THE BALANCED SCORECARD AS A PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT TOOL FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES IN NIGERIA
Keywords:
Balanced scorecard, Customers, Financial, Internal business process, Learning& growthAbstract
Most firms undermine the inclusion of non-financial variables in measuring performance. This attitude has led to the wrong presentation of reports that do not represent a “true and fair” view of the organization. This study uses the case study approach to examine the use of balanced scorecard by Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Edo State, Nigeria. The study finds a positive statistical relationship between overall performance proxied by balanced scorecard (BSC) and the four perspective indicators (financial, customer, internal business process and learning & growth) of Kaplan and Norton (1986) model. In addition, the study established that the non-financial variables are the major drivers of the SMEs performance in Edo State. It is recommended that SMEs in Edo state should apply the BSC model instead of depending only on the financial measurement tool.