What do we really mean by “Balanced Scorecard”?

The balanced scorecard (BSC), first created by Kaplan and Norton in 1992, has been developed over the last 20 years, resulting in numerous iterations. There is currently no agreed taxonomy for these iterations, making comparison of research findings difficult. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for describing the different iterations.

In order to assist in understanding the numerous changes, the concept of revision control was introduced. A full review of the literature describing new iterations of the BSC was undertaken and these iterations were classified as minor developments or major generational evolution.

Eight subsets of the Balanced Score card are proposed, grouped into three generations; the first being the initial generation of score card, the second generation including strategy maps, and the final generation which includes destination statements.

It is planned that this simple classification will prove useful to practitioners, for describing which generation of the scorecard they propose to implement, and for academics to describe more precisely the scorecard that they are analysing.

This paper is the first to provide a taxonomy for the different versions of the BSC, through a process of identifying and labelling the major and minor changes that have occurred. This allows a more nuanced analysis of the BSC as a tool for managing performance and adding precision to any critique, in that it is clear which version has been used.