Biblioteca Digital do IPG: The use of the Balanced Scorecard in Portugal: Evolution and effects on management changes in Portuguese large companies.

www.elsevier.pt/tekhne

ARTICLE

The

use

of

the

Balanced

Scorecard

in

Portugal:

Evolution

and

effects

on

management

changes

in

Portuguese

large

companies

H.I.B.

Saraiva

_,

_M.C.G.

_Alves

a_{PolytechnicInstituteofGuarda,UnidadeParaoDesenvolvimentodoInterior,Guarda,Portugal}

b_{BeiraInteriorUniversity,NúcleodeEstudosemCiênciasEmpresariaisUniversidadedaBeiraInterior,Portugal}

Received23October2014;accepted4April2016

Availableonline26April2016

JEL CLASSIFICATION M10; M41; L25 KEYWORDS BalancedScorecard; Portugal; Largecompanies; Practicalapplication; Changesin management

Abstract ThispaperaimstopresentanhistoricalreviewontheevolutionofBalanced Score-card’suseinPortugueselargestcompanies,sinceitsappearanceuntilthepresentday,andalso toperformananalysisofthecurrentsituationregardingtheuseofthismanagementtoolin Portugueseterritory.Thequestiontobestudiedis---howhastheuseoftheBSCperformed

andevolvedinPortugal,inthelast20years,andhowtheapplicationofthetoolcontributes

tochangesinmanagement.Initiallyithasbeenconductedresearchonstudiescarriedoutin PortugalabouttheapplicationoftheBSC,havingbeenidentifiedthreemajorstudiesperformed withintheterritory:thefirststartingtheendof1999,thesecondcarriedfrom2004onwards, thelaststudywasconductedthroughout2009.Tocompletetheinformationprovidedbythese studiesitwasconductedanotherresearchonthecurrentconditionsoftheuseoftheBSCas wellasofrelevantlevelofapplicationdepth,anditsrelationstoorganizationalchangeand evolutiononmanagementpractices.Thiswaspursuedbyidentificationofbothacademicworks onthesubjectandmaintechnicalbooksprintedinPortugalonthetheme.Thuswewereable, asaresultofthepresentstudy,topresentaclearpictureabouttheuseofBSCinPortugalsince itslistinganddisclosureuntilthepresentday.

©2016InstitutoPolit´ecnicodoC´avadoedoAve(IPCA).PublishedbyElsevierEspa˜na,S.L.U.All rightsreserved.

1.

Introduction

Theroleassumed bynon-financialaccountingmeasuresin

the context of new management concepts such as total

∗_{Correspondingauthor.}

E-mailaddress:helenasaraiva@ipg.pt(H.I.B.Saraiva).

qualitymanagement,worldclassmanufacturing,customer

satisfaction,‘‘the‘Japanization’ofmanagement’’(Vaivio,

1999, p. 410), and techniques like activity based costing

systems, constitutedan important aspect of management

change in the last decades (Vaivio, 1999). Another

inno-vative techniques were highlighted by Ax and Bjørnenak

(2005), in the management accounting field, like activity

basedcosting,activitybasedmanagement,targetcosting,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tekhne.2016.04.001

strategiccostmanagementor economic value added,and

mostchangesinaccountingarethedirector indirect

con-sequencesofthediffusionprocessesoftheseinnovations.

Pursuingthistrendofideas,particularlyinthetwolast

decadesof20thcentury, itwasverifiedtheneed to

mod-ifyorganizations’performanceindicators inordertosolve

theproblemoforganizationalperformanceevaluationbeing

focusedonlyonfinancialmeasures(Kaplan&Norton,1992, 1993,1996a,1996b,1997).

Inthiscontext,theconceptofBalancedScorecard(BSC)

appeared, presented by Kaplan and Norton (1992), This

notionhasevolvedthroughtimeaslistedbySaraiva(2011),

havingassumedtherolesofa:

- measuring system, consolidating a set of objectives,

indicatorsandmeasureswithaspecificorientation,

cor-respondingtotheinitialriseoftheBSC;

- communicationsystem:whenitisusedtodisseminatethe organization’sstrategicobjectives;

- overalland individualevaluation system: each element

has itsdefined goals, so that itsactivity can positively

contributetothecreationofvalue,whentheBSCbegins

toemergeasatoolforstrategyimplementation;

- strategicmanagementsystem,usedasanelementtohelp

andjustify decision-making andorganizational

manage-mentsupport;

- strategicmanagementsystemthatmanages/evaluatesits ownmanagementsystem-integratingthecomponentsof intellectualcapitaloforganizationsinpursuitofstrategy andinitiatingapathofapparent‘‘turningoutward’’; - systemtomanagestrategicalliances,playingamajorrole

inrelationswiththeoutsideoftheorganization,usingthe

BSCtomanagestrategicalliances.

Fromthebeginningofitsappearanceuntilthepresent,

ithasbeenverifiedthatthismanagementtoolbroughtvery

importantchangesbothinorganizationalstrategic

manage-mentandinmanagementaccounting(Busco,Quattrone,&

Riccaboni,2007,Vaivio,1999).

Inordertounderstandthemechanismsofchange,Innes

andMitchell(1990),categorizedforcesofchangein

manage-ment accountingintothreedifferentclasses: facilitators,

motivatorsandcatalysts.Inthispaperwewilltrytoidentify

theforcesofchangethatoccurredinPortugal,concerning

changesinducedbothbytheexpansionoftheconceptof Bal-ancedScorecardanditsactualuseintheterritory.Itseems

tousthatthosewhichcanbeidentifiedasfacilitatorsare

theworkspresented inpart twoand threeof thepresent

paper;wecanalsoassumethatthefactthatsomeof the

biggestenterprisesintheterritoryhadbeenusingtheBSC,

canalsoberegardedasamotivatorbyotherorganizations.

Inthepresentwork,however,catalystforceswherenotour

aim.

The paper is structured as follows: antecedents and

methodologyarepresentedinSection1;Section2displays

an analysis of books presented in thetechnical literature

marketinPortugalonthethemeofBSC;inSection3is

com-pletedanextensiveanalysisonacademicworkscarriedout

in Portugalunderthetheme of BSC;Section 4present an

evolutionoftheuseoftheBSCinPortugalinlarge

compa-nies,deepeningtheissuesrelatedtotheimplementationof

theBSC andits evolution;finally inSection 5, limitations andpathsforfutureinvestigationaredisplayed.

2.

Antecedents

and

methodology

InthepresentpaperwemadeareviewonthewayBSChas

evolvedinPortugalandhasinfluencedchangesin

manage-ment,followingthepreviousrolesindicatedabove.

Wefollowedtheworksof:

- Malmi(2001),inthesensethatthisstudyalsoaimsto eval-uatetheroleassumedbyBSCinFinishcompanies,‘‘(...)in

particular,whetherBSCsareusedasanimproved

perfor-mancemeasurementsystemorasastrategicmanagement

system’’(Malmi,2001,p.208);

- AxandBjørnenak (2005),ontheideathatthe diffusion

processes of the innovative tools is a way to produce

change;theauthorsalsoreferredthedynamicevolution

of the concept; finally we highlight that they consider

diffusion asthe process whereby an innovation is

com-municatedthroughcertainchannels.

