Performance Measurement Challenges Research Articles

The Impacts of Supply Chain Capabilities, Visibility, Resilience on Supply Chain Performance and Firm Performance

This study explores the significance of two determinants: Supply Chain Capabilities and Supply Chain Visibility, in the intricate interplay among Supply Chain Resilience, Supply Chain Performance, and Firm Performance. A dataset comprising 221 participants from Vietnamese garment manufacturing firms was gathered and subjected to analysis using the PLS-SEM approach, revealing insights into the modeled complex relationships. The research findings reveal that visibility significantly influences supply chain resilience; while the hypotheses of a positive impact of supply chain visibility and supply chain resilience on firm performance have been rejected. Interestingly, these findings underscore the significant influence of indirect relationships mediated by factors, such as supply chain resilience and supply chain performance. Hence, this study bridges a gap in the existing body of literature and offers practical implications for supply chain management, particularly concerning performance measurement challenges in this sector. The article suggests that the Vietnamese garment supply chain could enhance supply chain and firm performance by focusing on supply chain capabilities and visibility.

Social Impact & Project Performance Measurement Methods and Challenges in Practice: A Study on Women Empowerment NGOs

Objective – This study explores the social impact measurement (SIM) methods and the associated challenges from the perspective of women empowerment NGOs in Turkey. A literature review was conducted regarding the social impact measurement of non-profit organizations, social impact tools and frameworks, challenges of the social impact measurement, and business information systems used in social impact and project performance tools. Methodology – After that, a structured interview was designed and implemented to examine the output, outcome, and social impact measurement processes of 11 women’s empowerment NGOs in Turkey. Findings – Coding of the data and thematic analysis was conducted based on that qualitative research, and extremely insightful findings were revealed. The lack of expertise, budget, human resources, and established processes are significant challenges for women empowerment NGOs in Turkey. Also, the results of this empirical study indicated the need for digital tools and platforms for social impact measurement, which may also be a cost-saving tool enabling knowledge transfer and process efficiency for SIM. Novelty –Together with that, the study provided unique findings that may contribute to the literature, which address some of the SIM challenges caused by funder organizations’ budgeting policies and lack of demand for detailed SIM reports. Type of Paper: Empirical JEL Classification: Q19, Q22 Keywords: Social Impact Measurement; Women Empowerment NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Impact Evaluation; Non-profit Organizations Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Köroğlu, F; Yıldırım, N. (2023). Social Impact & Project Performance Measurement Methods and Challenges in Practice: A Study on Women Empowerment NGOs, J. Bus. Econ. Review, 7(4), 01–14. https://doi.org/10.35609/jber.2023.7.4(1)

Challenges of Performance Measurement in Lean Construction and the Last Planner System®: A Norwegian Case

Question: How and why is performance measured in relation to Lean Construction (LC) and the Last Planner System® (LPS®)? What are key challenges thereof, and how might these be overcome? Purpose: The purpose of this research is to add better understanding of performance measurement in relation to LC and the LPS by addressing key challenges and provide suggestions of how to overcome these. Research Method: The paper draws upon a qualitative case study of a construction company in Norway and its use of performance measurement in relation to the LPS. Findings: The findings demonstrate that performance is measured in various ways and to various extents in the case company. They also demonstrate that a more strategic and systematic approach to performance measurement is needed to cope with the challenges of measuring performance and to reap the benefits of LC and the LPS. This includes sensitivity to social conditions related to performance measurement. Limitations: The paper is based on a single case study in the Norwegian setting, and future studies should seek to build on and refine the findings presented here. Implications: If performance measurement, both in relation to the LPS and more generally to LC is not sensitive to social issues, it might lead to avoidance and neglect at best, and opportunism and abuse at worst. Value for practitioners: The paper addresses key issues and challenges involved in performance measurement in relation to LC and the LPS, and how practitioners might reap the benefits and avoid pitfalls associated with performance measurement. Keywords: Performance measurement, Lean Construction, Last Planner System®, challenges, conditions Paper type: Full paper

Prospects and Challenges of Procurement Performance Measurement in Selected Technical Universities in Ghana

