Feasibility of a Responsive Business Scorecard – a pilot study

Abstract

Several authors have pointed at opportunities to develop the well-established Business Balanced Scorecard into a Scorecard that enables companies to integrate sustainability into their strategy. Recent case studies and research experiences show that social and environmental targets are more widely recognized as strategic drivers for management. However, experiments also show that the traditional Scorecard has its limits when it comes to e.g. stakeholder management and product chain management. TheEuropean Corporate Sustainability Framework(ECSF) program distinguishes several ambition levels for Corporate Sustainability/Corporate Responsibility. The traditional Balanced Scorecard is suitable for companies that aim forCompliance-driven CS/CRor forProfit-driven CS/CR,where the financial bottom line is the ultimate indicator for success. More ambitious companies want to balance economic, social and ecological targets in aCommunity-driven CS/SRorSynergy-driven CS/CR.For ambitious companies, we propose a format of aResponsive Business Scorecard (RBS).TheResponsive Scorecardenables companies to score at Profit, People and Planet, at the same time to integrate stakeholder demands into internal programs to improve performance. The RBS includes five Perspectives:Customers&Suppliers, Financiers&Owners, Society&Planet, Internal Process and Employees&Learning.We assessed the practical feasibility of aResponsive Scorecardin food and tourist industries. In the food industry, we analyzed whether existing business priorities of Italian companies can adequately fill aResponsive scorecard.Our conclusion is that traditional topics like finance, customers and employees are readily filled, but that sustainability topics like chain management (suppliers) and environmental performance (planet) need further elaboration. The tourist sector is dominated by Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. We investigated whether existing eco-labels for camping-sites and marinas can be developed intoResponsive Scorecards.Our conclusion is that such a sector specific development of aResponsive Scorecardis possible. Further research has to show what is the value added of the new scorecard for companies in the tourist sector.