Measuring intangibles through the balanced scorecard: the case of an Italian company

In recent years, performance measurement systems (PMS) have received growing attention. Among these, the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), in particular, has been the object of a plethora of contributions. Its use, in fact, permits a multidimensional measurement of company performance, thanks to the contextual use of financial and non-financial indicators. Moreover, scholars have also underlined that the BSC allows companies to measure some of the intangible assets needed to improve organisational performance. The customer perspective as well as the learning and growth perspective, in particular, are tightly focused on some of the most important intangible assets that can deeply influence company results, namely the relationships with customers and the human and organisational capital that company strategy should be based on. Despite these distinctive features, the measurement of these relevant intangible assets is sometimes problematic and it can also limit the potentialities of BSC implementation. The aim of this paper is to explore some of the problems that can arise when a BSC is implemented, with particular regard to the information and measures focused on intangible assets, as well as the consequences thereof. In order to achieve this aim, a case study of an Italian company that has recently implemented a BSC is carried out. It sheds light on the role that the existing information system and the information it delivers can play with regard to the provision or the revision of measures pertaining to both the customer and the learning and growth perspectives, namely those perspectives in which intangible assets are more relevant. In doing so, the paper contributes to the literature on factors that can facilitate or hinder the measurement of intangibles within an organisation, as well as to the literature focused on the limits of BSC design and implementation.