Barriers to internal benchmarking initiatives: an empirical investigation

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to focus on the identification of barriers to the implementation of benchmarking initiatives. Managers have little guidance on strategies for successful implementation and face difficulties in anticipating problems. The main objective of this paper is to provide a better understanding of typical barriers that occur in a specific type of benchmarking: internal benchmarking. Design/methodology/approach -This paper systematically develops a categorized list of barriers to internal benchmarking based on the literature; and validates and enriches them with an in-depth case study of an internal benchmarking initiative. Findings -Barriers to internal benchmarking initiatives of different types are found: organizational barriers (people, culture, and context), benchmarking project management barriers (planning and implementation, leadership, and business pressures) and benchmarking data barriers (difficulty to access/compare data). Future studies might take these categories as a solid starting point in furthering the understanding of barriers to benchmarking.Research limitations/implications -The exploratory nature of the paper limits its generalizability. Practical implications -The paper paves the way for the process of devising strategies to overcome the identified barriers. This is especially relevant because few studies to date have focused on these issues and benchmarking practitioners have insufficient knowledge to anticipate and overcome benchmarking-related problems. Originality/value -This paper contributes to theory building on the implementation of benchmarking in general; and on barriers to internal benchmarking initiatives in particular.

Benchmarking challenges in facilities management in Nigeria

“…The issue of benchmarking in FM has been a subject of discussion by both academics and practitioners for over 15 years mainly in the UK, USA, Europe, Asia and Australia (Varcoe, 1996;Massheder and Finch, 1998a;Massheder and Finch, 1998b;Ho et al, 2000;Stoy, 2007;Lai and Yik, 2008;Madritsch, 2009;Roka-Madarasz, 2010;Bailey and Mc Lennan, 2010;Wong et al, 2013). However, studies in benchmarking literature that focused on benchmarking challenges are scarce, while the available ones according to Amaral and Sousa (2009) are scattered and in superficial manner.…”

Implementation of benchmarking concepts in Indian automobile industry – an empirical study

“…Amaral and Sousa (2009) also highlight that the multinational organizations practice internal benchmarking to a large extent for creating uniformity of internal best practices across all their units.…”

An Effective Approach for Benchmarking Implementation

“…The lack of a holistic understanding of benchmarking is one of the main causes that make it is difficult for some companies to employ the tools effectively. According to a study conducted by Amaral and Sousa (2009), the barriers that constrains the company from implementing benchmarking consists of organizational barriers (people, culture and context), benchmarking project management barriers (planning and implementation, leadership and business pressures) and benchmarking data barriers (difficulty to access/compare data). As the result, formalizing the benchmarking model with methods and tools would be one of the best ways to overcome the obstacles (Buyukozkan and Maire, 1998).…”