Performance Measurement in Family Firms : Evidence from Austrian Medium- and Large-Sized Companies

This article examines the extent to which Austrian family enterprises (FEs) have implemented a Bal-anced Scorecard (BSC) as an instrument for multi-dimensional performance measurement (PM) and on which contingency factors (company size, ownership, degree of family involvement, management structure, and generation) a BSC implementation primarily depends upon. Basing on data from 479 medium- and large-sized companies, this study found that the main factor for BSC implementation is the number of family members in top management, followed by the generation owning the company. Due to the fact that only a few empirical analyses concerning implementation of BSC in FEs exist, this paper closes a critical research gap