Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The rise of the balanced scorecard! Relevance regained?

The rise of the balanced scorecard! Relevance regained? Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution made by the balanced scorecard (BSC) in regaining the practice relevance of management accounting research. Design/methodology/approach – Using discourse analysis, the paper investigates the speech genre in use in main BSC texts. Findings – The authors' analysis reveals that the BSC is defined in a way that can provide management with a type of general overarching model. However, the model lacks realistic scholarly characteristics and instead it exhibits characteristics of a myth speech genre. This is especially so in the presentation of the central concern with cause‐effect statements in the BSC. Research limitations/implications – The authors' analysis, therefore, suggests that methodological issues relating to the usage of cause and effect statements must be solved if research, such as that carried out in the BSC development, is to become more relevant to practice. To overcome this problem and regain research relevance, the paper recommends a more scholarly speech genre, giving more attention to various usages of inferential statements and specifically a pragmatic constructivist perspective for analyzing construct causalities. Originality/value – The paper advocates a scholarly methodological basis as a requirement for accounting innovation to enable it to solve practice problems in a way that improves practice and hence increases relevance of research. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change Emerald Publishing

The rise of the balanced scorecard! Relevance regained?

Download PDF
21 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/the-rise-of-the-balanced-scorecard-relevance-regained-lYkoKGQk8r
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1832-5912
DOI
10.1108/18325911211273491
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution made by the balanced scorecard (BSC) in regaining the practice relevance of management accounting research. Design/methodology/approach – Using discourse analysis, the paper investigates the speech genre in use in main BSC texts. Findings – The authors' analysis reveals that the BSC is defined in a way that can provide management with a type of general overarching model. However, the model lacks realistic scholarly characteristics and instead it exhibits characteristics of a myth speech genre. This is especially so in the presentation of the central concern with cause‐effect statements in the BSC. Research limitations/implications – The authors' analysis, therefore, suggests that methodological issues relating to the usage of cause and effect statements must be solved if research, such as that carried out in the BSC development, is to become more relevant to practice. To overcome this problem and regain research relevance, the paper recommends a more scholarly speech genre, giving more attention to various usages of inferential statements and specifically a pragmatic constructivist perspective for analyzing construct causalities. Originality/value – The paper advocates a scholarly methodological basis as a requirement for accounting innovation to enable it to solve practice problems in a way that improves practice and hence increases relevance of research.

Journal

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change – Emerald Publishing

Published: Oct 26, 2012

Keywords: Balanced scorecard; Management accounting; Research work; Language; Construct causality; Myth; Scholarly speech genre

References

  • The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays
    Bakhtin, M.M.
  • An Essay on Man
    Cassirer, E.
  • An investigation of the effect of balanced scorecard implementation on financial performance
    Davis, S.; Albright, T.
  • Does the balanced scorecard add value? Empirical evidence on its effect on performance
    De Gueser, Z.; Mooraj, S.; Oyon, D.
  • Are non‐financial measures leading indicators of financial performance? An analysis of customer satisfaction
    Ittner, C.; Larcker, D.
  • The balanced scorecard: measures that drive performance
    Johnson, H.T.; Kaplan, R.S.
  • A new way of being a controller – from bellboy to actor
    Kaarboe, K.; Norreklit, H.
  • Accounting scholarship that advances professional knowledge and practice
    Kaplan, R.S.
  • Linking the balanced scorecard to strategy
    Kaplan, R.S.; Norton, D.P.
  • The Balanced Scorecard
    Kaplan, R.S.; Norton, D.P.
  • The Strategy Focused Organisation
    Kaplan, R.S.; Norton, D.P.
  • Transforming the balanced scorecard from performance measurement to strategic management: part I
    Kaplan, R.S.; Norton, D.P.
  • Transforming the balanced scorecard from performance measurement to strategic management: part II
    Kaplan, R.S.; Norton, D.P.
  • How strategy maps frame an organisation's objectives
    Kaplan, R.S.; Norton, D.P.
  • Measures, climate of control and performance measurement models
    Malina, M.; Nørreklit, H.; Selto, F.
  • Scored for life
    Marr, B.
  • The outsourcing decision‐making process: extensions to the management accounting and strategy toolkit
    Nielsen, L.B.; Nørreklit, H.
  • The balance on the balanced scorecard – a critical analysis of some of its assumptions
    Nørreklit, H.
  • The balance scorecard – what is the score?
    Nørreklit, H.
  • The art of managing individuality
    Nørreklit, H.
  • Validity of management control topoi? Towards constructivist pragmatism
    Nørreklit, H.; Nørreklit, L.; Israelsen, P.
  • Towards a paradigmatic foundations of accounting practice
    Nørreklit, H.; Nørreklit, L.; Mitchell, F.
  • Conjectures and Refutations
    Popper, K.R.
  • Executive Guide – Management Tools 2005
    Rigby, D.
  • Executive Guide – Management Tools 2007
    Rigby, D.
  • Automating the balanced scorecard
    Silk, S.
  • Philosophical Investigations
    Wittgenstein, L.