The Tyranny of the Balanced Scorecard in the Innovation Economy

This article traces the rationale, features, development and application of the BSC in the past few years, and then provides a critical review of its key problematic effects on firms and their stakeholders in today’s changing business environment. Five major problem areas are identified and discussed, with selected business examples. An alternative to the BSC is proposed and motivated, involving drastic change in both the underlying assumptions of the BSC and moving from a systematic, single enterprise focus to a systemic, dynamic framework – a systemic management system, including a systemic scorecard. [BNET Annotation]