A balanced scorecard for measuring the impact of industry–university collaboration

Abstract

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) can be considered as a strategic measurement tool. Many companies have applied it to measure four key aspects of their organisations' performance: financial, customer, internal business process and learning and growth. Although it is widely used in the business arena, this original BSC was not developed to assess the impact of collaborative research projects under an open innovation strategy, where the outputs of research and development developed by collaborative projects undertaken by industry and universities should be measured in a different way. Therefore, this article will propose a scorecard to measure the outcomes of collaborative research and present two case studies of how companies are using this tool to measure the outcomes. It is important to recall that this scorecard has been developed during a collaborative research project by CEMEX Research Group AG (Switzerland) and Cranfield University (UK). During such project, a survey was developed to carry out interviews in a sample of 10 companies in UK, where it was confirmed that a collaborative BSC is a very useful tool to measure, track and improve the impact of conducting collaborative projects with universities. This article is an extended version of the one presented at the PRO-VE'09 conference (Flores et al. 2009. A balanced scorecard for measuring the impact of industry-university collaboration.

Uncertainty in competitive bidding – a framework for product–service systems

“…In other words, these are frameworks that support the formulation of a company's long-term vision and performance. In particular, one approach has received a high level of acceptance and recognition: the Balanced Scorecard (Bontis et al 1999, Neely 1999, Adler 2001, Rainey 2003, Afuah 2009, Haimes 2009, Al-Ashaab et al 2011. The Balanced Scorecard was introduced by Kaplan and Norton (1996) and depicts the organisational performance of a company or business which is viewed from the following four perspectives: financial, customer, internal business and learning and growth.…”

Concept mapping of the Balanced Scorecard in higher education

“…Ao observar o estudo de Flores et al (2009) identifica-se que no contexto atual, a abordagem adotada do BSC não atende a necessidade de medição da pesquisa e do desenvolvimento dentro das universidades, tendo a organização que recorrer a outras métricas para este objetivo. Esta necessidade de medição de desempenho com a aplicação do BSC e respectiva busca de melhorias tem sido objeto de outros estudos aplicados às universidades e suas parcerias (QI; WU, 2010;AL-ASHAAB et al, 2011;AZIZI;BEHZADIAN;AFSHARI, 2012).…”

Innovation & Performance Measurement: An Adapted Balanced Scorecard

“…Innovation can be achieved not only thanks to the development of new products/services through changes in management, the business model, marketing, organizational structure, processes, products, services, supplies or strategic objectives (Hamel, 2006). What the BSC allows to obtain, unlike other measurement system, is the translation of strategic objectives and intangible results into operational measures that everyone in the firm should follow in order to achieve an increase in the performance (Al-Ashaab et al, 2011). Hence, the introduction of innovation metrics in each of the perspectives renders it possible to better evaluate such a performance, which is not merely financial, and that usually is made of intangible and not easily measurable aspects.…”

“…What should be noted is that the BSC originally elaborated by Kaplan and Norton in 1996 has been developed when the innovation was not achieved through collaborative processes. Indeed, at the beginning, the four perspectives were elaborated by considering the firm as a closed entity (Al-Ashaab et al, 2011). For this reason this first tool cannot reflect that nowadays most of the innovation processes take place in collaboration with external partners, such as universities and research centres, as well as entities outside the corporate boundaries.…”