This study was conducted to assess the prospects and challenges of procurement performance measurement in selected technical universities in Ghana. The study employed exploratory and descriptive research designs and non-probability sampling techniques to select 120 participants. Primary data were gathered using a structured questionnaire. The study found all technical universities periodically assess procurement contribution to the university’s performance as a metric of measuring procurement performance. Majority of the employees consider the performance measuring metric is important. Also, quality of purchase is considered in procurement performance measuring metrics as important. The technical university uses response time to user demand, supplier lead times, compliance to university’s procurement guidelines, and contributions of procurement to corporate competitiveness, supplier relations and customer satisfaction as a metric of measuring procurement performance. Concerning the prospects of measuring procurement performance, the study found that 93% of procurement officers agreed that procurement prospects enhance procurement efficiency. The majority 89% indicated that procurement prospects promote better procurement control processes. Regarding the challenges, study found that lack of relevant performance indicators, difficulties in measuring supplier lead times as this was affected by various factors, inability to account for the contribution of other functions in the procurement process e.g. users and finance, lack of transparency in the procurement process was a challenge faced when measuring procurement performance. The study concludes that there are adequate measures in place to assess procurement performance in technical universities in Ghana. The study recommends that management should ensure total compliance with the public procurement act to enhance procurement efficiency.

The 11th workshop on active internet measurements (AIMS-11) workshop report

On 16-17 April 2018, CAIDA hosted its eleventh Workshop on Active Internet Measurements (AIMS-11). This workshop series provides a forum for stakeholders in Internet active measurement projects to communicate their interests and concerns, and explore cooperative approaches to maximizing the collective benefit of deployed infrastructure and gathered data. An overarching theme this year was scaling the storage, indexing, annotation, and usage of Internet measurements. We discussed tradeoffs in use of commercial cloud services to to make measurement results more accessible and informative to researchers in various disciplines. Other agenda topics included status updates on recent measurement infrastructures and community feedback; measurement of poorly configured infrastructure; and recent successes and approaches to evolving challenges in geolocation, topology, route hijacking, and performance measurement. We review highlights of discussions of the talks. This report does not cover each topic discussed; for more details examine workshop presentations linked from the workshop web page: http://www.caida.org/workshops/aims/1904/.

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT IN TRIBAL HOME VISITING: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES.

Over the last several decades, performance measurement has become an increasingly prevalent requirement among human services agencies for demonstrating program progress and achieving outcomes. In the Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (Tribal MIECHV), performance measurement was one of the central components of the Administration for Children and Families' cooperative agreements to tribes, urban Indian organizations, and tribal organizations. Since the inception of the Tribal MIECHV Program in 2010, the benchmark requirement was intended to be a mechanism to systematically monitor program progress and performance toward improving the quality of home-visiting programs that serve vulnerable American Indian or Alaska Native families. In this article, we examine performance measurement in the context of Tribal MIECHV, providing an overview of performance measurement, the Tribal MIECHV requirement, and how grantees experienced the requirement; we describe the existing literature on performance measurement challenges and benefits, and the specific challenges and advantages experienced by tribal grantees; and provide recommendations for performance measurement in tribal home-visiting contexts based on grantees' own experiences. This article contributes to the literature by examining performance measurement challenges and opportunities in the context of tribal communities, and provides recommendations that may inform future policy on performance measurement design and implementation in tribal communities.

Performance measurement in university–industry innovation networks: implementation practices and challenges of industrial organisations

From the perspective of industrial small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), this study explores the implementation of performance measurement practices and challenges in university–industry innovation networks. In this research, two single-case studies were conducted to explore the implementation practices and challenges of performance measurement in university–industry collaborations. Thirty Finnish SMEs in the first innovation network and 10 Finnish SMEs in the second innovation network participated in university–industry collaboration that were established to facilitate their involvement in a long-term innovation process. The results of the study revealed that industrial SMEs are interested in the performance measurement of societal-level outputs by university–industry innovation networks, even though they face challenges in understanding the aims and goals of the funding programmes. Furthermore, the results showed that the industrial SMEs understood the intellectual nature of the university–industry innovation networks, but their performance measurement activities were business related. Also the lack of understanding of the context and the process of the performance measurement in university–industry collaborations seemed to shift industrial organisations’ focus to the content stage of the performance measurement and to the use of traditional performance measures and tools to estimate the advantages gained.

