Testing Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures: Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24

Dennis  Campbell; Srikant M. Datar; Susan L. Kulp; V.G.   Narayanan

Article | Journal of Management Accounting Research | 2015

Testing Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures: Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24

by Dennis Campbell, Srikant M. Datar, Susan L. Kulp and V.G. Narayanan

Abstract

We analyze balanced scorecard data from a convenience store chain, Store24, during the implementation of an innovative, but ultimately unsuccessful, strategy. Quarterly strategic reviews, based in part on the firm's balanced scorecard, led executives at Store24 to identify problems with, and eventually abandon, this strategy over a two-year period. We find that formal statistical tests of the hypotheses underlying the firm's balanced scorecard and strategy map reveal problems with the strategy on a timelier basis. We also test alternative hypotheses to those underlying the firm's formal strategy map and scorecard that are consistent with concerns expressed by some of Store24's top executives during the initial stages of implementing the new strategy. Our analysis demonstrates that this firm's balanced scorecard contained useful and timely information for distinguishing between these alternatives. These results provide some of the first field-based evidence on the potential for a firm's balanced scorecard to provide useful information for detecting problems in its strategy.

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Business Strategy; Retail Industry;

Format: Print

Find at Harvard

Citation:

Campbell, Dennis, Srikant M. Datar, Susan L. Kulp, and V.G. Narayanan. "Testing Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures: Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24." Journal of Management Accounting Research 27, no. 2 (2015): 39–65.

In this case, students explore the challenges of using sentiment analysis to monitor and understand public perception around a software application, Tamarin SEO App. Technical topics include building a filtering classifier using naive Bayes and sentiment analysis This case was written for the second-year MBA course “Managing with Data Science.” The course provides MBA students with no programming experience an introduction to the field of data science and its applications in business. Students learn to (1) carefully articulate the business ask, (2) reason carefully from the ask; through metrics and models, and outputs; and (3) evaluate outputs from models to (4) develop a plan for action.

Insigne Health is a fictional for-profit, integrated health insurer/health care provider whose leadership believes that by shifting members’ focus from “sickness” to “well-being” it could increase the overall health of its insured population and decrease the resources it spent each year on delivering care. The case puts students in the role of design researcher charged with understanding the member segment about which Insigne Health leadership is most concerned: the “silent middle.” This cohort represents 70% of membership. They are “neither sick nor well,” and may, without changes in a range of behaviors, be quietly developing conditions that will evolve into costly chronic diseases. From interviews included in the case, students uncover insights into member behavior and, based on these insights, generate and develop concepts to help members change behaviors and lead healthier lives.

The case follows the genesis and development of Palo, a radical urban communications hub designed to replace payphone booths on Manhattan’s city streets, through a joint venture between frog design and a venture-backed firm LQD WiFi. The case explores the complexity of the design and development process and offers lessons on designing products and services that meet end users’ needs as well as the engagement processes that produce them. The case also explores how the partners' innovative venture model allowed for a working relationship far more responsive and flexible than the typical fee-for-service firm-client model.

Faculty & Research

Testing Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures: Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24

Abstract

Citation:

About the Authors

More from these Authors