Ann Sarah George - PDF document

Authors: Ann Sarah George Jyotsana Lata Chioma Ngeleh Examiner: Tutor: Helena Forslund Kirsi - Mari Kallio Term: Subject: Level: VT22 Degree Project in Business Process Control and Supply Chain Management Master Program Course code: Date: 5FE04E 2022 - 05 - 31 Master Thesis Perception of the Usefulness of the Balanced Scorecard in Operational Performance Management during the Covid - 19 Pandemic – A case study of warehouse operation. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh ii Abstract Purpose: This study aims to explore the usefulness of the Balanced Scorecard in an organization considering the disruptions cause d by the Covid - 19 pandemic in a warehouse. Furthermore, the Operational Performance Management of Atea Logistics AB (an IT infrastructure service provider warehouse) during the Covid - 19 pandemic is presented with regards to the quality and delivery objectives form the customer perspective of the balanced scorecard along with how it helped Atea prepa re for future disruptions. Methodology: A narrative literature review was presented to highlight the usefulness of the balanced scorecard in an organization in RQ1 . In addition , qualitative research was conducted in a single case study of Atea Logistics AB on the usefulness of balanced scorecard and operational performance management objectives of quality and delivery in a warehouse from the customer perspective during the Covid - 19 pandemic with the help of semi - structured online interviews/emails with th ree respondents from the company . Findings: The initial result of the study exhibited that the balanced scorecard was extremely useful to monitor the operational performance of the warehouse by linking the impact of the external environment with the inte rnal activities during the Covid - 19 pandemic and respond to the situation at hand promptly and minimize its influence on the customers. A second finding was that the impact of the disruption was mixed for the warehouse operations as the demand for products increase

d but stock was insufficient to fulfil the demand. The third set of findings to help prepare for future disruption s is to plan purchases in advance, urge customers to plan their orders well in advance and to order stock items rather than customize d products , collaborate with suppliers to arrange alternative sources, and focus on employee well - being that directly influences the operational activities in the warehouse. Keywords: Operational Performance Management; Balanced Scorecard, Warehouse Performance Management, Covid - 19 Pandemic, Disruption. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh iii Acknowledgement This m aster thesis was written during the spring term of 2022 as a final research project within the master program of business process and supply chain management. This research would not have been possible with out our families and friends that supported us thr oughout our research . A special thanks to our tutor, Kirsi - Mari Kallio for providing excellent preparatory materials and for her guidance to improve our research paper. We also would like to thank our examiner, Helena Forslund for her constructive critic ism that led us to the direction of our research paper. Lastly , we thank our classmates for their opposition reports that gave us an opportunity to review our oversights and incorporate their suggestions so we could write a better version after each seminar . We are deeply thankful to the CEO, Oskar Aspengren at Atea Logistics AB and the operations manager for their time and effort in providing deep insights on the management of their operations in the warehouse during the interview. Additionally, we would like to thank the procurement manager and t eam leaders in the warehouse that guided and referred us to the relevant personnel for gathering related information. Finally, we want to take this opportunity to thank all the teachers that we learned fr om during the length of this course and our classmates whom we worked with on different projects . Their guidance and support have helped us to gain knowledge

, improve our skills and prepare for this final step of the master’s degree. Ann Sarah George, J yotsana Lata, and Chioma Ngeleh Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh iv Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ . 1 1.1 Balanced Scorecard as an Operational Performance Management Tool ............................ 1 1.1.1 Operational Performance Management and its relation to W arehouse Operational Performance Management ................................ ................................ ................................ .... 1 1.1.2 Balanced Sco recard (BSC) ................................ ................................ ...................... 2 1.1.3 Warehouse Operations and the impact during Covid - 19 pandemic ........................... 3 1.2 Problem Discussion ................................ ................................ ................................ ........... 5 1.2.1 Usefulness of BSC in OPM in an organization ................................ ....................... 5 1.2.2 Atea´s warehouse OPM during the Covid - 19 pandemic, with regards to quality and delivery from the customer perspective of BSC ................................ ................................ .... 7 1.2.3 Preparedness for future disruptions in the warehouse OPM from the customer perspective of BSC ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 8 1.3 Study Purpose and Research Questions ................................ ................................ ............. 9 1.4 Outline of the Paper ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 10 2. Methodology ................................ ................................ .............................. 11 2.1 Research Philosophy ................................ ................................ ................................ .......

