Use of Balanced Scorecard in Cooperatives

Abstract

The cooperatives have some particularities connected to their principles, including the issue of self-management. Through self-management it is defined that the members themselves, who are the “owners” of the cooperative, perform the management of the same. Strategic management, which plans the future and monitors results, is an important tool for the success of cooperative organizations. In this context, the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has proven to be a useful tool for planning and monitoring financial and non-financial indicators. In the article, a systematic review was performed to verify the application of the Balanced Scorecard in cooperatives. The aim of the study was to conduct a theoretical analysis of the scientific discussion about the application of BSC in cooperative organizations. The result found in the 13 articles studied shows that it’s possible and useful to apply BSC in cooperatives. Despite the success of the application, the number of articles on the subject can be considered small, and nothing specific was found to evaluate specific indexes of cooperativism, being something to be analyzed as a current limitation of the tool for use in cooperatives.