Investigating causal linkages and strategic mapping in the balanced scorecard: A case study approach in the banking industry sector

One of the main challenges of strategic management is implementing the strategies. Designing the strategy map in Balanced Scorecard framework to determine the causality between strategic objectives is one of the most important issues in implementing the strategies. In designing the strategy map with intuition and judgment, the link between strategic objectives is not clear and it is not obvious which strategic objectives are related and influenced each other. Hence, it is essential to offer a quantitative and accurate method to design the strategy map and clarify these relationships. In this paper, after reviewing the methods for determining the causal relationships among BSC perspectives in the literature, a framework on the basis of historical data analysis and multi-response surface regression analysis is offered to determine causal relationships among strategic objectives with respect to data of key performance measures of past years in order to obtain the coefficients and equations that can be used in the prediction of the responses. Using statistically significant models, the correlations between the factors and several responses were acquired. The presented quantitative approach is useful for determining the causal relationships resulting in an accurate strategy map and is a supporting approach for improving decision makers’ opinions and enabling them to reach a more accurate picture of the relationships. This research also presents a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. The application and implication of the proposed method in a real case show that the contributions of the research are not only theoretical but practical as well. The strategy map constructed in this study can also serve as a reference point for similar businesses.