Otherauthorsindicatedasthemesofchangein

organiza-tions,interpretationson‘‘HowandWhy’’,‘‘WhatandWho’’

and‘‘WhereandWhen’’(Buscoetal.,2007,p.127)change

occurred.As we were searchingtoestablish howthe BSC

conceptevolvedandwhatwerethemainconsequencesof

itsuse in Portugal, in an historical perspective, thisidea

seemedtouslikea goodwaytosupporttheevolution of

thosefacilitatorsand motivatorsforces, sowe choose to

followthethemessuggestedbyBuscoetal.(2007).

Inthis way,throughout thepresent work, andin order

to justify the perceived developments we analyzed both

technicalworksandempiricalstudiesconducted,aswellas

othermaterialinformationbasedonfacts associatedwith

thegrowing availabilityof the notion verifiedin Portugal

sincetheBSCappearance,i.e.duringthelast20years.

The themes ‘‘How and Why’’ and ‘‘When’’, seems to

us partly answered, from the evidence displayed in

Sec-tions 2 and 3 of this paper, including informationon the

conceptofBSCconveyedtobusinessesandpublicingeneral,

throughbookspublishedinPortugueselanguagebynational

authors.Webelievethatthiskindofdisclosurewasvitalto theawarenessofthetool,eitherbythepublicingeneralor

bycompaniesof anykind.On theotherhand, ‘‘Whatand

Who’’and‘‘WhereandWhen’’willbediscussedinSections

3and4,mainlyfromtheperspectiveofthosewhodeveloped

workofanacademicnatureonthesubject,anactivitythat

hasbeeninstrumental,inouropinion,totheidentification

anddisseminationoftheuseofBSCinPortugal.Atthispoint

wehavetorecall‘‘How’’and‘‘When’’ inordertobetter

justifythe inclusionof Section4 ofthepaper. Inthislast

sectionthesetwoquestionsareresponded,andindoingso,

weexpecttocompleteananswertotheresearchquestion.

Asfortheresearchquestion---howhastheuseoftheBSC performedandevolvedinPortugal?---byfollowingthe veri-fiedevolution---thathasshownits’applicationasmoreusual inlargecompanies(Schatz,2000;Walsh,2000)---sowehave

analyzedtheevolutiononthesekindsofcompaniesby

pur-suingthestudiesofQuesado(2010),QuesadoandRodrigues

Thiskind ofresearchquestionis alsopointedbyHoque (2014),inareviewworkinwhichheidentifiesinvestigation

gapsintheareaof BalancedScorecard. Initsownwords:

‘‘(...)in-depthfieldstudiesinaspecificcountryonvarious

issuesof thebalanced scorecard outlinedabove mightbe

enlightening.’’(Hoque,2014,p.46).Inthisaspectweintend

tocontribute toknowledge evolution onthe issue of BSC

performanceandevolution,andthecontributiontochanges

inmanagementinPortugueseentities.

The methodology used in the present paper consisted

mostly of literature review and the critical analysis

con-ducted on the evolution of BSC use over the years,

concerningtheidentificationof:

- technicalbooksprintedinPortugal:thiskindofpractice

wasalsousedbyotherauthorssuchasAxandBjørnenak

(2005), who identified, among other factors, the

best-selling books on the theme of BSC in Sweden, in order

toidentifythewaysofdisclosingtheconcept.

- papers, academic texts and works: This research has

been carried outduring the period analysis, essentially

in databases held by Portuguese universities and other

institutionsofhighereducation,andalsotheRepositório

CientíficodeAcessoAbertoPortuguês(RCAAP)database.

Itwasalsoimportanttoestablishcontact,insomecases,

directly with the authors of some of the papers, since

someworksweredifficulttoobtain.Wechoosethesekind

of publicationsbecauseinPortugalthereareno

profes-sionalpublicationsinthefieldofmanagementaccounting

(as issued in Ax & Bjørnenak, 2005, that conducted an analysisonthecontentofthiskindofpublications),but

ontheotherhand,thethemeofmanagementaccounting

seemstobepopularinfinalworksofgraduatecoursesin

Portugal;

- scientificpapers:mostofthemavailableonopenaccess resources,andalsointoplevelscientificjournalsinthe

study field. In order to identify papers with restricted

accesswehaveconductedresearchesinacademicgoogle,

and then, in some cases, we contacted directly the

authors.

3.

Published

works

in

the

technical

literature

market

in

Portugal

Atthisinitialpointwewillbeginbylistingidentifiedworks

edited in Portugal on the subject of the Balanced

Score-card. Thisinformationsource mightbe,fromourpoint of

view,asignificantcauseinchangefacilitationconcerningto

theimplementationof theBSC. Toimplementthe tool,it

is necessarytounderstand it,andthetechnicalliterature

has been a way of diffusing knowledge in the

manage-mentarea.Otherfacilitatorswerediffusionthroughschool

curriculum (at the level of post graduation courses and

degree-conferring courses, either within the basic

forma-tion,oratthelevelofspecialization),ortrainingwithinthe

organizations(alsoseenashavingundertakenanimportant

role).

Thus,themainworksofatechnicalnature,publishedin

PortugalontheBSC,pursuingachronologicalcriterion,are listedinTable1.

Startingwithacomprehensivereviewoftheworks

men-tioned above, it might be stated that those that have

ariseninthefirstperiod,have,mainly,descriptivecontents, although,thoseeditedin2006,havereferencestoinstances

Table1 WorksofatechnicalnaturepublishedinPortugalunderthethemeoftheBSC.

Publicationyear Title Author(s) ISBN

2002 OBalancedScorecard---UmInstrumentode

GestãoEstratégicaparaoSéculoXXI

GabrielaPombo

Sousa,Lúcia

Rodrigues

978-9725-II-0140

2005 BalancedScorecard---concentrarumaorganizac¸ão

noqueéessencial

CarlosP.Cruz 972-788-155-6

2006 Aestratégia:daformulac¸ãoàac¸ãoaplicandoo

BalancedScorecard

ElizabeteFarreca 972-8980-II-6

2006 BalancedScorecardemPortugal---Visão,

EstratégiaeEntusiasmo

RuiAlmeidaSantos 978-972-711-771-0

2007 BSC:alinharMudanc¸a,EstratégiaePerformance

nosServic¸osPúblicos

FranciscoPinto 978-972-618-459-1

2007 OBalancedScorecardaplicadoàAdministrac¸ão Pública

NunoA.RibeiroSónia

P.Nogueira

JoãoCarvalho

AgostinhaP.Gomes

978-989-601-050-8

2009 BalancedScorecardparaPMEePequenaseMédias

Instituic¸ões

JoãoRusso 978-972-757-625-6

2010 Implementac¸ãodoBalancedScorecardnoEstado JorgeCaldeira 978-972-40-3732-5

2010 Dashboards JorgeCaldeira 978-972-40-4309-8

2012 ValueBalancedScorecard---ferramentapara

atingiraexcelência FátimaGeada LuísCruz TelmoSilva 978-972-618-682-3 Source:own.

