Reviewing strategy matters to gain an understanding of balanced scorecard's possible benefits within lean production contexts: A management control perspective

This paper adopts a systematic literature review method (Tranfield et al., 2003) to analyse features of strategy implementation and deployment that, over the last decade, have influenced theory on lean production (LP) and the balanced scorecard (BSC). The work, firstly, starts with an analysis of the evidences coming from the selected literature on the subjects, framed through the lens of contingency theory of management. Then, it aims at pointing out how the BSC can meet the requirements coming from the process of strategy implementation (and its complexities) within an LP context. The results are portrayed by means of a contingency-based framework that ties together five different shared characteristics. By discussing them, this work aims at furthering the conversation on how to manage and control lean manufacturing organisations through innovative management control systems (MCSs). Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.