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PurposeThis study examines whether different strategy archetypes deploy specific performance metrics to support their strategic goals and priorities. If so, does alignment of strategy and metrics positively impact organisational performance?Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual framework and hypotheses are couched in Contingency Theory. The role of business strategy as a moderating variable is tested using MANOVA, followed by post hoc pairwise comparisons. The results are based on cross-sectional survey data from 372 manufacturing and service organisations in Italy.FindingsThe overall contingency effect of business strategy in selecting and deploying performance metrics and their effect on organisational performance is supported. However, the group-wise post hoc analyses show support only for Prospectors but not for Defenders and Analysers.Research limitations/implicationsThis research lends further support in favour of the Contingency Theory from a new geographic context (Italy) that there are no universally best performance metrics that drive organisational performance. However, more research is needed to understand why the theory only holds for certain strategic archetypes and not across all archetypes.Practical implicationsManagers can direct resources and effort towards designing and deploying the "right" type of performance metrics suitable for their strategic orientation and thus optimise organisational performance.Originality/valueThis is a rare study that tests the moderating role of business strategy using all four strategic archetypes of the Miles and Snow typology. It deploys both financial and non-financial measures and uses a very large sample of both manufacturing and service organisations from a relatively unexplored region of the world. The study provides additional evidence in favour of the Contingency Theory whilst advocating for more research to refine our understanding of why the contingency perspective is not so important for firms that are not the first-in.

PurposeThe 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/approachUsing 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.FindingsResults 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/valueThe 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.

This study examines the influence of cultural context in managerial decision-making by comparing the legitimacy views of Finnish and Italian business managers. In the business context, managers often make decisions based on economic interests only; but for moral decisions, other means of legitimacy are required. Although both Finland and Italy are members of the European Union (EU), they have significant differences in terms of culture and economy. Finland is a North-European country with Protestant religion and low level of corruption, while Italy is a South-European country with the Catholic religion and high level of corruption. The study contributes to previous research on managerial decision-making by showing, with a qualitative approach, that Finnish managers rely more on property and perception view of legitimacy in their decision-making, whereas Italian managers rely more on a process view of legitimacy in their decision-making

AbstractGuided by social information processing theory and regulatory focus theory, this study examines embeddedness contagion related to supervisors' age. Older (vs. younger) supervisors are more likely to become embedded in their organizations, and when employees see these older supervisors as more embedded, they are likely to take this as a positive cue signaling them to become embedded in the organization, too. This tendency is an important topic within employee age research because it can strengthen employees' regulatory focus, which in turn affects their job performance. Analysis of matched data collected from 406 employees and their supervisors showed that supervisors' age was positively related to supervisors' perceptions of their own organizational embeddedness, which then positively affected employees' perceptions of supervisors' and their own embeddedness. Employee embeddedness perceptions, in turn, were positively related to their promotion and prevention focus. Crucially, promotion focus, but not prevention focus, predicted a variety of performance outcomes. Thus, this study explains why employees are more likely to become organizationally embedded in the presence of older supervisors and shows that such embeddedness contagion enhances their work productivity.

ABSTRACTAre business continuity programs (BCPs) useful in improving company performance? Risk management research suggests that BCPs are important in response and recovery from disruptions. However, critics suggest that BCPs rely too much on known risks and are overly complicated. This creates a decision dilemma regarding whether to invest in BCPs or not. Using two empirical studies, this manuscript offers theoretical and empirical evidence as to whether BCPs help limit the damage caused by supply chain disruptions and improve company financial performance. Using structural contingency and organizational information processing theories, the study develops hypotheses on how BCPs channel resources to recover from supply chain disruptions, contingent on a company's flexible or procedural response orientation. In Study‐1, the hypotheses are tested based on a combination of subjective (Likert‐based responses) and objective (historical financial performance) data gathered and matched from a cross‐section of Italian companies. Results suggest that BCPs are beneficial to companies with a procedural or flexible orientation in limiting the damage caused by supply chain disruptions. Companies with strong BCPs show better financial performance in comparison to their competition. In Study‐2, a vignette‐based factorial experiment is used to offer insight on how managers perceive the effect of flexible or procedural response orientation on limiting the operational damage of disruptions. Finally, post‐hoc analyses using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) offers further evidence of a strong link between BCPs and financial performance (return on assets).

ABSTRACTGlobalization defines the business world today, yet globalization also leads to many types of misunderstandings regarding ethics, motives, and trust. We apply the theory of social contracts for the purpose of aiding the understanding of moral diversity arising from globalization. Specifically, we seek to better understand how country of origin, and role within country, lead to community "microsocial" norms that inform social contract ethical judgments. A total of 695 managerial accounting professionals and accounting students from Italy and the U.S. completed the survey. Employing a moderated mediation model, we find that country of origin is significantly related to intended behaviors in two business situations, and this relationship is mediated by social contract ethical judgment. Further, the impact of national culture on social contract ethical judgment is moderated by role (professional versus student). Multiple mediation analysis supports our contention that contractual evaluations precede moral equity assessments and that both contractual and moral equity ethical judgments affect ethical intentions.

Purpose
– This paper aims to advance the current debates on the effect of performance measurement (PM) in the operations management domain. In order to accomplish that, it investigates the contribution of business PM and human resource management (HRM) practices to business performance.


Design/methodology/approach
– The paper is based on ten case studies conducted across both manufacturing and service organisations capturing evidence from both the human resource function and line management.


Findings
– In the PM and HRM literatures, there is a debate about the contribution these practices make to the overall performance of the organisation. In particular, the results from the PM literature are inconclusive. This paper argues that performance is a result of employee engagement and that the PM system is a communication and guiding mechanism, which if implemented well and used appropriately, can channel the efforts of employees striving to perform.


Originality/value
– This paper contradicts the performance drivers approach to PM by providing new insights into the roles PM and HRM practices play in delivering business performance. Additionally, the paper develops a set of propositions as a means of clearly stating the findings and for encouraging future research in this area.