of the tool’s application. One of them, which matches a

case study,Farreca(2006),appears asaresultof an

aca-demicstudy.Inthesecondcase,Santos(2006),isprimarily aworkofdescriptionofthetoolanditspotential,

introduc-ing,however,afewcasesofimplementationoftheBSCin

differentcompanies. Asforthebookseditedin2007,they

bothpresent thedescriptionandtheBSCframework,

par-ticularlyonitsadaptationtonon-profitorganizationsinthe publicadministrationsector---yetwehighlightthese publi-cationsbasedonthefactthatBSC,bythattime,wasalready

drawingattentiononthesector.However,thesecondbook

alsopresentssome insightsabout theuse ofBSC onsome

casestudiesinthepublicadministration.Asfor2009,awork

emergedof a more practical nature andwith featuresof

‘‘handbookfor’’theBSCmethodologyimplementation,

par-ticularlyinRusso(2009),whereinadditiontolistingvarious possibilitiesofBalancedScorecards---adaptingtheconcept totheuseinSMEsondifferentindustries---italsoemerges

thedescriptionofsomeScorecardsidentifiedinsomeactual

applicationsinPortuguesecompanies.Concerningtheworks

ofCaldeira (2010a,2010b),both listedhere, oneofthem

featuresseveralcasesofimplementation/formulationofthe

BSCinseveralpublicgovernmentalorganizations.Theother

workfromthesameauthorpresentsanumberoftechnical

solutionsforconstructionanddeploymentofBSC,its

indi-catorsandvisual shapesonthereportingtheme. The last

workidentified,producedbyGeada,Cruz,andSilva(2012),

assumestheclearroleof‘‘handbook’’inordertoimplement andusetheBSCinthefirstpart,relatingtheusewithsome

aspectsofmanagementqualityprocesses,andinasecond

partconcerningtothepresentationofseveralcasestudies

performedinPortugal.

The evolution trend verifiedin terms of the identified

works’contents,suggeststhatpublishedworksofa

techni-calnatureinPortugalhavealateonsetifcomparedtothe

timingofappearanceofBSC:only10yearsafterthe

presen-tationoftheconceptbyKaplanandNorton(1992),wasthe

firstworkofthiskindpublishedinPortugal.However,after aninitialphase,thepublicationofworksonthesubjecthas

arisen on a regular basis. It seems there is an increasing

interestaboutthetheme,notonlyfrombusinessesbutalso

fromthepublicusuallyinterestedintechnicalliteraturein

themanagementarea.

Interestingly, the first published work in the country

appearstofollow thepath ofacademic workscarriedout

bySousaandRodriguesinthelate1990softhe20thcentury andearlyyearsofthe21stcentury,resultinginthefirstwork referredtoinTable1.Alsothebooksinthethird,fifth,sixth

andseventhpositionsonthesametablearousedasaresult

ofacademicworkcarriedoutpreviouslybytheauthors.In

thissense, itcan bereasonablyargued that theacademy

representedanextremelyimportantroleinthe

dissemina-tion of the BSC’sconcept, asit was withinthe academic

worldthatthefirststudiesonthesubjectarose.

In other instances,yetrelated totheprevious ones,it

wasfoundthatitwasthroughtraininginhighereducation,

atpostgraduatecourses,initially,thatsomecompany

direc-torscontactedtheconceptofBSC(Farreca,2006;Ferreira

&Major,2012),andafterwards,incoursesofthefirstcycle

in the management area. In this sense, Quesado (2010),

pointsoutasafactorofincreasedprobabilityof implemen-tationanduseofBSC,thefactthatmanagersheldacollege

educationandanacademicdegree. Alsointerms ofother

learningcoursesinhighereducation,intheareasof

man-agementandeconomics,appearedasubstantialnumberof

worksandstudiesonthesubject,asitwillbeexplainedin thefollowingsection.

These facts appear to be in accordance with Ax and

Bjørnenak(2005)paper,inthesensetheyalsoconsideredas

animportantwaytocommunicateandspreadtheconcept

ofBSCtopotentialadoptersinSweden.Infact,inthe

Por-tuguesecase,printedtechnicalbookshavebeenpresented

byPortugueseauthors---andalsoinSweden.

Regardingthe spreadingofthe conceptitshallalsobe

consideredthe introductionof the BSCin subsidiary

com-paniesofmultinationalcorporationsoperatinginPortugal,

asreportedbyJanota(2008)andJanotaandMajor(2012).

However,afterthestudyconductedbyQuesado(2010),we

mayconcludethatthosewere notaveryrelevant wayof

disclosureinPortugal.

4.

Academic

works

carried

out

in

Portugal

under

the

theme

of

BSC

Intermsofworksofscientificandacademicfeatures,there

areseveralstudiesthatcanbecategorizedintotwobroad

groups,accordingtothethematicoftheapplicabilityand

oftheapplicationofBSCassuch.Wewilladdressourselves firstofalltostudiesthatapproachtheapplicabilityofthe

concept, which is about the possibility of application of

BSCtoseveralfieldsofactivityincludingproposalsfor

con-creteimplementationanddeployment,movinginasecond

stageto identifystudies devoted to theanalysis of cases

performedinPortugueseorganizations.Inalaterphasewe

willalsoreviewandanalyzetheworksofageneralscope,

regardingtheuseofBSC,carriedoutinthecountry.

4.1. WorksonthesubjectofBSCapplicability

Theissueofapplicability,oftencomesembeddedina

con-textof apparentutilization,but afteradeeperanalysisit provesnotbeingactualutilizationinanyofthestages out-linedbySaraiva(2011),butratherdisplayedasproposalsfor

implementationorapplicationoftheconcepttoaspecific

reality.InthissenseweconsiderthestudiesheldbyAlmeida (2011),Cavaco(2007),Gomes(2006),Janota(2008),Mendes (2012),Mendes,Santos,Perna,andTeixeira(2012),Morgado (2008), Neto (2011), Quesado and Letras (2015), Ribeiro (2005),andSantos(2009,2011).

Fromthe referred studies, three of them point tothe

implementation of BSC in school groups organizations or

schools, asin Morgado(2008), Ribeiro (2005), andSantos

(2009);otherworkaddresses thepossibilityofapplication inotherorganizationsofPublicAdministration,asinGomes (2006),applicationtothePortuguesepolicesystem,Cavaco (2007), implementing at an hospital, and Mendes et al. (2012), the possible BSC’s utilization onassessing

perfor-manceinthe high schoolsystem. A case study alsoarose

in an organization on cultural industry, onSantos (2011).

Janota(2008),Janota andMajor (2012),presenteda case studycomingfromtheprivatesector,whichanalyzestheuse oftheBSCinasubsidiaryofapharmaceuticalcompany.This

pointstoaninstanceofeffectiveuseoftheBSC.However,

thewayinwhichtheworkisdesignedanddisplayedmakes

itcorrespondtoamainlyexpositivestudyfromthe

stand-pointoftheelementswhichconstitutedthetool.Itdoesnot

leave,nonetheless,toconstituteonecaseinwhichtheBSC

hasbeenapplied,therebywhetheranintegrantpartonthis

sectionandeitheronfollowingpoint:workscarriedouton

theeffectiveapplicationoftheBSC.Thisworkisoneofthe

first,amongthoseidentifiedbyus,conductedintheprivate

sectorinprofitorientedorganizations.

