Open AccessA Stairway to the Stars: Monitoring Sustainability Performance in SMBs
Author(s) -
David Robinson,
Brad P. Nikolic
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of business systems, governance and ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1833-4318
DOI - 10.15209/jbsge.v9i1.611
Subject(s) - balanced scorecard , sustainability , process management , business , strategic management , mechanism (biology) , conceptual framework , computer science , environmental economics , management science , marketing , economics , sociology , ecology , social science , philosophy , epistemology , biology
This article proposes a framework that can be used, or modified for use, as a mechanism to measure, evaluate and monitor progress in business sustainability. It draws upon previous change management models, such as ‘Management by Objectives’ (Lynch, 1977; Felix and Riggs, 1983) and ‘Balanced Scorecard’ (Kaplan and Norton, 1995), proposing a conceptual framework for the monitoring of business sustainability. The framework allows sustainability improvement to be monitored by means of a composite sustainability index derived from specific metrics appropriate to a range of prioritised strategic objectives. It then discusses the necessity for such a mechanism to be sufficiently robust in respect of seven contextual issues. It recommends that a firm’s choice of sustainability performance measures and their relative priorities should be aligned with global, societal, external, industry, organisational, leadership and individual-personal contexts.