1) Research Title
Strategic Performance Management Using the Balanced Scorecard in Educational Institutions
2) Researcher & Institutional Affiliation
• Ali Coskun*: College of Business, Quinnipiac University, Hamden CT 06518, USA (Corresponding author).
• Mirgul Nizaeva: Regional Institute of Central Asia, 720033 Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
3) Research Objectives
The primary objectives of this study were:
• To review the literature on the implementation of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) by different educational institutions as a strategic performance management tool.
• To analyze published documents based on publication trends over the years, authors’ affiliations by countries, sources of publication, most frequently used keywords, and the highest cited documents in the Scopus database.
• To identify gaps in the relevant literature and suggest directions for future research.
• To contribute to the existing literature by conducting a systematic review specifically focused on the BSC in educational institutions, including universities, schools, and other educational services.
4) Research Methodology
The researchers employed a systematic literature review approach, which involved several iterative steps:
• Keyword Identification: Keywords such as "balanced scorecard," "scorecard," "strategy map," "education," "school," "university," "college," and "academic" were identified.
• Search String Construction: A search string was created using the selected keywords and applied to the title, abstract, and keywords of documents in the Scopus database.
• Scope Limitation: The study focused exclusively on documents pertaining to the BSC in educational institutions.
• Data Extraction: All identified documents were listed in a data extraction form, capturing author information, publication year, source title details, and abstracts.
• Timeframe: No time bound was applied to data extraction, acknowledging that BSC implementation in education is a relatively new field.
• Quality Assurance: The study relied on the quality screening approach inherent in the Scopus database.
• Analysis: Documents were analyzed based on publication trends over the years, authors' affiliations by country, sources of publication, most frequently used keywords, and the highest cited documents in Scopus.
• Bibliometric Mapping: VOSviewer software was utilized to construct and visualize bibliometric networks, including journals, authors, countries, keywords, and sources. Strong network relationships were primarily found and visualized for keywords due to the high interdisciplinarity of the topic.
5) Findings & Recommendations
Key Findings:
• Document Count: A total of 267 documents indexed in Scopus were found as of July 1, 2022, comprising 188 articles, 61 conference papers, and 18 review papers/other documents, with 256 in English.
• Publication Trends: The number of documents was moderate between 1998 and 2005, then increased until 2012. After fluctuations, it peaked in 2019 with 21 documents and decreased in the last three years, indicating sustained interest over 25 years.
• Geographic Distribution: Authors affiliated with institutions in the United States, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom published the highest number of documents, followed by Iran, Malaysia, Taiwan, and China, showing interest from both developed and developing countries.
• Diverse Sources: Documents were published across 218 sources in various subject areas, including social sciences (119), Business, Management, and Accounting (100), computer sciences (65), and engineering (54). Top sources included the International Journal of Educational Management, Journal of Education for Business, and Measuring Business Excellence.
• Frequent Keywords: The most common keywords were "BSC," "academic scorecard," and "scorecard" (200 times), followed by "performance" related terms (159 times), "higher education" related terms (123 times), and "strategy" related terms (86 times).
• Highly Cited Documents: Studies by Cullen et al. (2003), Lawrence and Sharma (2002), and Wu et al. (2011) were among the most cited, primarily focusing on BSC implementation in universities.
• BSC Adaptation: Educational institutions frequently rearranged BSC perspectives to align with their unique missions, often prioritizing non-financial performance. Many adopted or modified the traditional four perspectives or introduced new ones suitable for academia.
• Implementation Challenges: Challenges include the cost of implementation (staff time, external consultants, software), the slow adoption process in higher education, and instances of institutions "plagiarizing" others' approaches.
Recommendations from the study:
• Future Research Focus:
◦ Conduct more empirical, conceptual, and case studies focusing on BSC implementation in the education sector.
◦ Research should address designing BSCs that link individuals and different organizational units, and facilitate comparisons between countries or similar institutions.
◦ Explore the use of BSC measures to consider incentives for individual employees.
◦ Develop quantitative models for evaluating BSC implementation outcomes and result performance.
◦ Propose new conceptual research to develop additional perspectives or items under existing perspectives specifically tailored for educational institution management.
◦ Examine existing frameworks for sustainability performance management and develop social responsibility measures (environmental, social, governance, transparency).
6) Key Insights and Implications
• BSC as a Strategic Tool: The BSC is a mission-oriented and strategy-focused performance management tool particularly suitable for educational institutions facing challenges such as increasing competition, resource constraints, and accountability. It helps them serve their missions and focus strategies by providing a balanced performance system.
