Using the balanced scorecard to manage service supply chain uncertainty: Case studies in French real estate services

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.1572
• Published date: 01 July 2018
• Date: 01 July 2018
• Author: Frédéric Distler,Fana Rasolofo‐Distler

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Using the balanced scorecard to manage service supply chain

uncertainty: Case studies in French real estate services

Fana Rasolofo‐Distler |Frédéric Distler

IAE de Metz, University of Lorraine, France

Correspondence

Fana Rasolofo‐Distler, IAE de Metz, 1 rue

Augustin Fresnel, 57073 Metz cedex 3,

France.

Email: fana.distler@univ‐lorraine.fr

This article aims to analyse the role of the balanced scorecard in the management of

supply chain uncertainty in service activities. To do this, we conducted case studies

within companies in the real estate services sector in France. We have employed

the theoretical framework of complexity. This theoretical framework allows us to sit-

uate the factors of uncertainty in the internal and external environment. Identification

of these factors promotes proactivity when confronted with environmental evolution.

It is clear from our study that the balanced scorecard, in the management of supply

chain uncertainty, is a communication tool that helps coordinate intraorganizational

and interorganizational relations. It is also a tool that leads to a strategic supply chain,

a source of competitive advantage for the stakeholders of the chain. Finally, it is a tool

for organizational learning because it participates in the construction of knowledge

and allows for knowledge capitalization. This know‐how and knowledge contribute

to reducing uncertainty.

1|INTRODUCTION

According to Chenhall (2003), uncertainty is a fundamental contextual

variable. It should be distinguished from risk. In effect, for the author,

“Risk is concerned with situations in which probabilities can be

attached to particular events occurring, whereas uncertainty defines

the situations in which probabilities cannot be attached and even

the elements of the environment may not be predictable”(p. 137).

We have analysed the role of the balanced scorecard (BSC) in the

management of service supply chain (SSC) uncertainty. The BSC is a

strategic control tool developed by Kaplan and Norton (1998). It is

considered as one of the most important innovations of the past

two decades in management control (Ding & Beaulieu, 2011). It allows

one to control company performance through four interdependent

perspectives (financial performance, client satisfaction, internal pro-

cesses, and innovation and learning) and thus to respond to a plurality

of stakeholders. It allows one to align the measurement system and

performance control with the strategy (Kaplan & Norton, 2007). It

mobilizes financial indicators relating to the performance or the prof-

itability of a business, but it also incorporates other qualitative indica-

tors intended for the control of performance vectors, namely, the

employees and their skills, and work and process methods in the com-

pany that allow creation of value and that generate quality in order to

meet customer expectations. According to Holmberg (2000, p. 861),

the BSC is claimed to be not merely a measurement tool but moreover

a management system to clarify and translate strategy and vision into

strategic objectives. The process of planning, setting targets, and

aligning strategic initiatives is facilitated by the BSC, which ultimately

aims at enhancing strategic feedback and learning.

Fabbe‐Costes (2002) underlines the diversity of definitions of

supply chain management (SCM) and the absence of consensus in

the literature. As a result, both companies and the authors have devel-

oped analysis grids and various actions. Some focus on the company

and its internal processes (closed local approach), others broaden this

perspective by incorporating interfaces with external actors (open

local approach), and still others adopt a holistic approach in situating

their analyses at the level of the interorganizational network. In light

of this typology, we observe a degree of opening from the

intraorganizational to the interorganizational. This typology has the

advantage of assessing SCM in terms of local and global levels and is

thus integrated in the measurement of partner performance both

upstream and downstream in the chain. Fabbe‐Costes and Paché

(2013) emphasize that the multiactor link implies the implementation

of an evaluation mechanism to define the contribution of each actor

in the creation of chain value. For Lyonnet & Senkel (2015, p. 23),

the idea of a supply chain is inseparable from that of coordination with

Received: 2 January 2017 Accepted: 23 April 2018

DOI: 10.1002/kpm.1572

Knowl Process Manag. 2018;25:129–142. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/kpm 129