Publications

2012
Comment

The Balanced Scorecard: Comments on Balanced Scorecard Commentaries

This paper provides the author's insights about five papers written in this volume about his published work on the balanced scorecard (BSC). The author finds that academic commentary on the BSC often ignores its role in strategy execution. The paper discusses how the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy Execution; Performance Management; Strategy; Public Sector; Balanced Scorecard; Performance

June 2012
Article

Managing Risks: A New Framework

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes

Risk management is too often treated as a compliance issue that can be solved by drawing up lots of rules and making sure that all employees follow them. Many such rules, of course, are sensible and do reduce some risks that could severely damage a company. But... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Governance Controls; Corporate Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Framework

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March 2012 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Boston Children's Hospital: Measuring Patient Costs

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Mary L. Witkowski and Jessica A. Hohman

The case describes two pilot projects on applying activity-based costing to measuring the cost of treating patients. It presents process maps and financial data relating to the processes used during (1) an office visit to a plastic surgeon for three different diagnoses... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Costing; Hospitals; Activity Based Costing and Management; Mathematical Methods; Health Industry

March 2012 (Revised December 2014)
Case

Schön Klinik: Measuring Cost and Value

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Mary L. Witkowski and Jessica A. Hohman

The case illustrates how a leading German hospital group has invested deeply in the measurement of patient-level outcomes and costs, the foundations of a health care value framework. The company launches a pilot project to use time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC)... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Costing; Activity-Based Costing; Hospitals; Activity Based Costing and Management; Value; Health Care and Treatment; Outcome or Result; Health Industry; Germany

September 2011
Article

How to Solve the Cost Crisis in Health Care

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Michael E. Porter

Existing health care costing systems have serious flaws that make it impossible to measure costs accurately at the individual patient and medical condition level. This gap has severely limited meaningful cost reduction throughout the system. The paper describes a new... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Health Care and Treatment; Measurement and Metrics; Service Delivery; Outcome or Result; Quality; Health Industry

September – October 2011
Article

Managing the Multiple Dimensions of Risk-Part II: The Office of Risk Management

By: Anette Mikes and Robert S. Kaplan

In the second article of our two-part series, we explore the concept of an Office of Risk Management along with a case study of an innovative risk management function at JP Morgan Private Bank. We also look at the "softer" components of risk management, including a... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Management Style; Managerial Roles; Risk Management

July – August 2011
Article

Managing the Multiple Dimensions of Risk: Part I of a Two-Part Series

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes

Keywords: Management; Risk and Uncertainty

June 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Teaching Note

Volkswagen do Brasil: Driving Strategy with the Balanced Scorecard (TN)

Teaching Note for 111-049. View Details

Keywords: Auto Industry; Germany; Brazil

May 2011
Article

The Hollow Science

The financial meltdown made clear that the executives of many major financial institutions were operating with inadequate or distorted information about the values and risks of their firms' assets. It's fair to say that business scholars bear some... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Crisis; Financial Management; Information; Knowledge Acquisition; Risk Management; Practice

2020
Book

Management Accounting: Information for Decision Making

By: Anthony A. Atkinson, Robert S. Kaplan, Ella Mae Matsumura and S. Mark Young

An approach to management accounting from the perspective of a business manager. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Cost Accounting; Managerial Roles; Decision Making

March 2011
Article

Accounting Scholarship That Advances Professional Knowledge and Practice

Recent accounting scholarship has used statistical analysis on asset prices, financial reports and disclosures, laboratory experiments, and surveys of practice. The research has studied the interface among accounting information, capital markets, standard setters, and... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Asset Pricing; Risk Management; Surveys; Capital Markets; Measurement and Metrics; Valuation; Fair Value Accounting; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Financial Reporting

February 2011
Supplement

Volkswagen do Brasil Case Supplement: Employee Recognition Awards Ceremony (Video)

Keywords: Employees; Auto Industry; Brazil

October 2010 (Revised June 2014)
Case

Volkswagen do Brasil: Driving Strategy with the Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

A new management team at VW do Brazil develops and deploys a strategy map and Balanced Scorecard to accomplish a turnaround and cultural change after eight consecutive years of financial losses and market share declines. The team uses the strategy map to align... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Developing Countries and Economies; Management Teams; Leadership; Balanced Scorecard; Strategic Planning; Balance and Stability; Motivation and Incentives; Communication Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Auto Industry; Brazil; Germany

2010
Working Paper

Accounting Scholarship that Advances Professional Knowledge and Practice

Recent accounting scholarship has used statistical analysis on asset prices, financial reports and disclosures, laboratory experiments, and surveys of practice. The research has studied the interface among accounting information, capital markets, standard setters, and... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Business Education; Information; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Risk Management; Measurement and Metrics; Business Processes; Performance Improvement; Practice

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October 2010
Article

The Emerging Capital Market for Nonprofits

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Allen S. Grossman

Many of our largest and most successful companies today did not exist 50 years ago. During this same time interval, companies that ranked among top in the 1960s have disappeared, been merged out of existence, or become much smaller presences in the U.S. industrial... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Accountability; Management Practices and Processes; Infrastructure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Effectiveness; Nonprofit Organizations

June 2010
Teaching Note

Elkay Plumbing Products Division (TN)

Teaching Note for 110007. View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Steel Industry

2010
Working Paper

Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard

David Norton and I introduced the Balanced Scorecard in a 1992 Harvard Business Review article (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). The article was based on a multi-company research project to study performance measurement in companies whose intangible assets played a central role... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Performance Improvement; Strategy

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February 2010 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes

The case, in a non-profit project-oriented setting, introduces fundamental risk management principles and processes that are easily applicable to private sector settings. Gentry Lee, senior systems engineer and de-facto chief risk officer, is applying a new... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Governance; Leadership; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Risk Management; Projects; Aerospace Industry; United States