Technology alignment and business strategy: a performance measurement and Dynamic Capability perspective

Rapid changes in market structures and technology lead to misalignment between strategy and operations. Whist this phenomenon is most prevalent in technology-based manufacturing industries, utility organisations (e.g. electricity and telecoms) provide a useful context to explore the Performance measurement (PM) and technology alignment challenges from a Dynamic Capabilities Theory perspective where there is a progressive shift towards deregulated markets. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to explore the role of Dynamic Capabilities Theory and PM approaches in improving the alignment between business strategy and technology strategy (Level 1 alignment); second, to explore the role of Dynamic Capabilities Theory and PM approaches in aligning technology strategy with operational technology routines and practices (Level 2 alignment). In the absence of overarching theory, an inductive approach draws upon Dynamic Capabilities theory. Four longitudinal case studies are used leading to the development of a conceptual framework and propositions for multilevel technology alignment. Data from 38 interviews and 8 separate focus groups, documentation and participant observations (over a three-year period) are used. The theory-building process shows the need to identify and develop PM-based technology alignment Dynamic Capabilities (PM-DCs) which help in improving and maintaining alignment between business strategy and technology strategy (Level 1 alignment) and between technology strategy and technology practices (Level 2 alignment). This approach requires critically reflective action-learning approaches to identify and nurture these PM-DCs.

Performance measurement in the Government of Alberta

Despite the proposed positive aspects of performance measurement, there have been numerous concerns raised about the limitations of being able to measure in a public sector environment. While some people tend to raise more technical concerns, others raised more philosophical concerns about the legitimacy and authenticity of the performance measurement process, given the measures are publicly reported in the government’s business plans and annual reports. In this sense, the legitimacy of performance measurement is threatened because the measures, targets, and results are perceived to be “massaged and manipulated” by management, a central agency, or a communications department. In other words, high-risk measures, such as those that fluctuate, are difficult to attribute, never meet their target, and have a low citizen satisfaction rating, are unlikely to get or remain in a business plan. The third challenge to measuring performance in a government setting is that the external performance measures and targets are linked to department, deputy minister and individual performance plans. This final challenge threatens the validity of the performance measurement framework in the sense that civil servants are likely to choose performance measures and targets that are easy to measure, are stable, and the targets are met or surpassed each fiscal year. It is this subjectivity and the technical challenges of performance measurement that lead to the questioning of the legitimacy and authenticity of reporting on performance in a public sector setting. This subjectivity of both performance and results contributes to the paradox of public reporting. On the one hand, a government can be praised for being transparent in its plans; on the other hand, it can be criticized for publishing politically safe and strategic information for fear of retaliation from the media, opposition parties, and disgruntled citizens. It is this paradox that will be explored in the article under the realm of bureaucratic propaganda.

Research challenges in future multi-domain network performance measurement and monitoring

The perfSONAR-based Multi-domain Network Performance Measurement and Monitoring Workshop was held on February 20-21, 2014 in Arlington, VA. The goal of the workshop was to review the state of the perfSONAR effort and catalyze future directions by cross-fertilizing ideas, and distilling common themes among the diverse perfSONAR stakeholders that include: network operators and managers, end-users and network researchers. The timing and organization for the second workshop is significant because there are an increasing number of groups within NSF supported data-intensive computing and networking programs that are dealing with measurement, monitoring and troubleshooting of multi-domain issues. These groups are forming explicit measurement federations using perfSONAR to address a wide range of issues. In addition, the emergence and wide-adoption of new paradigms such as software-defined networking are taking shape to aid in traffic management needs of scientific communities and network operators. Consequently, there are new challenges that need to be addressed for extensible and programmable instrumentation, measurement data analysis, visualization and middleware security features in perfSONAR. This report summarizes the workshop efforts to bring together diverse groups for delivering targeted short/long talks, sharing latest advances, and identifying gaps that exist in the community for solving end-to-end performance problems in an effective, scalable fashion.