Itseemsthat theacademic worldstarted byproposing

BSCimplementationmainlyinthenon-profitsectoratfirst.

However,later,inrecentyears,manyproposalsforthe tra-ditionalprivatesectorarose.

Neto (2011)presentsacase studywhich consistedofa

proposalof implementation of the toolin a businessunit

ofa group of enterprises,in the privatesector, namely a

producerofagriculturalmachinery.Anotherstudy,Almeida

(2011),conductedasanoverall study,yetappliedonly to

smallandmediumenterprises(SMEs),indicatedtheissueof

intentionsonthetool’susebythesekind oforganizations

anditsapplicabilityinsuchenterprises.

Some studies proposed the tool’s implementation in

Health-Clubs, such as in Mendes (2012). Other studies

considered the use of the BSC, andproposed it in

indus-trialorganizations:Gonc¸alves(2012)proposeditinColep,

Fonseca (2011) in an Bosch business unit, Areal(2010) in acivilconstructioncompany,Patrão(2011)inCicloFapril, S.A.andForte(2012)inFapricela,S.A.

Simultaneously, the use of the tool in non-profit

orga-nizationshasalso continuedtoevolve in themost recent

yearsandindifferentareas:hospitals(Maia,2011;Quesado, Guzmán, & Rodrigues, 2012; Silva, 2012), public

admin-istration (Duarte, 2012; Gomes, Mendes, & Carvalho,

2010,Mateus,2010;Santos,2012),socialsupport(Borges,

2010),research,developmentandinnovation(Cunha,2010;

Ribeiro,2010).

Theimplementationofthetoolisalsoconsideredinthe

Banksector,onapaperconductedbyQuesadoandLetras

(2015).

4.2. Workscommittedtospecificapplicationsof theBSC

Inthissubsectionofthepresentwork,wechoosetodivide

thestudiesaboutapplicationsofBSCinPortugalintwo

sep-arategroups:ontheonehandcasestudiesthatanalyzethe

BSCapplicationsinspecificorganizations,andontheother

hand,studiescarriedoutgloballyandhavingastheirtarget aparticulargroupoforganizations,designatedinthiswork

asbroadscopestudies.

4.2.1. Casestudiesonthesubject

As mentioned above, at this point we will identify and

analyzeworkswhichareapplicationstudiesoftheBSC,

par-ticularly the ones carried out as case studies, within the

countryunder consideration. Thus,we cangive as

exam-plesofcasestudiestheworksfromCapeloandDias(2009),

Costa (2009), Farreca (2006), Ferreira (2009), Ferreira and Major (2012), Gomes (2006), Gomes et al. (2010),

Janota(2008),Oliveira,Rodrigues,andEiriz(2012),Pimenta

(2009),PimentelandMajor(2009),Santos(2011),andVaz (2005---2006).

Withregardtothe involvedindustrysectors,the

iden-tifiedcasesemergedfromBSCimplementationindifferent

kindsoforganizations,suchassizeableprivatecompanies,

as in Farreca (2006), Ferreira (2009), Ferreira and Major (2012) and Pimentel and Major (2009), and in SMEs, in

Oliveiraetal.(2012),aswellasinpublicsector organiza-tionswithastrongtraditioninthemanagementcontrolfield inPimenta(2009).Thislaststudyassumessomefeaturesof

applicabilitywork.Thereisalsoapplicationinschools,such asinCosta(2009)andVaz(2005---2006).Theremainingcase

studies concerns the application in the Portuguese police

system, Gomes (2006) and Gomes et al. (2010), and in a

national theater, Santos (2011). These last works end up

havingfeaturesnotofutilizationbutofapplicability.

A different kind of study was presented by Capelo

andDias(2009),consisting onanexperimental case study

involving one university anda majorcompany inthe fuel

distributionsector.

The four in depth studies, which relate tothe

utiliza-tionoftheconcept,arethosecorrespondingtotheuseof

the BSC in private companiesor groups, oriented toward

financial results,evidencingtheuse ofthe BSCasa

mea-suringsystem(Saraiva,2011),intheworkleadbyFarreca (2006), and as a strategic management system (Saraiva,

2011) in the study carried out by (2009), and also as a

strategicmanagementsystem,usedasanelementtohelp

and justify decision-making and to supportorganizational

managementinthestudypresentedbyPimentelandMajor

(2009).InthecaseofthestudyconductedbyFerreiraand Major (2012), evidences point to the use of the BSC as a strategic management system that manages/evaluates its own management system, once its use aims to align

and assess the strategicprocess resultingfrom amerging

process and was used mainly as a way of supporting the

decisionsoftopmanagementratherthaninanoperational

way.Thefactthatsuchstudiesweremoreextensivemight

be related to a higher level of engagement and interest

in the implementation of the tool by organizations with

thesefeatures,becausethesesortoforganizationsarethose

which are more oriented toward using this kind of tool

(Quesado, 2010; Rodrigues & Sousa, 2001; Schatz, 2000; Walsh,2000).

Inthestudyconductedinasmallandmediumcompany

(Oliveira et al., 2012), we concludedthat BSC wasbeing usedasanoverallandindividualevaluationsystem.

Instudiesconductedinschools,stillembracingthe classi-ficationmadebySaraiva(2011),itisapparentthatthework carriedoutbyVaz(2005---2006)fallswithinthecategoryof

overall andindividual evaluation system, andin thecase

ofthestudyconductedbyCosta(2009)asacommunication

system.

Lastly,inthestudypresentedbyGomes(2006),theBSC

is shown initsinitial phase,asa measuringsystem, even

though theaim of thestudy wasontheheld onchecking

the stage of overall and individual evaluation system; as

fortheworksofPimenta(2009)andSantos(2011),bothcan

beconsideredintheimplementationphaseoftheBSCasa

communicationsystem.

InFig.1werepresenttheassumedroleevolutionofBSC

BSC roles over time: Saraiva (2011) Identified case studies Measuring system Communication system 1992 1993 1996 1997 2000 2001 2004 2008 2010 Managing strategic alliances 2012 2011 2009 2006 2005 Vaz (2005-2006)

Overall and individual evaluation S

Farreca (2006) Ferreira (2009) Measuring system Gomes (2006) Pimenta (2009)

Measuring system Communication S

Janota (2008)

Santos (2011)

Communication system

Pimentel and major (2009) Strategic management system

Strategic management S

Communic. S Overall and individual evaluation_S Costa (2009) Oliveira et al. (2012) Overall and individual evaluation system

Strategic management system-SMS

SMS that manages/evaluates its own MS

Figure1 RolesassumedbyBSCovertimeandidentifiedcasestudies.

Source:own.

with the identified case studies, classified in accordance

withthatevolution.