• Shift from Financial Focus: Unlike traditional corporate performance measurement, which heavily relies on financial indicators, the BSC compels educational institutions to emphasize non-financial performance, such as customer satisfaction, innovation and learning, and internal process activities, as these are crucial drivers of future success and social value creation. For universities, student learning results replace financial results as lagging indicators.
• Adaptability and Customization: The original four perspectives (financial, customer, internal business process, and innovation and learning) of the BSC can be, and often need to be, significantly adapted for the educational context. This includes adding perspectives like sustainability or spirituality, or re-framing existing ones to focus on students, community, or academic-specific measures.
• Multiple Drivers for Adoption: Educational institutions adopt the BSC due to a range of motives: enhancing performance management, addressing academic and customer measures (like student success), ensuring school safety, achieving financial stability and competitive advantage, efficient resource allocation, coordinating research projects, evaluating intellectual capital, and meeting accreditation and legislative requirements.
• Broad Stakeholder Engagement: Effective BSC implementation in education requires satisfying a wide array of stakeholders, including students, alumni, parents, faculty, employees, public authorities, and the community. The customer perspective needs to be expanded beyond just students to encompass a comprehensive stakeholder group, and donors should be seen as investors contributing to societal welfare rather than mere customers.
• Importance of Mission at the Top: For non-profit educational organizations, the BSC's success hinges on featuring and measuring the institution's mission at the top level of the hierarchy, rather than placing the financial perspective first, as accountability to society is their fundamental rationale.
• Integrating Governance and Social Responsibility: There is a growing recognition for educational institutions to include corporate governance and social responsibility perspectives in their BSCs, highlighting their involvement in social activities and adherence to regulatory compliance, particularly in light of ethical concerns and the drive for sustainable development.
• Global Relevance: The widespread interest in BSC from various countries, both developed and developing, underscores its global relevance as a strategic management tool for educational institutions, although implementation is less prevalent in developing regions.
7) Actionable Recommendations
Based on the insights from the literature review, the following actionable recommendations are provided for educational institutions and researchers:
• Customize BSC Frameworks: Educational institutions should strategically rearrange their BSC perspectives to align with their specific missions and priorities. This involves carefully determining critical success factors, traceable performance measures, and relevant activities for each perspective.
• Prioritize Mission-Oriented Measures: For non-profit educational institutions, the mission should be placed at the top of the BSC hierarchy and its achievement should be featured and measured prominently.
• Redefine "Customer" Broadly: Expand the customer perspective to include a comprehensive group of stakeholders, such as students, scholars, the community, and practitioners. Furthermore, consider donors as investors rather than customers, given the mission of enhancing societal welfare.
• Incorporate Emerging Perspectives: Integrate corporate governance and social responsibility perspectives into the BSC to reflect the institution's involvement in social activities and regulatory compliance. Also, include measures related to international students under the customer perspective to account for globalization and increasing competitiveness.
• Emphasize Academic Staff Quality: Strengthen measures related to the academic quality of faculty and staff under the learning and growth perspective, recognizing the intense pressure of the "publish or perish" principle.
• Ensure Leadership Support and Training: Successful BSC implementation requires strong support from supervisors at all organizational levels. Institutions should invest in proper training and guidance to avoid superficial adoption ("plagiarism") and ensure valid, reliable measurement outcomes.
• Focus on Leading and Lagging Indicators: Carefully identify measures where student learning results replace financial results as lagging indicators, and other perspectives act as leading indicators or drivers of student learning.
8) Summary
The research article, "Strategic Performance Management Using the Balanced Scorecard in Educational Institutions," by Ali Coskun and Mirgul Nizaeva, presents a systematic literature review on the application of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) in educational settings. The study identifies the BSC as a crucial mission-oriented and strategy-focused performance management tool that helps educational institutions navigate challenges such as competition, resource constraints, and accountability by providing a balanced view beyond traditional financial indicators. The authors analyzed 267 documents from the Scopus database, detailing publication trends, author affiliations, and frequently used keywords. Key findings indicate a diverse global interest in BSC, with institutions adapting its core perspectives to prioritize non-financial outcomes, student success, and broader stakeholder satisfaction. The study highlights the need for educational institutions to customize their BSCs, place their mission at the forefront, and incorporate emerging concerns like sustainability and social responsibility. It concludes by identifying significant gaps in the literature and offering specific directions for future research, including the development of quantitative models, studies on individual incentives, and new, education-specific BSC perspectives.
9) References for this Research
• Coskun, A., & Nizaeva, M. (2023). Strategic Performance Management Using the Balanced Scorecard in Educational Institutions. Open Education Studies, 5, 20220198. https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2022-0198
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