Designing a performance measurement system for collaborative network

MANAGERIAL PRACTICES WITHIN MULTILATERAL AND PUBLIC-FUNDED R&D COLLABORATIONS

This paper addresses the issue of managerial practices within multilateral R&D collaborations subject to public sponsorship. The aim is to design a model of organisational, economic and social-based practices to manage public-funded consortia, while taking into account the interaction among these practices as well as the moderating effects of relational risks. Relying on a sample of 232 firms involved in European public-funded consortia, our findings show that the selected managerial practices improve the consortium’s performance. However, the influence of public sponsorship influences the occurrence of relational risks and thereby the benefits of each practice. The implications of these findings are then discussed.

Performance measurement and management systems for dealing with strategies in uncertain ecosystems

Purpose

Although there is a growing research stream on Performance Measurement and Management Systems (PMMS) in Ecosystems literature, current research offers limited theoretical insights into how PMMS deal with two types of strategies in uncertain ecosystems: ecosystem-based strategy – EBS (at the focal firm level) and ecosystem strategy – ES (at the ecosystem level). This study aims at identifying how PMMS are employed to deal with different types of strategies in uncertain ecosystems.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors employed an inductive, rich multiple case approach in five focal firms with platform ecosystems. Data collection involved multiple sources of information (primary and secondary data), combing retrospective and longitudinal perspectives. Data analysis combined replication and comparison logic with coding.

Findings

This study identifies four major distinctive dimensions of Ecosystem PMMS under uncertainty: (1) Integrative Performance (considering the different ecosystem actors’ performance), (2) Interdependence Performance (mutual, yet not necessarily convergent amongst ecosystem partners), (3) Regulative Performance (paradoxical in nature, having to cope with both flexibility and stability) and finally (4) Phased Learning Performance (non-linear).

Research limitations/implications

Our primary contribution is a new framework for PMMS literature: a performance measurement and management system for dealing with strategies in ecosystems. This framework enables managing performance regarding both types of strategies (EBS and ES) and their interplay in uncertain ecosystems.

Practical implications

The ecosystem management requires focal firms to measure and manage the overall ecosystem’s performance, and it varies according to the type of strategy adopted in each case. Our framework provides dimensions that guide firms to build and implement PMMS for an ecosystem consistent with the ES. Therefore, it may improve performance, especially in uncertain business contexts.

Originality/value

The findings enrich PMMS literature in an ecosystem context related to the ES in uncertain environments.

The roles of performance measurement and management in the development and implementation of business ecosystem strategies

Purpose

Performance measurement and management (PMM) systems have traditionally enabled strategy execution within and across firms. However, PMM have been criticized as overly static and deterministic and therefore inappropriate for emergent and dynamic contexts, such as those that characterize business ecosystems.The study aims to address the roles of organizational PMM practices in the development and implementation of business ecosystem strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors carried out a qualitative, longitudinal study during 2016–2020 at a Japanese multinational technology corporation attempting to create an ecosystem strategy to expand its market and diversify its offering. The authors collected interview, observation and archival data, spanning the period from framing the initial strategy to establishing the ecosystem.

Findings

The process of developing and implementing the ecosystem strategy was emergent and highly iterative, rather than planned and linear, eventually requiring key decision-makers in the company to challenge some of their deeply held assumptions. PMM practices first acted as barriers to ecosystem development by promoting an excessive focus on revenue generation. Once modified, PMM helped capture, convey and reassess the ecosystem strategy. Performance targets, indicators and strategy maps were not just data gathering and reporting mechanisms but key means to express competing perspectives.

Practical implications

When developing an ecosystem strategy, managers should adopt a participatory and iterative approach, reviewing the complementary effects of various PMM tools at different points in time.

Originality/value

The study is among the first to provide an in-depth account of ecosystem strategy creation and implementation and to identify the diverse roles and effects of PMM practices in dynamic and complex contexts.

Do common metrics add value? Perspectives from NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Consortium hubs

INTRODUCTION

The Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Consortium, a network of academic health care institutions with CTSA hubs, is charged with improving the national clinical and translational research enterprise. The CTSA Consortium and the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences implemented the Common Metrics Initiative comprised of standardized metrics and a shared performance improvement framework. This article summarizes hubs' perspectives on its value during the initial implementation.

METHODS

The value was assessed across 58 hubs. Survey items assessed change in perceived ability to manage performance and advance clinical and translational science. Semi-structured interviews elicited hubs' perspectives on meaningfulness and value-added of the Common Metrics Initiative and hubs' recommendations.

RESULTS

Hubs considered their abilities to manage performance to have improved, but there was no change in perceived ability to advance clinical and translational science. The initiative added value by providing a formal structured process, enabling strategic conversations, facilitating improvements in processes, providing an external impetus for improvement, and providing justification for funds invested. Hubs were concerned about the usefulness of the metrics chosen and whether the value-added was sufficient relative to the effort required. Hubs recommended useful benchmarking, disseminating best practices and promoting peer-to-peer learning, and expanding the use of data to inform the initiative.

CONCLUSIONS

Implementing Common Metrics and a performance improvement framework yielded concrete short-term benefits, but concerns about usefulness remained, particularly considering the effort required. The Common Metrics Initiative should focus on facilitating cross-hub collaboration around metrics that address high-priority impact areas for individual hubs and the Consortium.

Comprehensive performance measurement systems design and organizational effectiveness

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence regarding the relationship between the level of comprehensiveness of a performance measurement system (PMS) and its respective organizational effectiveness. The extant literature has highlighted that a PMS may successfully contribute to the implementation of the organizational strategy, with the balanced scorecard (BSC) serving as an exemplar of a strategy performance management tool and playing a primary role to this end. However, the reasons for the overall high rate of failure in the implementation of the BSC remain unexplained and, to date, little empirical research exists regarding the design of PMSs such as the BSC and its constituent elements.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a survey of 103 Italian managers, the paper advances a model describing a comprehensive BSC design, after identifying the key attributes from the performance management literature. Data were analyzed using cluster analysis and multiple regression analysis.

Findings

Results suggest that organizations are implementing the BSC following two different approaches, which vary from a less comprehensive to a more comprehensive design. More importantly, the BSC design explains variation across three organizational effectiveness measures: improvements in translating the organizational strategy into operational goals, understanding cause–effect relationships and enhancing internal communication among employees.

Originality/value

The paper builds on and extends the previous literature on performance management in two ways. First, via a literature review, it introduces a model describing a comprehensive BSC design, which includes 12 attributes. Second, it demonstrates that organizational effectiveness varies positively with the level of comprehensiveness of the BSC design.

Controlling lean manufacturing in multidivisional organisations

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of a multidivisional structure on the implementation of lean manufacturing. It investigates how the controls employed by the corporate level impact the local implementation of lean manufacturing.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reports on case studies in three subsidiaries in different multidivisional organisations.

Findings

The paper finds that lean manufacturing can be severely constrained by the accounting-based controls which are commonly in place in a multidivisional structure. Depending on the degree of centralisation, subsidiaries may be restricted to implementing lean tools in a fragmented way, rather than acting according to a coherent set of principles.

Practical implications

Companies may have to accept that being part of a multidivisional organisation can imply that their lean implementation is more gradual and piecemeal than they prefer. The paper proposes several ways to mitigate the constraints that may arise from incompatibilities between accounting-based controls and lean controls.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature about external constraints on production innovations, such as lean manufacturing. It highlights how the organisational context creates local conditions that may be detrimental to the implementation of lean manufacturing.