Two case studies on developing, implementing and evaluating a balanced scorecard in distribution channel dyads

Supply chain management demands the development and implementation of performance measures across organisations. Although this has been discussed a lot, reviewing the literature reveals that only a few cases have been presented, where the development and implementation of performance management systems spanning at least two companies in a supply chain have been presented. This paper discusses the application of the balanced scorecard (BSC) across supply chains and presents two case studies where such inter-organisational BSCs have been developed. This paper is built on case study research in two distribution dyads, one in the automotive and one in the chemical industry. In both cases, the respective companies cooperated in the development and implementation of the joint BSC. Hence, it is outlined how the traditional criteria describing the BSC can be transferred to the dyad level. In each case, a producer and a retailer developed and implemented joint BSCs to manage the distribution function, where a set of indicators across the dimensions of the BSC was implemented. The research offers a starting point for further empirical research on how cross company performance measures are applied. Of course, dyads are only the smallest inter-organisational unit, so further research on longer supply chains is needed. Still, the two cases offer insights towards both the development of such joint performance measurement systems as well as practical guidance on how companies can cooperate using the BSC.