. 12 2.1.1 Positivism ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 12 2.1.2 Critical Realism ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 12 2.1.3 Interpretivism ................................ ................................ ................................ ............ 12 2.1.4 Postmodernism ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 13 2.1.5 Pragmatism ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 13 2.1.6 Selected Philosophy ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 13 2.2 Theory Development Approach ................................ ................................ ........................ 14 2.2.1 Deductive ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 14 2.2.2 Inductive ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 14 2.2.3 Abductive ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 15 2.2.4 Selected Approach ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 15 2.3 Methodological Choice ................................ ................................ ................................ .... 15 2.3.1 Quantitative ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 16 Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh v 2.3.2 Qualitative ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 16 2.3.3 Mixed Methods ................................ ................................ ................................ ........

. 16 2.3.4 Selected methodological choice ................................ ................................ ................. 16 2.4 Research Design ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 17 2.4.1 Exploratory ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 17 2.4.2 Explanatory ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 17 2.4.3 Descriptive ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 18 2.4.4 Evaluative ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 18 2.4.5 Combined studies ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 18 2.4.6 Selected research design ................................ ................................ ............................ 18 2.5 Research Strategy ................................ ................................ ................................ ............ 19 2.5.1 Experiment ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 19 2.5.2 Survey ................................ ................................ ................................ ....................... 19 2.5.3 Archival and documentary ................................ ................................ ......................... 20 2.5.4 Case Study ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 20 2.5.5 Ethnography ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 21 2.5.6 Action Research ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 21 2.5.7 Grounded Theory ................................ ................................ ..........................

...... ...... 21 2.5.8 Narrative Enquiry ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 22 2.5.9 Selected research strategy ................................ ................................ .......................... 22 2.6 Time Horizon ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 23 2.6.1 Cross - sectional ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 23 2.6.2 Longitudinal ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 23 2.6.3 Selected Time Horizon ................................ ................................ .............................. 23 2.7 Sampling and population ................................ ................................ ................................ . 24 2.7.1 Sampling of literature ................................ ................................ ................................ 24 2.7.2 Single Case Study sampling ................................ ................................ ...................... 25 2.7.2.1 Company Background ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 26 2.8 Data Collection method ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 26 2.8.1 Primary data collection ................................ ................................ .............................. 27 2.8.1.1 Interview ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 27 2.8.1.2 Selected Interview method ................................ ................................ ................................ ............ 28 Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh vi 2.8.2 Secondary data collection ................................ ......................

.......... .......................... 29 2.8.2.1 Literature review ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 29 2.9 Data analysis model ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 30 2.9.1 Pattern matching ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 30 2.9.2 Cross - case synthesis ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 31 2.9.3 Explanation Building ................................ ................................ ................................ . 3 1 2.9.4 Time - series analysis ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 31 2.9.5 Logic models ................................ ................................ ................................ ............. 31 2.9.6 Selected data analysis ................................ ................................ ................................ 31 2.10 Research Quality Criteria ................................ ................................ .............................. 32 2.10.1 Reliability and Validity ................................ ................................ ........................... 32 2.10.2 Credibility ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 32 2.10.3 Transferability ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 33 2.10.4 Dependability ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 33 2.10.5 Authenticity ................................ ................................ ................................ ............. 33 2.11 Ethical consideration ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 33 2.11.1 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ...............

................. ........................... 34 2.11.2 Individual Contributions ................................ ................................ .......................... 34 2.12. Summary of Methodological approaches selected ................................ ......................... 35 3. Literature Review ................................ ................................ ...................... 36 3.1 Operational Performance Management (OPM) ................................ ............................... 36 3.1.1 Quality ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................... 38 3.1.2 Delivery ................................ ................................ ................................ .................... 40 3.2 Balanced Scorecard ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 41 3.2.1 Customer Perspective ................................ ................................ ................................ 43 3.2.1.1 Customer Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) ................................ ................................ ............... 45 3.3 Usefulness of the BSC in OPM in an organization ................................ ........................... 47 3.4 Warehouse Operations and Management ................................ ................................ ......... 51 3.4.1 Importance of Warehouse Operations ................................ ................................ ........ 51 3.4.2 Warehouse Management ................................ ................................ ........................... 52 3.4.3 Warehouse operational performance management ................................ ..................... 52 Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh vii 3.4.4 Impact of Covid - 19 pandemic disruption on warehouse operations ............................ 53 3.5 Preparedness for Future Disruptions ................................ ................................ ............... 5

4 4. Empirical Findings ................................ ................................ .................... 56 4.1. Organization chart ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 56 4.2 Interview with Respondent 1 ................................ ................................ ............................ 57 4.2.1 RQ1 ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 57 4.2.2 RQ2 ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 58 4.2.3 RQ3 ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 59 4.3 Interview with Respondent 2 ................................ ................................ ............................ 60 4.3. 1 RQ1 ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 60 4.3.2 RQ2 ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 60 4.3.3 RQ3 ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 61 4.4. Email Information from Respondent 3 ................................ ................................ ............. 62 4.5 Summary of the Empirical Findings ................................ ................................ ................. 63 5. Analysis and Results ................................ ................................ .................. 64 5.1 Usefulness of BSC in OPM in an organization ................................ ................................ . 64 5.2 OPM from the customer perspective of BSC during the Covid - 19 pandemic ..................... 66 5.3 Preparedness for future disruptions in OPM from the customer ................................ ....... 69 5.4 Summary of the Literature Analysis and Empirical Findings .......................

