The causes that may lead to the balanced scorecard's failure: an extended framework for a critical review

This paper aims to identify the limits of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) providing researchers and practitioner the way to manage critical issues connected to the BSC. In doing so, we identify and analyze the limits from both a theoretical and a managerial perspective. This discussion is useful to explore the status of research on the BSC, with a view to identifying gaps and to sketch ideas, providing scholars and practitioners with the basis for further research in order to overcome limits and improve the current use of the BSC. We reviewed articles published in 429 journals, in 22 different subject areas of the Academic Journal Guide (ABS). Knowledge gaps in existing BSC research are identified, leading to consideration of several ideas for future research. Interviews was conducted with the managers of large Italian companies to link the conceptual framework to a practical point of view. The limits of the BSC are discussed with a positive purpose to build, in order to examine the conditions under which the BSC may be effective. The research suggests that the conceptual framework provides a useful research tool for those wishing to study the design and operation of Performance Management System (PMSs) by providing a template to help overcome the problems of such systems. To this end, we created a new perspective, called Critical perspective that allow considering and containing the limits of the BSC. The findings of this paper are presented in three parts. First, the reviewed articles are categorized by topics, research settings, theories, research method, and primary data analysis technique. Second, a conceptual framework was created and knowledge gaps in existing BSC research identified, leading to consideration of several ideas for future research. The last section offers our final remarks.