems.

This paper provides insights into the nature of food insecurity and how to address food insecurity.

For the first time, this paper aligns characteristics of food insecurity to characteristics of wicked problems and demonstrates how an online tool for systemic innovation can assist food insecurity solution ecosystems to address food insecurity.

The purpose of the framework here proposed is to introduce an industrial culture within the service organizations. Concepts such as employees empowerment, ownership, continuous improvement, together with the systematic implementation of quantitative methods builds the organizational basis for achieving operational excellence in services, reducing costs and increasing service quality. This has been deployed in two phases: a “hard” phase to support the design of the service and the construction of tangible and intangible elements of the service, and a “soft” phase to support the management, maintenance and improvement of the service delivery. All this has been applied to the hotel service sector where the interaction between tangible and intangible elements of the service are particularly evident.

The framework uses and integrates several methodologies. Quality function deployment (QFD) is largely used in order to support the “hard” phase of the framework. Kano's model of customer requirements has been integrated in the QFD structure by means of an original method developed by the authors, introducing a so‐called non‐quality priority number (similar to the failure modes and effects analysis' risk priority number) that in combination with a so‐called quality priority number drives the decisions for improvement towards operational excellence. Moreover, the “soft” phase of the framework introduces methods such as failure mode and effect analysis and total productive maintenance in order to improve the service organization's operational competence and culture, increasing at the same time the sense of ownership and the commitment for improvement of front line workers.

Through this paper, it has been shown that industrial methods for operational excellence can be adapted and transferred to the service sector with a potential for significant improvements in particular for those services with a high degree of tangible factors. Allowing in this way to achieve outstanding results also without significant investments.

This paper does not have the intention of describing the state‐of‐the‐art of service design and management, but rather it focuses on the transfer of industrial methods and techniques to the service sector.

The value of this paper is related to proposal of a global systemic approach to operational excellence in services, by means of which industrial methods for operational excellence are transferred to the service sector. Only few works in literature have tried to transfer industrial methods for operational excellence to services, however the main value of this paper is not – or not only – in the specific methods proposed, but in their integration in the systemic approach.

The purpose of this paper is to question the appropriateness of current lab types for addressing wicked problems. A new lab type, a Systemic Innovation Lab, is proposed which combines the features of existing labs that are suited to addressing wicked problems.

Characteristics of initiatives that are considered appropriate for addressing wicked problems and existing lab types that contain any of these characteristics are identified. These lab types are Social Innovation Labs, Living Labs, Urban Living Labs, Urban Transition Labs and Public Sector Innovation Labs. The proposed new lab type is reasoned by combining the features of existing labs that are suited to addressing wicked problems. How the new lab would work in practice is illustrated with a case study.

When addressing wicked problems, labs need to take a systemic design and not a service design approach. They also need to focus on addressing complex problems, take a place-based and transition approach, enable coherent action by diverse actors, involve users as co-creators, support a networked governance approach and recognize government as an enabler of change.

This paper provides a new lab type designed specifically for addressing wicked problems. This new lab supports practitioners that take a systemic design, solution ecosystem and systemic innovation approach. Systemic design is based on a core set of principles that are a crossover between design and complexity theory.

For the first time, this paper analyzes different lab types to determine their appropriateness for addressing wicked problems. It also proposes a new lab type whose sole purpose is addressing wicked problems.

The purpose of this paper is to construct an index for systemic risk in China.

This paper develops a systemic risk index for China (SRIC) using textual information from 26 leading newspapers in China. Our index measures the systematic risk from 21 topics relating to China’s economy and provides narratives of the sources of systemic risk.

SRIC effectively predicts changes in GDP, aggregate financing to the real economy and the purchasing managers’ index. Moreover, SRIC explains several other commonly used macroeconomic indicators. Our risk measure provides a helpful monitoring tool for policymakers to manage systemic risk.

The paper construct an index of systemic risk based on the information extracted from newspaper articles. This approach is new to the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to provide banking regulators with another tool to crosscheck the appropriateness and consistency of levels of capital adequacy for banks. The process begins by examining banking systems and focuses on market risks and the systemic risks associated with growing global economic integration and associated systemic interdependence. The model provides benchmarks for economic and regulatory capital for international banking systems using country, regional and global stock‐market generated price index returns data. The benchmarks can then be translated to crosschecking capital levels for banks within those systems. For analytical purposes systems are assumed to possess a degree of informational efficiency and credit, liquidity and operational risks are held constant or at least assumed to be covered in loan loss provisions. An empirical study is included that demonstrates how market risk and systemic risk can be accounted for in a benchmark banking system performance model. Full testing of the model is left for future research. The paper merely proposes that such an approach is feasible and useful and it is in no way intended to be a replacement for the current Basel Accord.