The resultsof thisanalysisappearstobethatonly the

fourinitialrolesassumedbyBSCwerebeingdeployed:ina

fewcases(two),BSCwasbeingusedasameasuringsystem,

whichcorrespondstothemostsimplewaytouse BSCand

alsotothemostineffective(Braam&Nijssen,2004;Capelo &Dias,2009;Madsen&Stenheim,2014),threecompanies

wereusingitasacommunication system,twoasan

over-allandindividualevaluationsystem,andtwoasastrategic

managementsystem.Ifweconsiderthetotalnumberofcase

studiesitwillbefoundaveryequitabledistributionassumed byroles---aswecanseeinTable2.

Wecanconcludethatonlythemostinitialrolesassumed

byBSCwereusedinPortuguesecasesstudiedandthatcase

studiesonthetoolaroseinPortugalfrom2006 onwards

---thismaybeaconsequenceofthe(lackon)deepeningdegree

ontheawarenessofthetooldevelopmentsandevolutions.

4.2.2. Broadscopestudiesonthesubject

At this point we found twokinds of studies:the ones we

called generalistbroad scopestudies, thosewhose object

wasthewholecountry;andotheroneswefoundmore

appro-priatetoclassifyasregionalbroadscopestudies.Thefirst

ones were conducted at a national level, considering all

companieswithcertainfeatures,andthesecondoneswere

conductedwithinsomeregionsofPortugal,considering,only

inthoseregions,thecompanieswiththedesiredfeatures.

4.2.2.1. Regionalbroadscopestudies. Onestudy ofthis

kindhasbeen identified,conductedbyCuradoandManica

(2010),addressing the BSC use in Madeira’s largest firms. Thisstudywasbasedupontherankingofthelargestnational

companiesamongthepublishedranks(top500andtop1000

firms)fromthethreehigheststandardPortuguesedailyand

weeklynewspapers, and consequently studied the largest

companiesinMadeira,namelybyquestioning163ofthem.

Theresponseratewas19%,andthestudyshowsthatonly

aminorityoffirmsusetheBSC:about10%.However,from

amongthefirmsthathavebeenusinganothertool,namely

theTableauxdeBord,themajorityofthecompanies,about

23%ofthetotalnumber,nearly57%ofthosewereplanning

onadoptingtheBSCinthenearfuture.

ThestudyfoundthatcompaniesadoptingtheBSCdeclare

that itsuse gives them a global view of the firm, allows

strategiclearningandimprovementandalsoallowsthemto

alignpersonalanddepartmentalgoalstostrategy.The bene-fitsinusingtheBSC,identifiedbycompanies,consistsmainly

in facingthe BSC as a useful tool for enhancing financial

performance,internalcommunication andstrategic

learn-ing.Asfortheconnectionsbetweenarewardingsystemand

theBSC,noneofthecompaniesadoptsaBSC-basedreward

system.

Table2 CasestudiesinwhichBSCwasimplementedanddistributionbyroles.

Assumedrole Numberof

casestudies

% Yearofthestudy

Measuringsystem 2 22.2% 2006

Communicationsystem 3 33.4% 2009and2011

Overallandindividualevaluationsystem 2 22.2% 2006and2012

Strategicmanagementsystem 2 22.2% 2009

Table3 WorksuponglobalscopeontheimplementationoftheBSCinPortugal.

Year Title Author(s)

2001 TheuseofthebalancedscorecardinPortugal LúciaLimaRodrigues;

GabrielaSousa

2005 OContributodoBalancedScorecardparaaGestãoEstratégicadeCustos:

umaAnáliseEmpíricaàsGrandeEmpresasPortuguesas

PatríciaQuesado

2009 Factoresdeterminantesnaimplementac¸ãodoBSCemPortugal PatríciaQuesado;

LúciaLimaRodrigues

2010 FactoresDeterminantesdelaImplementacióndelCuadroDeMando

IntegralenOrganizacionesPúblicasyPrivadasPortuguesas

PatríciaQuesado

2012 ElCuadrodeMandoIntegralcomoHerramientadeGestión

EstratégicaenelSectorSanitarioPortugués

PatríciaQuesado;

BeatrizGuzmán;

LúciaLimaRodrigues

2013 Laadopcióndelcuadrodemandointegralenorganizacionesportuguesas:

Variablescontingenteseinstitucionales

PatríciaQuesado;

BeatrizGuzmán;

LúciaLimaRodrigues

Source:own.

Consideringtheevidencebroughtbythisstudy,itappears thatBSCisbeingusedinthisregion,yetwithalowleveluse ofthetool.Itmustbehighlightedthattheregions’sizeand geographicalcontingenciescanbeabarriertothedisclosure

ofnewconcepts andmanagementtools,andalsothatthe

factthattheregionislocatedinoneofEurope’speripheral territoriescanbeconsideredassuchabarrier.

However,bythe generalfeaturesof BSCapplication in

theregionwemayconcludethatBSCisbeingusedasa

mea-suringsystem,consolidatingasetofobjectives,indicators

andmeasureswithaspecificorientation;isalsobeingused

asacommunicationsystem,sinceitisusedtodisseminate

informationwithinthecompanies;andalsoisbeingusedas

astrategicmanagementsystem,usedasanelementtohelp

andjustifydecision-makingandorganizationalmanagement

support.

4.2.2.2. Generalistbroadscopestudies. Fromamongthe studiesconductedinPortugalandidentifiedfortheintended

purpose, we highlight three of them, which match with

threedifferentstagesof knowledge andutilization ofthe

BSCinPortugal.Thefirsttwo,considered inchronological

order, comply with studies carried out in large

organiza-tions,notablyin thelargest Portuguesecompanies, which

appealtotheclassificationcarriedoutbycertainPortuguese

publications taken as a reference in the economic area:

in particular the weekly newspaper Expresso, the annual

rankingof1000largest PortugueseCompanies,andExame

Magazine,theannualrankingonthe500largestPortuguese

companies.

Thethirdstudycorrespondstoamorerecentphaseand

isbased onadatabase establishedfor researchpurposes,

whichcontainsonlyorganizationsidentifiedasBSCusers.

Thanwehavealsoidentifiedothertwopapers---themost recent,inchronologicalorder,displayedinthenexttable

---whichwe understood asa consequence ofthethird study

highlightedinthissection.

Studiesthatwehavebasedthefinalanalysisinthispaper

onare thosepresented in Table3, in particular, thefirst

threeones:

Theworksofglobalscopereferredto,bytheirrelevance

totheanalyzedsubject,willbedisplayedandinterpreted

inthefollowingsection.

Itshouldalsobehighlightedthegreatrelevanceassumed

by these works, in particular the two initial ones, in the

disseminationoftheconceptofBSCinPortugal.Itwillalso

beevidencedasmaterialfact,thatcasestudiespresented

earlier,mostofthem,havebeenprecededbytheseones.

As a matter of fact the two last papers identified in

Table 3are notgoing tobeanalyzed in thenext section,

becauseoneof themis an sectorialanalysis,and thelast

one is an interpretation of aprevious work. However,we

highlightallofthesestudies,becauseallofthem,aimedto

characterizetheuseoftheBSCatdifferenttimepointsin

Portugal.

5.