Understanding Challenges of Performance Measurement in a Public University: Evidence from Sudan

This paper aims to understand the challenges of performance measurement implementation in higher educationsector in Sudan. A qualitative case study approach is used in this study in which 23 semi-structured interviewswith both internal and external administrators and directors were conducted. Documentary materials andobservations are also employed to support the data generated from the interviews. The case findings reveal thatseveral performance measurement practices in the University are adopted in a ceremonial way, which are drivenby external pressure. An absence of clear strategies and plans to translate its mission and vision into workableprogrammes, the resistance to changes in an already established system of administration, insufficientgovernmental funding, and the lack of competent personnel in the field of quality and self-evaluation are themajor challenges of performance measurement in the case University. Hence, the management of the Universityshould work more closely with the concerned governmental authorities to control and overcome these challengesfor successful implementation of performance measurement systems.

Conceptualizing and Measuring Community Preparedness Within Public Health Preparedness and Response

Since 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Emergency Preparedness cooperative agreement has supported state, territorial, and local public health departments in preparing for and responding to public health emergencies. This conceptual article describes complexities identified and lessons learned in developing community preparedness performance measures for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's public health preparedness program. Challenges arose in (a) defining community; (b) measuring meaningful community engagement; and (c) determining a strategy for collecting, aggregating, and analyzing data from diverse state, territorial, and local health departments. This article contributes to prior work describing conceptual challenges in developing standardized measures of performance at the federal level and suggests ways to potentially mitigate general performance measurement challenges as well as measurement complexities specific to community preparedness. It may be informative for those state, territorial, and local health departments currently implementing (or contemplating implementing) community preparedness activities and for individuals more generally engaged in performance measurement.

Performance Measurement Challenges in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations

This qualitative study examines the experiences of four nonprofit human service organizations engaging in performance measurement processes to satisfy accountability requirements and increase organizational and program effectiveness. Nonprofits are increasingly required to respond to performance measurement mandates issuing from multiple sources. However, many of the recommended strategies have been developed in the for-profit and public sectors, and are less appropriate or feasible for nonprofit organizations. Three central findings emerged from interviews, focus groups, and review of archival data. First, the complexity of human change processes and the variation among individual clients complicate efforts to define client outcomes. Second, staff skills play a critical role in effective utilization of data systems. Third, organizational strategies to support performance measurement include incorporating user perspectives into system design and providing adequate staff access to data.

Methodological challenges in international performance measurement using patient-level administrative data

Aim and methodsWe conducted this case study in order to test how health system performance could be compared using the existing national administrative health databases containing individual data. In this comparative analysis we used national data set from three countries, Estonia, Israel and Finland to follow the medical history, treatment outcome and resource use of patients with a chronic disease (diabetes) for 8 years after medical treatment was initiated. ResultsThis study showed that several clinically important aspects of quality of care as well as health policy issues of cost-effectiveness and efficiency of health systems can be assessed by using the national administrative health data systems, in case those collecting person-level health service data. We developed a structured study protocol and detailed data specifications to generate standardized data sets, in each country, for long-term follow up of incident cohort of diabetic persons as well as shared analyzing programs to produce performance measures from the standardized data sets. This stepwise decentralized approach and use of anonymous person-level data allowed us to mitigate any legal, ownership, confidentiality and privacy concerns and to create internationally comparative data with the extent of detail that is seldom seen before. For example, our preliminary performance comparisons indicate that higher mortality among relatively young diabetes patients in Estonia may be related to considerably higher rates of cardiovascular complications and lower use of statins. ConclusionsModern administrative person-level health service databases contain sufficiently rich data in details to assess the performance of health systems in the management of chronic diseases. This paper presents and discusses the methodological challenges and the way the problems were solved or avoided to enhance the representativeness and comparability of results.

Overcoming the specific performance measurement challenges of knowledge‐intensive organizations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify practical ways to overcome the specific performance measurement challenges of knowledge‐intensive organizations. By reviewing performance measurement, service management and human resources management literature the paper recognizes two aspects that are crucial for the success of knowledge‐intensive organizations: the performance and well‐being of individual knowledge workers and the ability to provide value for the customer. The authors evaluate three measurement solutions for measuring these aspects, in three empirical settings.Design/methodology/approachQualitative case approach, carried out as an action research, is used with empirical data obtained through interviews, workshops and analysis of documentation related to measurement systems. The empirical study consists of three case studies where two main phases were carried out: investigating the status of existing measurement practices; and development and evaluation of new measurement approaches and tools.FindingsThe results of the evaluation of proposed measurement approaches provide understanding of their potential in different workplaces. Eventually, this potentially supports the managers of knowledge‐intensive organizations in developing not only the measurement practices but also the overall performance of their organizations.Originality/valueAs the key academic contribution, the study provides new understanding on the potential of selected measurement approaches in overcoming the specific performance measurement challenges in knowledge‐intensive organizations. The results take into account the perspectives of an individual knowledge worker, a customer and an organization as a whole. In many previous studies, the main focus has been solely on the organizational perspective.

