The Use of a Balanced Scorecard to Translate Strategy into Performance Measures

Journal of Small Business Management 2006 44(3), pp. 407–425

Entrepreneurs Use a Balanced Scorecard to
Translate Strategy into Performance Measures by Andra Gumbus and Robert N. Lussier

Although 50 percent of Fortune 1000 companies currently use a balanced scorecard (BSC), few small businesses are using a BSC. A review of the literature finds no
BSC papers in leading small business/entrepreneurship journals. This article begins with a discussion of the BSC and why a small business should use it. Three small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) case studies are presented, with a copy of their BSC, to illustrate how Hyde Park Electronics, Futura Industries, and Southern Gardens
Citrus use a BSC to set strategy and align operations to achieve breakthrough results.
Implications are, that like large businesses, SMEs can also benefit from using a BSC.
Entrepreneurs of SMEs can use the case studies to develop their own BSC to improve performance. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Introduction
The balanced scorecard (BSC) is one of the most highly touted management tools today (Staff 2002; Atkinson and Epstein
2000; Frigo and Krumwiede 2000), and
Fortune 500 companies are increasingly using it. A survey found that approximately 50 percent of Fortune 1000 companies in North America and 40 percent in Europe use a version of the BSC
(Kaplan and Norton 2001a). The editors of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) identified the BSC as one of the most significant management ideas of the past 75 years (PR 2003). The BSC is now being listed as a value methodology along with

cost–benefit analysis and return on investment (Field 2000); it is being used to help change organizational culture (Simpson and Cacioppe 2001); and several companies have reported improved operational efficiency and profitability as a result of using the BSC (Atkinson and Epstein 2000;
Gumbus, Bellhouse, and Lyons 2003).
Researchers have clearly stated that

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