Applying business analytics for performance measurement and management. The case study of a software company

Titolo Rivista MANAGEMENT CONTROL
Autori/Curatori Franco Visani
Anno di pubblicazione 2017 Fascicolo 2017/2
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 35 P. 89-123 Dimensione file 737 KB
DOI 10.3280/MACO2017-002006
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

The concept of Business Performance Analytics (BPA) represents the adoption of analytical methods to support strategy control and (re)formulation. The purpose of the paper is to explore the potential support that BPA can provide for performance management systems. The study, through an interventionist approach, empirically tests a 5-step BPA framework (Raffoni et al. - forthcoming -) and provides insights for further developments. The longitudinal study, conducted at a company operating in the data-security industry, supported the analysis of BPA potential and offered a number of insights to refine the framework and shed light on critical organisational issues. This paper offers both theoretical and practical suggestions. It is one of the few attempts to investigate the potential of Business Analytics in enhancing strategic control. It provides insights in a practical framework that could be used to guide further research in the area and provides an account of potential challenges faced by businesses when trying to move to strategic control with a data-driven approach.

Keywords:Business Analytics, Performance Measurement Systems, Business Per-formance Analytics, Big Data.

  1. Davenport T.H., Harris J.G., Morison R. (2010), Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions. Better Results, Harvard Business Press, Boston.
  2. De Geuser F., Mooraj S., Oyon D. (2009), Does the balanced scorecard add value? Empirical evidence on its effect on performance, European Accounting Review, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 93-122.
  3. Denzin N.K., Lincoln Y.S. (2008), Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials, Vol. 3, London, Sage.
  4. Dixon J.R., Nanni A.J., Vollmann T.E. (1990), The New Performance Challenge. Measuring Operations for World Class Competition, Illinois, Business One Irwin.
  5. Dumay J.C. (2010), A critical reflective discourse of an interventionist research project, Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 46-70. DOI: 10.1108/11766091011034271
  6. Epstein M.J., Kumar P., Westbrook R.A. (2000), The drivers of customer and corporate profitability: modelling, measuring, and managing the causal relationships, Advances in Management Accounting, Vol. 9, pp. 43-72.
  7. Epstein M., Manzoni J.F. (1998), Implementing Corporate Strategy: From Tableaux de Bord to Balanced Scorecards, European Management Journal, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 190-203. Doi. 10.1016/S0263-2373(97)00087-X.
  8. Evans J.R. (2013), Business Analytics: Methods, Models, and Decisions, NJ, Prentice- Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
  9. Ferreira A., Otley D. (2009), The design and use of performance management systems: An extended framework for analysis, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 263-282.
  10. Fiol C.M., Huff A.S. (1992), Maps for managers: where are we? Where do we go from here?, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 267-285.
  11. Franco-Santos M., Lucianetti L., Bourne M. (2012), Contemporary performance measurement systems: A review of their consequences and a framework for research, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 79-119.
  12. Galbraith J.R. (1973), Designing complex organizations, Mass, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
  13. Galeotti M., Garzella S., Fiorentino R., Della Corte G. (2016), The Strategic Intelligence implications for Information Systems, Management Control, 1, pp. 105-123. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2016-001007
  14. Gartner Report (2012), Forecast: Enterprise software markets. Worldwide, 2011-2016, 4Q12 Update, --available at: .http://www.gartner.com/resId= 2054422, last access 18th March 2013.
  15. Gimbert X., Bisbe J., Mendoza X. (2010), The Role of Performance Measurement Systems in Strategy Formulation Processe, Long Range Planning, 43, pp. 477-497.
  16. Grant D., Hall R., Wailes N., Wright C. (2006), The false promise of technological determinism: the case of enterprise resource planning systems, New Technology, Work and Employment, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 2-15.
  17. Harford T. (2014), Big data: A big mistake?, Significance, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 14-19.
  18. Henri J.F. (2006), Management control systems and strategy: a resource-based perspective, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 31 No. 6, pp. 529-558.
  19. Holsapple C.W., Whinston A. (1996), Decision Support Systems: A Knowledge-Based Approach, St. Paul, MN, West.
  20. Holsapple C.W., Lee-Post A., Pakath R. (2014), A unified foundation for business analytics, Decision Support Systems, Vol. 64, pp. 130-141.
  21. Hoque Z., James W. (2000), Linking balanced scorecard measures to size and market factors: impact on organizational performance, Journal of Management Accounting Research, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 1-17.
  22. Hyvönen J. (2007), Strategy, performance measurement techniques and information technology of the firm and their links to organisational performance, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 343-366.
  23. Ittner C.D., Larcker D.F. (2005), Moving from strategic measurement to strategic data analysis, in Chapman C.S. (Ed.), Controlling strategy: Management, accounting, and performance measurement, New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 86-105.
