Balanced Scorecard with integrated corporate social responsibility - Case: 3StepIT Oy

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to develop a company level Balanced Scorecard as an assignment for 3StepIT Oy. The Balanced Scorecard had to illustrate the critical success factors of creating value to shareholders and function as a tool for implementing strategy. Communication of strategy and aligning employee behaviour to strategy also had to be improved with the scorecard. Due to characteristics of the case company's strategy, goal was also to integrate corporate social responsibility into the scorecard.

Data for the theoretical part was collected from literature regarding basic characteristics of the Balanced Scorecard, its implementation and integration of corporate social responsibility. For the empirical part, data was also collected from informal unstructured interviews, internal documents and website of the case company and discussions with people involved in the Balanced Scorecard project.

This research is in nature a qualitative single case study. The information sources of the empirical part were used to explore the specific context of the case company, its strategy and organizational structure. The information gathered in the empirical part was combined with the data gathered in the theoretical part and used in the development of the Balanced Scorecard.

As a result, a company level Balanced Scorecard was constructed for the case company that partially achieved the objectives set for it in the beginning. It didn't achieve the objective of being a tool for implementing strategy, which also impaired its ability to communicate and align to strategy. According to the data collected, recommendations were made for future development of the Balanced Scorecard, so that it could fully achieve its objectives. The results are not generalizable since the research only concentrates on a context of a single company.