Popularizing a Management Accounting Idea: The Case of the Balanced Scorecard
研究平衡计分卡如何从管理会计技术被推广为通用管理实践，分析其概念转化、网络构建和持续创新中的策略，适合关注管理会计创新扩散的学者。
Abstract We explore how the Balanced Scorecard ( BSC ), as a management accounting technique, was developed and marketed as a general management practice. Drawing on actor network theory ( ANT ), we analyze interviews with key actors associated with the BSC , insights gained from attending BSC training workshops, and other documentary evidence to construct a history of the BSC . Our historical analysis offers theoretical tools to understand how the various features of the accounting technique were translated and transformed, that is, shaped and solidified. This translation entailed processes of modification, labelling, framing, and specification of abstract categories and cause‐effect relations. We also examine the networks and associations that both shape the form of the BSC and mobilize the interests of various constituencies around it to produce what can be regarded as a global management technology. Finally, we highlight the strategies and actions used to maintain control of this technique through its continuous reinvention, and, by doing so, we emphasize the idea of strategic agency.