  24. Ittner C.D., Larcker D.F. (2001), Assessing empirical research in managerial accounting: a value-based management perspective, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Vol. 32 No. 1-3, pp. 349-410.
  25. Ittner C.D., Larcker D.F. (1998), Are Non Financial Measures Leading Indicators of Financial Performance? An Analysis of Customer Satisfaction, Journal of Accounting Research, Vol. 36 Supplement, pp. 1-35. DOI: 10.2307/2491304
  26. Janke R., Mahlendorf M.D., Weber J. (2014), An exploratory study of the reciprocal relationship between interactive use of management control systems and perception of negative external crisis effects, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 251-270.
  27. Jönsson S., Lukka K. (2006), There and Back Again: Doing Interventionist Research in Management Accounting, in Chapman, C.S., Hopwood, A.G. and Shields, M.D. (Eds.), Handbook of Management Accounting Research, Amsterdam, Elsevier Ltd., pp. 373-397.
  28. Kaplan R.S., Norton D.P. (2004), How strategy maps frame an organization’s objectives, Financial Executive, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 40-45.
  29. Kaplan R.S., Norton D.P. (2000), Strategy-focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment, Boston, MA, Harvard Business School Press.
  30. Kaplan R.S., Norton D.P. (1996), The Balanced Scorecard: translating strategy into action, Boston, Harvard Business School Press.
  31. Kaplan R.S., Norton D.P. (1992), The Balanced Scorecard – Measures that Drive Performance, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 70 No. 1, pp. 71-79.
  32. Kasanen E., Lukka K., Siitonen A. (1993), The constructive approach in management ac-counting research, Journal of Management Accounting Research, Vol. 5 (Fall), pp. 241-264.
  33. Kelly J. (2015), Big Data: From Promise to Reality, --available at http://wikibon.com/big-data-from-promise-to-reality/, last access 21st September 2015.
  34. Klatt T., Schläfke M., Möller K. (2011), Integrating business analytics into strategic planning for better performance, Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 30-39. DOI: 10.1108/02756661111180113
  35. Kober R., Ng J., Paul B.J. (2007), The interrelationship between management control mechanisms and strategy, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 425-452.
  36. Kominis G., Dudau A.I. (2012), Time for interactive control systems in the public sector? The case of the Every Child Matters policy change in England, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 142-155.
  37. Lebas M., Euske K. (2002), A conceptual and operational delineation of performance, in Neely A. (Ed.), Business performance measurement. Theory and practice, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 65-80.
  38. Levenson A. (2005), Harnessing the power of HR analytics, Strategic HR Review, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 28-31.
  39. Lukka K., Suomala P. (2014), Relevant interventionist research: balancing three intellectual virtues, Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 44 No. 2, pp. 204-220. DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2013.872554
  40. Lynch R.L., Cross K.F. (1991), Measure Up! Yardstick For Continuous Improvement, Cam-bridge, MA, Blackwell.
  41. Manyika J., Chui M., Brown B., Bughin J., Dobbs R., Roxburgh C., Byers A.H. (2011), Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity, McKinsey Global Institute, --available at: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/big_data_the_next_frontier_for_innovation, last access 13th July 2015.
  42. Maule R.W., Schacher G., Gallup S.P., McClain B. (2004), Applied knowledge analytics for military experimentation, in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration, pp. 91-96.
  43. McAfee A., Brynjolfsson E., Davenport T.H., Patil D., Barton D. (2012), Big data. The management revolution, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 90, No. 10, pp. 61-67.
  44. Melnyk S.A., Bititci U., Platts K., Tobias J., Andersen B. (2014), Is performance measurement and management fit for the future?, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 173-186.
  45. Melnyk S.A., Hanson G.D., Calantone R.J. (2010), Hitting the Target… But Missing the Point: Resolving the Paradox of Strategic Transition, Long Range Planning, Vol. 43 No. 4, pp. 555-574.
  46. Micheli P., Manzoni J.F. (2010), Strategic Performance Measurement: Benefits, Limitations and Paradoxes, Long Range Planning, Vol. 43 No. 4, pp. 465-476.
  47. Mintzberg H. (1978), Patterns of strategy formulation, Management Science, Vol. 24 No. 9, pp. 934-948.
  48. Moss L.T., Atre S. (2003), Business intelligence roadmap: the complete project lifecycle for decision-support applications, Addison-Wesley Professional.
  49. Mundy J. (2010), Creating dynamic tensions through a balanced use of management control systems, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 35, No. 5, pp. 499-523.
  50. Naranjo-Gil D., Hartmann F. (2007), Management accounting systems, top management team heterogeneity and strategic change, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 32 No. 7, pp. 735-756.
