The Evolution of the Balanced Scorecard

This article investigates the evolution of the “Balanced Scorecard” in order to determine its applications in managerial. This evolution can be studied in three generations. In first generation, which has started since 1992, the balanced scorecard was use as a “technique for performance evaluation”. In the second generation, which has startedsince 1996, the balanced scorecard was employment as a “strategic management system”, and in the third generation, which has started since 2001, in addition to previous applications, the balanced scorecard has been used as a “framework for organizational change”. This study concludes that the “balanced scorecards” is one of thelatest phenomena of the 20th century and its useful effects in the future in such areas as goal congruent, planning customer satisfaction, increasing the shareholders value, performance evaluation, etc. will be emerged. Despite of its advantages, vision determination, access to stated goals and objectives, identifying competitors, customers and internal techniques are extremely difficult and costly. Therefore, the advantages & disadvantages of the balanced scorecards should be analyzed by the cost / benefit framework.