Social strategy and business strategy: the role of performance measurement systems. Evidences from large Italian enterprises

This paper analyzes the role of performance measurement systems (PMSs) in favouring the alignment between the business strategy and the social strategy. In particular, the main objective of the paper consists of providing some recommendations and guidance for practitioners interesting in effectively implementing a Sustainable Balanced Scorecard, which reflect the company’s strategy and help to embed CSR and sustainability into managerial decisions and actions. Another aim is to analyze the role of the BSC in implementing a social strategy and the relationship with business strategy. With such objective, we concentrate on the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard, analyzing, above all, the characteristics of design and implementation of this managerial mechanism, with particular reference to real business cases. For this purpose the experiences done by three case studies of large Italian enterprises which have recently introduced the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard are presented