......... ............ 71 6. Conclusion ................................ ................................ ................................ . 72 6.1 Contribution to existing research ................................ ................................ ..................... 73 6.2 Practical Implications ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 74 6.3 Limitations ................................ ................................ ................................ ....................... 74 6.4 Future research ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 75 7. References ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 76 8. Appendix ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... i 8.1 Customer Order Process from Order received to order delivery ................................ ........ i 8.2 Delivery precision (inbound from suppliers): ................................ ................................ .... ii 8.3 Delivery Performance (outbound to customers) ................................ ................................ ii Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh viii 8.4 Incident Report (Outbound Orders) ................................ ................................ ................. iii 8.5 End user KPI measures for 2020 and 2021 for Atea Logistics AB ................................ ..... iv 8.6 Interview Guide ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. v 8.7 Consent Form ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... vi Table of Figures Figure 1 - Outline of the Study ................................ ................................ ................................ .... 10 Figure 2 - Research Onion, Lewis, and Thornhill (2019, p.

130) ................................ ................... 11 Figur e 3 - Literature Review process to Empirical Analysis ................................ ........................ 30 Figure 4 - Sum mary of methodology approaches selected (based on Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019) ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................ 35 Figure 5 - Literature review process ................................ ................................ ............................ 36 Figure 6 - The Balanced Scorecard with its 4 Perspectives (Kaplan and Norton, 1996, p.9) ......... 41 Figure 7 - Customer Perspective core measures (Kaplan and Norton, 1996, p.67) ........................ 44 Figure 8 - Atea Logistics AB - Organization chart ................................ ................................ ....... 56 Figure 9 - Operationalization of the OPM objectives to achieve the core measures of the Customer p erspective of the BSC ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 66 Figure 10 - Atea Logistics AB function process overview in the warehouse ................................ .. i Figure 11 - Supplier delivery precision % (2020 - 2022) ................................ .............................. ii Figure 12 - Outbound Delivery Performance Report (2020 - 2022) ................................ .............. iii Figure 13 - Incident Report (2020 - 2022) ................................ ................................ ..................... iii Figure 14 - 2020 End user KPI measures Atea Logistics AB ................................ ....................... iv Figure 15 - 2021 End user KPI measures Atea Logistics AB ................................ ....................... iv List of Tables Table 1 - Interview Process ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 28 Table 2 - Articles to support RQ1 - Usefulness of BSC in OPM ................................ .................. 47 Table 3

- Summary of Empirical findings ................................ ................................ .................... 63 Table 4 - Summary of comparison between literature and empirical f indings .............................. 71 Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh ix Abbreviation List BSC Balanced Scorecard KPIs Key Performance Indicators OP Operational Performance OPM Operational Performance Management WPM Warehouse Performance Management Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 1 1 . Introduction This chapter provides the background and prepares the foundation of the research work for this paper. The background will describe how the Balanced Scorecard is used as an operational performance management tool in the warehouse operations during the Covid - 19 pandemic. Thereafter, a discussion of the research problem will be presented, leading to the thesis research questions and purpose of the study. Finally, the outline illustration of the thesis will be presented. 1.1 Balanced Scorecard as an Operationa l Performance Management Tool In today’s business environment, performance management tools must take into account non - financial assets along with the traditional financial assets which is challenging for managers and researchers. The Balanced Scorecard (B SC) gives the management a quick and comprehensive view of the business that includes operational measures from different perspectives ( Gomes and Romão, 2017). As businesses continuously strive to achieve exceptional business performance to thrive and gain a competitive advantage in the highly volatile global market and it is necessary to have outstanding Operational Performance (OP) to improve their overall business performance. Operational Performance Management (OPM) reflects the problems and obstacl es that affect the competitiveness of an organization (Moynihan, 2021) and the BSC as a holistic performance management approach links the financial and operational measures, that can be interpreted a

