A study of BSC adoption in Austria and Germany also found that about half of the
companies that adopted the BSC did not develop a causal model of their strategy
(Speckbacher et al., 2003). Davis and Albright’s (2004) survey of the literature on the
BSC shows that 77 percent of companies that adopt the BSC in the USA fail to develop
a causal model of their strategy.
These findings raises the question of how does the absence of a causal model of the
strategy affect the level of effectiveness of the BSC program. There is the risk that the
failure to develop a causal model of the strategy will cause organizations to develop
performance measures that is not tied to how the organization intends to compete. The
outcome is a collection of measures that is fragmented and has little value add to the
organization. The BSC ends up becoming an exercise in developing more paper work
and information collection that does not have a strategic impact.
Research agenda
The objective of this research is to examine the BSC adoption experience among
Malaysian companies. It will seek to examine whether the development of a causal
model of the strategy makes a difference in the effectiveness of the BSC program. This
survey is intended to be a preliminary survey given that the adoption of the BSC is
relatively recent in Malaysia and the number of companies that have done so are not
many. It is expected that the number of response available will be small. However, this
is not uncommon in studies on the adoption of new management techniques. Braam
and Nijssen’s (2004) study of BSC implementation in Dutch companies involved 41
companies. Davis and Albright’s (2004) study of the BSC in the USA involved 14
branches of a bank. Malmi’s (2001) study of BSC use in Finland involved only 17
companies. Speckbacher et al. (2003) relied on data from 43 companies in Austria and
42 companies in Switzerland. The expected small number of responses makes the
nature of this study an exploratory one. The purpose is not to seek generalizable
findings but to understand better the context of effective BSC use among the
respondents and unearth issues needing further attention.
The basic issue that will be examined in this study is to what extent adopters of the
BSC among Malaysian companies also developed a causal model of their strategy.
Based on the findings in other countries, it is expected that not all BSC adopters
developed a causal model of their strategy. The second issue to be examined is whether
there is any difference in the outcome of the BSC program between adopters who
developed a causal model of their strategy and those who did not. Given the
importance of developing the causal model, it is expected that there will be differences
in the outcomes of the BSC program.
This study is also a follow up to an earlier case study conducted by this author. This
case study had, among other things, found that the absence of a causal model in the
implementation of the BSC had created certain problems (Othman et al., 2006). This
included the lack of buy-in and the lack of clarity of the actions needed to achieve the
performance measures set by management. While the case study provided in-depth
understanding of the problems faced by a company, there is the need to assess the
extent these problems are shared by other BSC adopters. It is hoped that this survey
will shed more light on the extent such problems are encountered by other BSC
adopters in Malaysia.