Evolution

of

the

use

of

the

BSC

in

Portugal

Atthispoint,andbasedonthestudiesfromQuesado(2010),

Quesado and Rodrigues (2009), and Rodrigues and Sousa (2002),anhistoricalreviewontheevolutionoftheuseofthe

BSCinPortugalwillbecarriedout,betweentheyear2000,

thetimewhendatawasgatheredtocompletethestudyfrom

RodriguesandSousa(2001),andtheyears2009/2010,when

thedatacollectionwascarriedouttoperformtheworkof

Quesado(2010).This overallrangeoftimeisstillcovered

withinformationonthesubject,presentedbyQuesadoand

Rodrigues (2009), basedonfigures for the year 2004, the

yearwhenwascollectedthedatatosupportthiswork.

We highlight from these studies only some aspects, in

ordertofindthe commonpointsbetweenthemall andin

ordertorespondtheinvestigation question---howhasthe

use of the BSC performed and evolved in Portugal? --- by

tryingtoidentify‘‘WhereandWhen’’,‘‘How’’and‘‘When’’

(Buscoetal.,2007).

The objectives pursued by Rodrigues and Sousa (2001)

weretofindouttowhatextentBSCwasbeingusedby

Por-tuguesecompanies,howtheyapplytheconcept,andifthe

introductionofBSCwasassociatedwithchangesin

manage-ment control methods. Finally, they intended to discover

whyPortuguesecompaniesadoptedBSC.

ThestudywasconductedinlargePortuguesecompanies

anditsmainresultsindicatethatabout14%ofthecompanies wereusingtheBSC,7%wereinaphaseofintroducingit,and

8%wereconsideringdoingso;71%ofthecompaniesdonot

usedit,norhadplanstodoso.Consideringthenumberof

companiesthatwerenotusingthe BSC,themajorreason

wasignoranceofthesystem,in48%ofthem.

ConcerningthedateofadoptionoftheBSC,theearliest

adoptionhappenedin1994,andalltheothersoccurredby

1998and1999.

AsfortheuseoftheBSC,themajorityofthecompanies

thatwereusingit,63%,consideredthatBSCmustbeusedto

provideinformationtomanagersandtoreconcilethe

objec-tivesofthedifferentlevelsofmanagement,13%considered

thatitmustbeusedonlytoreconciletheobjectivesofthe

differentlevelsand25%haveattributedother rolestothe

BSC,suchas:a‘‘systemtoevaluateperformance’’or‘‘to

organizesystematicallyinformationnecessaryfor the

evo-lutionofthecompanythroughKPI’s’’,RodriguesandSousa

(2002,p.77).

Twodifferentwaysofusewereidentified,oneasan infor-mationsystemandtheotherasatooltoimplementstrategy:

mostcompanies(81%)haveuseditsimultaneously inboth

ways.13%useditasaninformationsystemand6%usedit

asatooltoimplementstrategy.

Asforperceivedbenefitsobtainedfromthe

implementa-tionoftheBSC,companieshavehad,ingeneral,apositive

attitudetowardtheBSC,regardingitasagoodmanagement

toolthatbroughtbenefits,butwheninquiredaboutchanges

inducedbyBSC,theanswerswereinexistentinmostcases.

Somehow, some ofthe responses hadreferred items such

as: reinforcementof strategicreformulationand strategic

alignment,gettingalargercontroloftheimplementedtasks

andtheexistenceofamajorfocusonkeytargets.

AboutthereasonstoadoptBSC,themostpointedrefer

toBSC asbeing a mean of assessing strategy in terms of

intended results; another reason, although being theless

pointed,concernstheargumentthatBSCtranslatesstrategy

intoaction;aconsiderablenumberofcompaniespointedout

thetwoformerexplanations.

Ingeneral,thestudysuggeststhatatthetime,BSCwas

not very diffused and used in Portugal, and the

popular-ityof theconcept wasstillreduced, howevera ‘‘growing

interest’’wasverified(Rodrigues&Sousa,2002,p.78).The

BSCmodelusuallyintroducedinthesecompanieswasthat

proposed by Kaplan and Norton, yet some companies did

usesome changesor variantsonthebase-model. Another

characteristic verifiedin thesurveyed companieswas the

useof either alittlenumberor alarge numberof

indica-tors. This wasidentifiedby the authorsasrisk of failure.

ItwasalsoverifiedthatinmostcompaniestheBSCresults

wasofrestrictedaccess.Forall thesereasons itwas

con-sideredthat,despitemostofthecompanieshadfacedthe

adoptionoftheBSCasastrategicmanagementsystem,in

facttheyappeartobeinthesituationofusingitasa mea-suringsystemand in somefew cases asacommunication system,thetworolesinitiallyplayedbyBSC,accordingto

theclassificationwehavebeenusing.

The second study considered, in order to present the

evolutiononPortuguese experienceinthe useof the

Bal-ancedScorecard,wasconductedin2004andpresentedin

2005.ItwasconductedbyQuesado(2005)anditaimedto

assesstheapplicabilityoftheBSCinlargePortuguese com-paniesbelongingtotheprivatesector,aswellastoidentify

howbusinessesmanagedtheircostsandtofindoutwhether

the companies that were adopting or considering

adopt-ing the BSC were regarding it as a tool to manage costs

strategically.

Asmainresults,concerningthestateofimplementation

ofBSC,itwasfoundthat44.7%ofcompaniesknewtheBSC

conceptbuthavenotcome intocontactwiththissystem,

12.9%do not know theconcept of BSC, 5.9% alreadyhad

takenthefirststepsinordertoimplementtheBSCand18.8%

alreadyhadimplementedBSC,while4.7%droppedoutofthe

implementationand12.9%wereexpectingtoimplementit

inthefuture.Results showedthatthelevelofBSC

imple-mentationwasratherlow:lessthan30%.Aboutthereasons

which led companies to implement the BSC, the authors

highlightedthefactthattheBSCseemedtobeableto

cre-ateconnectionsbetweenthestrategyandindividualgoals,

toteamsandtobusinessunits.Also,BSCenables

communi-cationofthestrategyouttotheoperationallevelandleads

toincreasesintermsofunderstanding theinducersofthe

strategicsuccess.Italsoleadstoanalignmentofthe

per-formanceofemployeeswiththestrategicgoals,byallowing

moreefficientmeasurementofnon-financialperformance.

Finally,consideringchangesinducedbytheuseoftheBSC,

companiesconsidered that the major benefits introduced

were related to the improvement in alignment between

strategicgoalsandactivities,in84.6%oftheanswers.Also, thefactthatBSChasturnedouttobeeffectivein

clarify-ingandcommunicatingthestrategyandmakingpossiblethe

developmentofaconsistentsystemofobjectives;thesetwo

aspectswerebothmentionedin76.9%ofthecompanies.It

wasfoundoutthatin69.2%oftheresponsestheBSCenabled

theimplementationofstrategyanditsfurtherdevelopment,

andin65.4%it wasstatedthatimprovementsin

organiza-tionalperformancemeasurementhadtakenplace.

Takingtheseresults,apparentlyaconsiderablenumber

of companieswere usingBSC as acommunication system

and also as an overall and individual evaluation system

(Saraiva, 2011), in the sensethat the definition of goals, appearstoclarifywhichactivitiescanpositivelycontribute

tovaluecreation.Aconsiderablenumberofresponses,more

than65%, seemed to considerthe BSC, at least partially,

asastrategicmanagementsystem(Saraiva,2011),usedas

anelement tohelpand justify decision-makingand asan

organizationalmanagementsupport,accordingtothe

clas-sificationfollowedinthispaper.

