Implementing the balanced scorecard using the analytic hierarchy process and the analytic network process

The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a multi-attribute evaluation concept that highlights the importance of non-financial attributes. By incorporating a wider set of non-financial attributes into the measurement system of a firm, the BSC captures not only a firm's current performance, but also the drivers of its future performance. Although there is an abundance of literature on the BSC framework, there is a scarcity of literature on how the framework should be properly implemented. In this paper, we use the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and its variant the analytic network process (ANP) to facilitate the implementation of the BSC. We show that the AHP and the ANP can be tailor-made for specific situations and can be used to overcome some of the traditional problems of BSC implementation, such as the dependency relationship between measures and the use of subjective versus objective measures. Numerical examples are included throughout.