The Balanced Scorecard: Fashion or Virus?

Abstract

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a one of the most popular and contagious management ideas of our time. In previous research the diffusion and institutionalization of the BSC has been viewed through different theoretical lenses, most notably the management fashion perspective. Recently the virus perspective has been introduced as an alternative theory of how management ideas spread, but so far no study has applied this theory in the context of the BSC. In this paper we show that the fashion and virus perspectives provide complementary insights into the diffusion and institutionalization of the BSC. The fashion perspective is particularly well suited for explaining the infectiousness of the BSC and the ways in which organizations are exposed to the BSC idea. The virus theory can better explain how the BSC idea is implemented as a practice in organizations, and the different trajectories that the BSC idea may take in different contexts. A combination of these two perspectives provides a fuller picture of the diffusion and institutionalization of the BSC.

Translation Theory ‘Translated’: Three Perspectives on Translation in Organizational Research

“…Furthermore, we recognize that there are a number of works within organization studies that deal with topics similar to the ones studied here. For example, the recent interest in understanding management ideas as viruses that have the capacity to ‘infect’ host organizations (Madsen and Slåtten ; Quist and Hellström ; Røvik ) and the growing literature on ‘glocalization’ (Drori et al . ) and practice variation (Ansari et al .…”

New Public Management: The Story Continues

“…This prior research resonates with the present study which focusses on NPM, particularly in an era of financial difficulties. In this paper the thesis that ‘NPM is no more’ is examined from the theoretical lens of (1) virus theory (Rovik, 1994 and ; Kjaer and Frankel, ; and Madsen and Slatten, ) and (2) translation (Callon, ; Law, ; and Freeman, and ). These theories are elaborated upon below.…”

Using Google Trends in Management Fashion Research: A Short Note

“…For example, management concepts and ideas are often translated to local circumstances (Røvik, 2007). For instance, this has been seen in the case of the Balanced Scorecard where local Scandinavian variations of the term are commonly used (Madsen & Slåtten, 2015a). As of today, GT is unable to capture such linguistic translations and variations.…”

“…Figure 2 shows the interest over time for the search term "Balanced Scorecard", another well-known management concept which was introduced in 1992 (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). In prior research it has been noted that there was a strong "hype" associated with this concept around the turn of the century (Ax & Bjørnenak, 2005;Madsen & Slåtten, 2015a). Figure 2 shows that the interest has been steadily falling for several years.…”

“…Previous management fashion research has shown that there is a wide range of complementary products and services for fashions such as Knowledge Management (Klincewicz, 2006) and the Balanced Scorecard (Madsen & Slåtten, 2015a). …”