The most recent study conducted in Portugal

concern-ingtotheuse of theBSC is thelargest andmot indepth

ofthoseconsideredandinsteadofregardingonlythelarge

companiesgroup,hasbeenconductedalsoindifferentkinds

oforganizations:smallandmedium companies, local

gov-ernmentsor municipalities, municipalandinter-municipal

companies,aswellashospitals.Thisstudy,Quesado(2010),

approachesalmostallaspectsofBSCinthoseorganizations

considered.However,wewilltakeintoaccount,inorderto

establishacomparisonwiththepreviouslyreferredpapers,

the results concerningonly the private companiesgroup,

andinthistheinformationrelatedtolargecompanies.

ConcerningtotheknowledgeontheconceptofBSC,it

wasfound that,ingeneral, thecompaniesarenow

famil-iarwiththetool.This leadstotheconclusionthat,atthe

time,theBSCwasaconceptquitewellknowninPortugal,

Quesado(2010,pp.212---213).Betweenlargeorganizations only16.2%referredthattheydidnotknowthetool;therest

(about83.7%)claimtohaveknowledgeaboutit,noticeably

40.9%stated a goodor a totallevel of knowledge onthe

BSC,Quesado(2010,p.213).

RegardingtheimplementationoftheBSC,thetoolwas

usedin38.6%ofthecompanies,ithasbeen abandonedby

2.3%and9.1%were hopingtoimplementitin thefuture;

50%ofthelarge companieshave statedthattheyhadnot

hadusedit,norintendeddoingso.

The BSC perspectivesused in large Portuguese

compa-nies,are,ingeneral,thoseproposedbyKaplanandNorton

inthebase model,inline withthoseidentifiedpreviously

byRodriguesandSousa(2002).However,aboutthe

perspec-tivesusedintheScorecard,somecompaniesdidnotusethe

learningandgrowthperspective,insomecasesbeing

sub-stituted by a different perspective,yet withany relation

withtheideaoftheintellectualcapital.This aspect---the

lackofuseofthelearningandgrowthperspectiveseemsto

beindirect confrontationwiththe adaptationof theBSC

in countrieslike Sweden,where Ax andBjørnenak (2005)

noteda high linkage with the intellectual capital model,

beingoneoftheadaptationsof themodelof BSCin

Swe-denthe employee perspective.This kind ofadaptation of

theBSCinPortugalshouldbedeepenedinthefuture---asit seemstobeadistinctivefactorbetweentheuseofthetool inPortugal.

Concerningtothispointwehavetoconsidertheopinion

ofMadsenandStenheim(2014,p.82):‘‘Conceptualissues

arerelatedtounderstandingandinterpretingtheconcept,

whiletechnicalissuesmayarisewhendevelopingatechnical infrastructuretosupporttheBSC.Socialandpoliticalissues

arealso common,asthe implementation of theBSC may

triggermanytypesofbehavioralresponses(...)’’---

appar-entlysomeoftheresponsibleformanagingthesecompanies

donot value either donot understand thesignificance of

learningandgrowthperspective.

As for the use of the BSC, the existence of causality

relationships were one of the major concerns and it was

foundthatcompanieshavebeen considering thecausality

relations in their scorecards (about 72% in private

orga-nizations), and from these a significant number claimed

to validate statistically those relations, 53.3%. Thereof,

companiesstated theywereusingthestrategy mapasan

elementthatallowsthemtoview,simplyandquickly,those

componentsnecessarytoachievethestrategyandits

under-standingbyorganizationmembers,easingthedefinitionof

indicators and strategic initiatives. The major impacts of

theuse of strategicmaps in thePortuguese organizations

turnedouttobethechanceofclarifyingandcommunicating

thestrategy(in76.9%ofthecompanies),andthefactthat

BSCenabledandfacilitatedalignmentbetweenobjectives

andperformancemeasures(for88.5%ofit).Otherreferred

impactswere:thepossibilityofidentifyingbothinternaland

external synergies, providinga mutual languageand

clar-ification of the strategy, making the resources allocation

decisioneasier, allowsshowingtheconcernof the

organi-zationonapplyingmanagementpracticeswhich improved

theirperformanceandallowsvisualizingphenomenawhich

willoccurinthefutureinadvanceandoperateonitscauses

beforetheyhappen.Theseaspectsappeartobein

accor-dancewiththefindingsofMadsenandStenheim(2014),that

BSC improved managerial focus in countrieslike Sweden,

NorwayandDenmark.

Taking the study information into consideration, the

author(Quesado,2010),concludesthattheuseofstrategy

mapsmeansthatPortugueseorganizationsfacetheBSCas

asystem forimplementingandevaluatingthestrategy,so

theBSCisnottakenbythoseorganizationsonlyasatoolof

measurementorassessmentoforganizationalperformance.

Accordingtothesefindingswecanconcludethatbythis

time, in general,in large Portuguese companies, the BSC

playstheroleofa strategicmanagementsystem,usedas

anelementtohelpandjustifydecision-makingand

organi-zationalmanagementsupport.Italsoappearsthatinother

casesthe BSCis assumingtherole ofastrategic

manage-mentsystemthatmanages/evaluatesitsownmanagement system, integratingthecomponentsofintellectualcapital oforganizationsinpursuitofstrategy.

Accordingtotheaspectswehighlightedaboveasrelevant toclarifytheanswerstotheresearchquestion,wewillnow displayasummaryoftheissue,throughtime,inTable3.

Accordingtotheprevioustable,itispossibletoconclude

howtheuse ofthe toolhasevolvedinPortugal, andthat

eventheconcepthashadalateintroductionithasbecome

populartoseveralorganizations.

Atthispointweshouldclarifythat,inordertocompletea deeperanalysisconsideringTable3,itshouldbe,onemore

time,relieved thatthestudy accomplishedbetween 2009

and2010, hasnothad exactlythesameset ofcompanies

ofthetwopreviousones.However,companieswithdesired

featureswereincludedinitanditwaspossibletoinferthe

datarelatedonlytothesecompanies.

6.

Conclusion,

limitations

and

paths

for

future

investigation

Basedontheevidencepresented,itmaybeconcludedthat

despite the introduction of the BSC in Portugal has been

delayedregardingthetimingoftheconceptappearance,it

hashowever,beendevelopedquitesignificantlyintermsof

itsimplementationinlarge companieswithinthecountry.

Weidentified(Table4)thatusehasalwaysbeenincreasing,

sincethefirstdocumentedimplementation,whichoccurred

in1994.

Havinganalyzedalltheperiodsincetheappearanceof

the concept, we conclude that besides having a growing

implementationlevel,italsohasevolvedfromthefirstto

the final stages identified as BSC’s implementation roles

accordingtotheevolutionoftheusemadeofit,with

excep-tion to the final role mentioned. This last aspect is not

surprising,sincethefinalphasehasemergedandwas

dis-closedinanarticlepresentedbyKaplanandNortonbythe

timedatacollectionwasbeinggathered(Kaplan&Norton, 2010).

