The Use of Financial and Non-Financial Performance Measures: A Contingency Perspective

Financial and non-financial index and indicators are applied in industry for measure firms’ business and operational performance. Different mix of measures are usually implemented in practice and we argue that, to a certain extent, this variability can be explained according to some contextual factors, as for instance environmental uncertainty, decentralization, type of strategic organizations and managerial practices.We develop hypothesis on the association between the usage of certain performance measures and this factors in a contingency perspective. Exploratory research based on large scale survey on manufacturing firms supports our investigation and test of the research hypothesis. Reliability and validity of the survey instrument are verified and factor analysis is used for categorizing many performance measures in financial- and non-financial-based constructs. Multiple regression analysis is used to verify the relationships between the intensity of use of the performance measures and the contextual factors under study. We also look at performances from two different perspectives, the actual performance and the perceived performance, in order to see, in case it occurs, if and how there is a gap between the two and we eventually make initial attempts to explain this gap.