long range planning Long Range Planning 36 (2003) 187–204 www.lrpjournal.com Beyond the Balanced Scorecard: Refining the Search for Organizational Success Measures Alan C. Maltz, Aaron J. Shenhar and Richard R. Reilly Measuring organizational success is a continuous challenge for both managers and researchers. While financial measures were in wide use for many years, new frameworks have emerged in recent years that extend organizational perspectives beyond traditional financial measures. Among them the Balanced Scorecard is one of the most popular new frameworks. However, in spite of its wide usage, it has shown to be inadequate in various circumstances and across differing firm types. Additional studies are therefore needed to keep exploring a problem that has been relevant for at least thirty years. This study was dedicated to the question of how to assess the organizational success of commercial firms. It also tested specific measures that are relevant to different kinds of organizations, and provides managers with a useable template for assessing organizational success. We have identified twelve potential baseline measures across five major success dimensions (financial, market, process, people, and future) that can be examined as applicable to different firms and firm types. Specific firms can use this framework as a starting point from which to choose measures that would best fit their environment and strategic direction.  c 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction What exactly is organizational success? And what do managers have to do to achieve sustainable, on-going success? Much has been written in the popular press in recent years about the short- term view taken by industry—the capital markets make life a quarter-to-quarter event, much of this at the expense of investing for the future. Recent headlines have informed the public about “financial engineering” of quarterly earnings by major corporations such as Quest, Enron, World- 0024-6301/03/$ - see front matter  c 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0024-6301(02)00165-6