Using a balanced scorecard to manage corporate social responsibility

This conceptual paper aims to tie together the insights from the body of research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and management accounting and control systems to investigate a model in which performance measurement systems (PMSs) can play a role in translating socially responsible initiatives into enhanced performance. The underlying assumption of the “fit-as-mediation” approach signifies that company practices can play a role in the determination of the structure and implementation of particular managerial processes, and this, in turn, may support information processing and lead to desirable results within organizations. Synthesizing theory from performance measurement and CSR, the paper's analysis and discussions elucidate how the implementation of an overarching PMS, that is, sustainability balanced scorecard (BSC), could translate the knowledge-related factor, that is, CSR, into enhanced performance. The proposed model may inspire a new research agenda to show how socially responsible or sustainability initiatives are managed and measured in organizations and how they are properly aligned with specific managerial processes to deliver real value. Although the importance of CSR and its wide implications has long been appreciated in the literature, there still remains a paucity of information concerning the importance of particular managerial processes, for example, PMS, whereby organizations can translate their CSR into enhanced performance. This paper, therefore, seeks to bridge this gap by proposing a conceptual model in which an integrated PMS, that is, sustainability BSC, comes to play a role in the association between CSR and corporate performance.