The Influence of Corporate Culture on Balanced Scorecard Use

The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a strategic performance measurement system model that was introduced by Kaplan and Norton in 1992 and since then is well received by many worldwide organisations. This research seeked to understand the influences of corporate culture on BSC usage among Iraqi manufacturing firms. The research framework of this study is based on the contingency theory. Prior literature found that corporate culture is a contingent factor that is likely to influence the design and usage of performance measurement system such as BSC, in particular related to the diversity of measurement (Henri, 2006; Franco-Santos, 2007).   It is hypothesized that a better match between BSC and contextual variables such as corporate culture, leads to increased corporate performance (Fisher, 1998; Sila, 2007), while poor fit denotes diminished performance. This study has proposed one hypothesis and results indicated that there is a positive relationship between corporate culture and the use of BSC.