  51. Naranjo-Gil D., Hartmann F. (2006), How top management teams use management account-ing systems to implement strategy, Journal of Management Accounting Research, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 21-53.
  52. Norreklit H. (2000), The Balance on the Balanced Scorecard. A critical analysis of Its As-sumptions, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 65-88.
  53. Nudurupaty S.S., Bititci U.S., Kumar V., Chan F.T.S. (2011), State of the art literature review on performance measurement, Computers and Industrial Engineering, Vol. 60 No. 2, pp. 279-290.
  54. Orlikowski W.J. (2000), Managing use not technology: a view from the trenches. Mastering Information Management, London, Prentice-Hall.
  55. Otley D. (2008), Did Kaplan and Johnson get it right?, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 No. 8, pp. 229-239. DOI: 10.1108/09513570810854419
  56. Parker L.D. (2012), Qualitative Management Accounting Research: Assessing deliverables and relevance, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 54-70.
  57. Power D.J., Sharda R. (2009), Decision support systems, in Nof, S.Y. (Ed), Handbook of Automation, Part I, pp. 1539-1548.
  58. Raffoni A., Bartolini M., Silvi R., Visani F. (forthcoming), Business Performance Analytics: Exploring the Potential for Performance Management Systems, Production Planning & Control.
  59. Rigby D., Bilodeau B. (2009), Management tools and trends 2009, Bain & Company.
  60. Royal C., O'Donnell L. (2008), Emerging human capital analytics for investment processes, Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 367-379.
  61. Royal Statistical Society (2005), Performance indicators: good, bad and ugly, available at http://www.rss.org.uk/PDF/PerformanceMonitoring.pdf, last access 10th March 2010.
  62. Scapens R.W. (1990), Researching Management Accounting Practice: the Role of Case Study Methods, British Accounting Review, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 259-281. DOI: 10.1016/0890-8389(90)90008-6
  63. Schläfke M., Silvi R., Möller K. (2012), A framework for business analytics in performance management, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 62 No. 1, pp. 110-122. DOI: 10.1108/17410401311285327
  64. Schreyögg G., Steinmann H. (1987), Strategic Control: A New Perspective, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 91-103.
  65. Sharda R., Aronson J.E., King, D. (2008), Business intelligence: A managerial approach, Upper Saddle River, Pearson Prentice Hall.
  66. Silvi R., Bartolini M., Raffoni A., Visani F. (2015), The practice of strategic performance measurement systems: Models, drivers and information effectiveness, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 64, No. 2, pp. 194-227. DOI: 10.1108/IJPPM-01-2014-0010
  67. Silvi R., Bartolini M., Raffoni A., Visani F. (2011), Business Performance Analytics: il valore emergente nei sistemi di management accounting, Management Control, 3, pp.17-37. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2011-003002
  68. Silvi R., Bartolini M., Raffoni A., Visani F. (2012), Business Performance Analytics: level of adoption and support provided to Performance Measurement Systems, Management Control, 3 Special Issue, pp. 117-142. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2013-SU3006
  69. Simons R. (1995), Levers of control. How Managers Use Innovative Control Systems to Drive Strategic Renewal, Boston, Harvard Business School Press.
  70. Smith P.C., Goddard M. (2002), Performance management and operational research: a marriage made in heaven?, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 53, No. 3, pp. 247-255.
  71. Spais G., Veloutsou C. (2005), Marketing analytics: Managing incomplete information in consumer markets and the contribution of mathematics to the accountability of marketing decision, South European Review of Business Finance and Accounting, 3, 1, pp. 127-150.
  72. Stubbs E. (2011), The value of Business Analytics, Vol, 43, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons Inc.
  73. Su S., Baird K., Schoch H. (2015), The moderating effect of organisational life cycle stages on the association between the interactive and diagnostic approaches to using controls with organisational performance, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 26, pp. 40-53.
  74. Tessier S., Otley D. (2012), A conceptual development of Simons’ Levers of Control framework, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 171-185.
  75. Trkman P., McCormack K., Valadares de Oliveira M.P., Bronzo Ladeira M. (2010), The impact of business analytics on supply chain performance, Decision Support Systems,
  76. Tuomela T.S. (2005), The interplay of different levers of control: a case study of introducing a new performance measurement system, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 293-320.
  77. Warren J.D., Moffitt K.C., Byrnes P. (2015), How Big Data will change accounting, Ac-counting Horizons, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 397-407.
  78. Watson H.J. (2011), Business analytics insight: hype or here to stay?, Business Intelligence Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 4-8.
  79. Weinberger D. (2007), Everything is miscellaneous: The power of the new digital disorder, Macmillan.
  80. Widener S.K. (2007), An empirical analysis of the levers of control framework, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 32 No. 7/8, pp. 757-788.
