Luz María Marín Vinuesa

Do hospital balanced scorecard measures reflect cause-effect relationships?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether first level measures in the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) declaring a cause-effect relationship by design are composite indices of lower measures, and if they converge into a single factor as is traditionally accepted in the BSC literature. Design/methodology/approach This study reports results of a quantitative case study that focusses on an Ontario (Canada) community hospital that has been using the BSC. Findings The results of this study challenge the cause-effect assumption of the BSC, particularly in a cascading context, and suggest that a lack of attention of how composite indices of lower measures converge into a single higher level measure may be the reason for ineffective use of the BSC. Research limitations/implications The BSC is a dynamic tool; as such there are several measures that have a very short history, thus limiting the observations available to be used in statistical models. Practical implications A key recommendation for practice that emerges from this study is the need to test if lower level metrics do merge naturally in the upper level measure of the BSC; if not, the upper level measure might not be linked to other measures rendering the BSC ineffective in the context of causality. Originality/value Although several studies have argued in favour of the cause-effect relationship of the BSC, none of those found in the literature have paid attention to the way in which first level measures are constructed. This may explain why certain measures are linked, while others are not, to those that are calculated as composite indices of several lower level indicators.

Efectos positivos del uso de indicadores no financieros. Una aplicación empírica

RESUMEN El presente artículo analiza si existe un comportamiento distinto en los factores que afectan al uso de los indicadores no financieros, y en los beneficios que se derivan de dicho uso, entre empresas certificadas con la norma ISO 9000 y empresas no certificadas con dicha norma. El trabajo empírico se realiza sobre el sector industrial del mueble en España. En un primer análisis se comprueba que el interés por la calidad es distinto de la posesión del certificado ISO 9000. Concretamente, se comprueba un comportamiento diferente en el interés por la calidad, el uso de los indicadores, el tamaño, el resultado de la calidad y las ventajas competitivas, para empresas certificadas y no certificadas. Los resultados del análisis estructural muestran que la influencia que el interés por la calidad ejerce sobre el uso de los indicadores no financieros, y asimismo, los efectos positivos que se derivan de este mayor ‘reporting’, no dependen de la posesión de ISO 9000; sin embargo, los efectos del tamaño empresarial sobre las citadas relaciones son estadísticamente diferentes para empresas que tienen certificado ISO 9000 que para empresas que no lo tienen.