Inthesereviewwehavetriedtoclassifytheevolutionof theBSCuseinPortugal,sincethefirststudiesconductedon theissueuntilthemostrecent,bytheidentificationofthe

themes‘‘HowandWhy’’,‘‘WhatandWho’’and‘‘Whereand

When’’(Buscoetal.,2007).TothethemeHowandWhywe

havetriedtorespondinthesecondandthirdsectionsofthis

paperbyidentifyinghowpeoplehavegotinformationand

knowledgeabouttheconcept---wefoundthat,mainly,the

concepthasbeenintroducedinPortugalbytheacademics

Table4 EvolutionoftheuseoftheBSCinPortugueselargecompanies,uponstudiesandimplementationphasesconsidered. Data collection BSCconcept isknown BSCis used BSCuseisbeing considered Changesinducedby BSC’simplementation RolesassumedbyBSC

2000 66% 29% 15% Wayofprovidinginformationto

managers

Measuringsystem Tooltoreconcileobjectivesto

differentlevels

Communicationsystem

2004 87.1% 29.4% 31.7% Alignmentbetweenstrategicgoals

andactivities

Communicationsystem Clarifyingandcommunicatingthe

strategy

Overallandindividual evaluationsystem Developmentofaconsistent

systemofobjectives

Strategic

managementsystem Implementationofstrategyandits

furtherdevelopment

Improvementsinorganizational performancemeasurement

2009/2010 83.7% 40.9% 9.1% Usingthestrategymaptoachieve

strategyanditsunderstanding

Strategicmanagement system

Definitionofmeasuresand strategicinitiatives

Strategicmanagement systemthat

manages/evaluatesits ownmanagementsystem Identifyingbothinternaland

externalsynergies

Providingamutuallanguageand clarificationofthestrategy Applyingmanagementpractices whichimprovesperformance Visualizingphenomenatooccur andactonit

Source:own.

andunderstandaconceptthatwasnewandwashavingsome

impactintheacademicworld,andalsointhemanagement

practices all over the world. These leads us toWho --- in

thebeginningofthespreadingprocess,academicswerethe

mainactorsofchange,butaftertheconceptwasspreaded,

businessworldstartedtoadoptanduseit(WhatanWho)

---thesewasmainlyrespondedonsectionthreeofthepaper.

TheWhereandWhenthemeismainlydisplayedinthefourth

sectionofthepaper:theconcepthasbeenanalyzedmainly

inlargecompaniesbecauseithasbeenessentiallyusedin

those,asfarastheWhenthemeiswasimportantthefinding

thatbythetimeofthefirststudy averysmallnumberof

companiesusedtoknowtheconcept.Asaresultofthis

sce-nario,thefirstbooksonthethemeinPortugalwerewritten

byacademicsandresearchers,contributingbythesetothe

spreadoftheconcept.Inthissensewehighlightthe

impor-tantpartthattheacademicworldhashadinthedisclosure

anddiffusionoftheBalancedScorecardconceptinPortugal,

aswellastheimportant rolethatthetoolitself hashad,

concerningaligningstrategywithactions,astodevelopthe

introductionofnon-financialindicators.

Itseemstousaspredictablethat,onceothercategories

of companies verify the use of this by larger companies,

that they will also consider the implementation of the

tool,particularlyiflargerorganizationsdiscloseinformation

regardingafavorableassessment,whichappearstobe

val-idatedbythem,according toQuesado(2010).Inthepath

withthis idea,Malmi(2001,p. 218), states‘‘the

increas-ingpopularityofBSCsatpresentmaybestbeexplainedby

imitativebehavior(...)’’, aboutadoptioninFinish

compa-nies;also Axand Bjørnenak(2005),referred these factor

bylinkingtheinnovationtosuccessstoriesfrompracticein Sweden.

Regarding theintentions about the implementation,in

thelargecompaniesitisnowfoundthatafteraninitialfast

growing period,when a large amount of companieswere

consideringit,itisnowbeingconsideredthefuture

imple-mentationbylessthan10%.

However,afterconsideringthetwopreviousparagraphs,

conditionsappeartobefulfilledinallowingustoconclude

that a substantial number of companies will still

imple-mentit in thefuture. According toVicente, Major, Pinto,

and Sardinha (2009), in an analysis on the management

controllers’functions and roles, inPortugal, it wasfound

that the BSC is regarded as one of the important tools

andtechniquesfor effectivelydischargingthefunctionsof

management controllers. This tool has been assumed as

playingaprominentroleasawayofchangeinmanagement:

‘‘... arestillconsidered important, withover 50% rating,

intheoption ofutmostimportance,thefollowingfactors:

newtechniques andmanagementmethodologies

(Activity-basedCosting,The BalancedScorecard,etc.).,newstyles

and management practices; development and

organizationalrestructuringinitiativesandmarket-oriented business.’’ (Vicente et al., 2009, p. 71). All these

argu-ments,alongwiththefactthatsomelargecompaniesare

stillconsideringtheimplementationoftheBSCinthefuture, seemtoindicatethatevolutionabouttheuseandalsoabout

theabandonmentof thetoolcanandshouldbestudiedin

thefuture.InparticularandconcerninglargestPortuguese

companies,itwouldbeinterestingtoconductastudythat

completesthetwolargescopeonespresentedinthispaper,

focusingeitheronstudiedsubjectsandonissuesliketheuse

oftheBSCasasystemtomanagestrategicalliancesandto

assessthemanagementsystem.

Other possibilities are the deepening on the subject

relatedwiththeinexistenceand/oradaptationoflearning

andgrowingperspective--- thiscanbeexploredin an

cul-turalaspectontheleadership,beingtheleadershipatheme

pointedbysomeauthorsasanopportunitytodevelopnew

pathsofresearchinthefuture(Hoque,2014;Kaplan,2009).

Anotherimportantissueistheapparentgapbetweenthe

useofthescorecardandthebenefitsobtainedfromit---in

thisfieldwe canalsorecallHoque: ‘‘Futurestudies could

investigate whether and how causal relationships among

balancedscorecard perspectivescouldbe theoutcome of

facilitatingstrategicorganizationalandemployeelearning, andcouldassesstheimpactonorganizationalstrategic out-comes’’(Hoque,2014,p.48).

As tothe limitations of this paper, beingan analytical

review,wecanalwaysnotconsidersomerelevantstudyor

paperthat we couldnotidentify ---we tried to overcome

this issue by completing an exhaustive search of studies,

books, scientific articles and other sources on the field.

However,thisprocedure,canalsobeconsidered,itself,as

anotherlimitation,sincewehaveconsideredseveralkinds

ofsources,andnotonlyscientificarticles.Yetthiskindof

practiceasalreadybeencarriedoutbyotherauthors.

Anotherlimitationis that,having consideredsome

dif-ferentstudieswithdiversecharacteristics,wehavehadto

choose and adapt some of the results of those studies in

ordertosustainouranalysis,however thissituationoften

occurswhenworkingwithsecondarydata.

Acknowledgments

PEst-OE/EGE/UI4056/2014--- financed by Fundac¸ão paraa

CiênciaeTecnologia(FCT).

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