Automation of the supply chain performance measurement based on multi-agent system

Several studies have been done on challenges of performance measurement. One of these challenges is the delay in the performance measurement processes. The scope and extend of the supply chain and tendency towards managing its entities independently increase this delay. Some scholars have suggested that automating the performance measurement processes solve this problem, but less attention has been paid to implementation of the framework suggested by an appropriate information system for automated collecting and assessing of the measures values. Considering the capabilities of the multi-agent systems against performance measurement challenges in a supply chain scale through the automated execution of business rules, the authors have identified, classified and then converted the performance measurement rules to an applicable form in multi-agent systems. Here we have employed some innovative methodologies of multi-agent systems development to create an automated supply chain performance measurement multi-agent system.

The evolving nature of hotel HR performance measurement systems and challenges arising: An exploratory study

Qualitative interview data secured from 14 HR managers representing large hotels located in Australia's Gold Coast has been collected to examine: (1) what is the extent and nature of change in hotel HR performance measurement systems, and (2) what are the primary challenges confronted by hotel HR managers when attempting to implement effective HR performance measurement? Perennial HR problems such as high staff turnover, employee dissatisfaction and low service standards that continue to plague the industry highlight the importance of examining HRM's evolution in the dynamic hotel context. Considered holistically, the study's observations reveal high consensus with respect to perceived change in HR performance measures. Evidence of devolution of tasks generally associated with the HR function to line managers a more strategic role for HR managers is also provided. The observations suggest a substantially altered trajectory for the hotel HR function and this change appears to be occurring at a rapid pace.

Perceptions of performance in US financial regulatory programs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the accuracy of program performance measurement in US financial regulatory programs.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses the US Government's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) system of output and outcome data collection, performance data from financial regulatory programs were examined to determine: if PART data revealed any degradation in external financial conditions or internal regulatory performance prior to the Great Recession of 2008, and whether output performance influenced outcome performance.FindingsThe results indicate that outcome measures did “capture” some deterioration in the performance of the financial industry before the Great Recession, but these measures were arguably not influenced by program outputs. This represents a potentially problematic use of performance measures in that programs used outcome measures which were not controlled by programmatic actions.Originality/valueThis project adds to a growing body of literature on the challenges of program performance measurement in government. However, this analysis is unique in that it specifically examines the performance of the US Government's financial regulatory programs, as measured by PART, before the Great Recession of 2008.

Challenges of performance measurement and management in public healthcare services

This paper aims to identify the specific problems that healthcare organisations face when designing performance measurement and management. The research has been carried out using the qualitative research approach. The findings of the study are based on ten interviews with 22 key persons working in different positions in the basic social and healthcare sector in the Paijat-Hame region in Finland. A large portion of prior research consists of performance measurement and management in the public sector in general. This paper contributes to the prior research by presenting some insights especially in performance measurement and management in healthcare services. Various challenges faced in the designing of performance measurement and management are discussed.

Investigation into barriers to adoption of e-procurement and measures of performance

Electronic procurement (e-procurement) is the purchase of goods and services through internet or any other electronic medium. This paper reports the findings of a survey carried out in 36 Indian organisations to investigate the barriers related to the adoption of e-procurement and the effect of e-procurement on performance measures in Indian scenario. The findings of this paper suggest that the main barriers to the adoption of e-procurement are: 1economic and cultural barriers 2socio-political barriers 3cognitive barriers. There are many challenges in performance measurement of e-procurement systems like: lack of understanding of benefits of performance measurement, indicators not linked with the organisational objectives, and difficulty in information collection for performance measurement. There exist many factors that affect the performance by the implementation of e-procurement, and can be grouped into three categories: 1reduced costs 2increased performance 3reduced number of suppliers.