  81. Yin R.K. (2008), Case study research: design and methods, Beverly Hills, CA., Sage Publications.
  82. Zhang J., Yang X., Appelbaum D. (2015), Toward effective Big Data analysis in continuous auditing, Accounting Horizons, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 469-476.
  83. Abernethy M.A., Brownell P. (1999), The role of budgets in organizations facing strategic change: an exploratory study, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 24, pp. 189-204.
  84. Anderson, C. (2008), The end of theory: The data deluge makes the scientific method obsolete, Wired Magazine, Vol. 16 No. 7, --available at: http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-07/pb_theory, last access 30th September 2015.
  85. Anderson S.W., Widener S.K. (2007), Doing Quantitative Field Research in Management Accounting, in Chapman, C.S., Hopwood, A.G. and Shields, M.D. (Eds.), Handbook of Management Accounting Research, Elsevier Ltd., Amsterdam, pp. 319-341.
  86. Anthony R.N. (1965), Planning Control Systems. A Framework for Analysis, Boston, MA, Harvard University Press.
  87. Argyris C. (1977), Organizational learning and management information systems, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 113-123. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(77)90028-9
  88. Atkinson A.A., Shaffir W. (1998), Standards for field research in management accounting, Journal of Management Accounting Research, Vol. 10, pp. 41-68.
  89. Axelrod R. (Ed.) (1976), Structure of decision: the cognitive maps of political elites, Prince-ton, Princeton University Press.
  90. Banker R., Charnes A. and Cooper W. (1984), Some models for estimating technical and scale inefficiencies, Data Envelopment Analysis, Management Science, 30(9), pp.1078–92.
  91. Berg B.L., Lune H. (2012), Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences, eight ed. Edinburgh, Pearson.
  92. Berry A.J., Coad A.F., Harris E.P., Otley D.T., Stringer C. (2009), Emerging themes in management control: A review of recent literature, The British Accounting Review, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 2-20.
  93. Bhimani A., Willcocks L. (2014), Digitisation, “Big Data” and the transformation of accounting information, Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 44 No. 4, pp. 469-490. DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2014.910051
  94. Bisbe J., Malagueño R. (2009), The choice of interactive control systems under different innovation management modes, European Accounting Review, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 371-405.
  95. Bisbe J., Otley D. (2004), The effects of the interactive use of management control systems on product innovation, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 29, No. 8, pp. 709-737.
  96. Bisbe J., Batista-Foguet J.M., Chenhall R.H. (2007), Defining management accounting constructs: a methodological note on the risks of conceptual misspecification, Bloomberg Businessweek Research Services (2011), The Current State of Business Analytics, --available at: http://www.sas.com/resources/asset/busanalyticsstudy_wp_08232011.pdf, last access 21st September 2015.
  97. Brignall S. (2002), The Unbalanced Scorecard: A Social and Environmental Critique in Neely A. and Walters R.A. (Eds.), Performance Measurement and Management: Research and Action, Performance Measurement Association, Boston, pp. 85-92.
  98. Chapman C.S., Kihn L.A. (2009), Information system integration, enabling control and per-formance, Accounting, Organisations and Society, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 151-169.
  99. Chartered Institute of Management Accountants - CIMA (2014), Big Data. Readying business for the big data revolution, --available at: http://www.cgma.org/Resources/Reports/DownloadableDocuments/CGMA-briefingbig-data.pdf.
  100. Chenhall R.H. (2005), Integrative strategic performance measurement systems, strategic alignment of manufacturing, learning and strategic outcomes: an exploratory study, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 30, No. 5, pp. 395-422.
  101. Chong K.M., Mahama H. (2014), The impact of interactive and diagnostic uses of budgets on team effectiveness, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 206-222.
  102. Constantiou I.D., Kallinikos J. (2015), New games, new rules: big data and the changing context of strategy, Journal of Information Technology, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 44-57. Doi. 10.1057/jit.2014.17.
  103. Davenport T.H., Patil D.J. (2012), Data scientist, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 90 No. 10, pp. 70-76.

  • Opportunities and risks in using big data to support management control systems: A multiple case study Francesco Badia, Fabio Donato, in MANAGEMENT CONTROL 3/2022 pp.39
    DOI: 10.3280/MACO2022-003003
  • Artificial Intelligence in Accounting and Auditing Federica De Santis, pp.1 (ISBN:978-3-031-71370-5)
  • Digital technologies and the evolution of the management accounting profession: a grounded theory literature review Daria Arkhipova, Marco Montemari, Chiara Mio, Stefano Marasca, in Meditari Accountancy Research /2024 pp.35
    DOI: 10.1108/MEDAR-07-2023-2097

Franco Visani, Applying business analytics for performance measurement and management. The case study of a software company in "MANAGEMENT CONTROL" 2/2017, pp 89-123, DOI: 10.3280/MACO2017-002006