nd adapted to fit various settings (Zawawi and Hoque 201 9). BSC was a paradigm shift in administrative sciences since it allowed administrators to better understand the performance of their organizations. OP and BSC will be further discussed in detail in the literature review to gain a better understanding of t he main concepts. 1.1.1 Operational Performance Management and its relation to Warehouse Operational Performance Management As an umbrella concept, performance management integrates operational and financial data into a unified decision - support and planning framework (Cokins, 2009). OP Management and Measurement are highly intertwined, with Operational Performance Management es tablishing the Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 2 context for measurements, hence, measurements are the KPIs that facilitate the management of deviations ( Lebas, 1995; Kearney, 2018 ). Without performance management, performance measurement and performance reporting can be counterproductive, where “ measurement is the starting point for improving operational performance ” (Radnor and Barnes, 2007, p.393). In OPM, performance measures are applied to the day - to - day operations executed by employees within factories and warehouses (de Leeuw and van den Berg, 2011). Hence, the operational performance of an organization focuses on measuring the output of its processes, which ultimately impacts market share and customer satisfaction in terms of business performance (Azim, Ahmed and Khan, 2015). OP al so allows a company to achieve business objectives across various sectors and meet customer needs. Hence, quality, flexibility, delivery, and cost are the key performance metrics for evaluating OP at an organization ( Rosenzweig, Roth and Dean, 2003; Greasley, 2008; Lyu, Chen and Huo, 2019; Dwivedi et al., 2021). Subsequently, Warehouse Performance Management (WPM) encompasses defining the processes, principles and decision - making involved in the day - to - day undertakin g of operations of a warehouse at the management level, it also includes setting standards to e

nsure efficient receiving, organizing warehouse space, scheduling labor , managing inventory and fulfilling orders (Kumar, Narkhede and Jain, 2021). An effective WPM entails optimizing and integrating each of these processes in order to ensure that all aspects of the warehouse operations work together to generate productivity and reduce costs (Kumar, Narkhede and Jain, 2021). As a result of the robustness of perfo rmance measures, tools such as balanced scorecard links the operational activities to the strategic goals of an organization (Radnor and Barnes, 2007). As a PM tool, a balanced scorecard provides not just a set of performance indicators, but also an in - dep th analysis of performance from different perspectives within the organization (Camilleri, 2021). 1.1.2 Balanced Scorecard (BSC) According to Camilleri (2021), BSC evaluates financial and non - financial performance by linking the organization's goal s , core values, and future vision to strategies, objective s, and activities planned for continuous improvement. The BSC is often used during strategic planning to make sure the company's efforts are aligned with overall strategy and vision. It could be util ized in communicating what the organization is trying to accomplish; aligning the day - to - day work that Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 3 employees are doing with a set strategy; prioritizing projects, products, and services; or measuring and monitoring progress towards strategic targets (B ose and Thomas, 2007). BSC explains the strategic dimensions of an organization and links them to key performance indicators (KPIs), hence, the key component of BSC is to use various forms of measurement s in alignment with the organizational goals (Sarıgül and Coşkun, 2021). With the BSC, the organization can establish the connection between the projects and programs that people are working on, where the KPIs are used to track success, mission, vision, and strategy of the organization towards achieving its goals. BSC has four different perspectives as shown in Figure 6 : financial, interna

l business process, learning and growth , and customer that play a critical part in converting strategy in to action and can be used to assess the performance of an organizat ion ( Soderberg et al., 2011; Camilleri, 2021). The customer perspective of the BSC plays a significant role in management accounting as measures and targets help in improving customer satisfaction leading to an increase in repeat business, and an increase in new customer acquisition that results in an increase in market share (Nair et al., 2022). Hence, this study will focus solely on the customer perspective of the Balanced Scorecard as the present economy demands a high performance that customers value in the long - term and it also has a major influence on the organizations’ performance value (Leksono, Suparno and Vanany, 2019). The BSC can assess and measure the complex activities that take place in the warehouse operations and display s them on a comprehensive dashboard that is easy to monitor and manage the warehouse operational performance (Shariff et al., 2020) . According to a survey conducted by 2GC Limited (2021) on the use of BSC, nearly 80% of organizations found their BSC as or m ore beneficial during the Covid - 19 pandemic. The present pandemic has produced unprecedented amounts of change, and the BSC has helped organizations manage their reaction to it (2GC Limited, 2021). Hence, i t is also important to address the impact of the C ovid - 19 pandemic on warehouse operations from the customer perspective of the BSC as discussed in the following section. 1.1.3 Warehouse Operations and the impact during Covid - 19 p andemic Warehouse operations entail the optimal execution of the pr ocesses of receiving, storing, and dispensing goods, as well as organizing warehouse space, scheduling labor, managing inventory, Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 4 and filling orders ( De Marco and Mangano, 2011; Kolinski and Sliwczynski, 2015; Staudt et al., 2015; Kumar, Narkhede and Jain, 2021;). According to Mahmoud et al. (2021) organizations face operational d

isruptions such as unplanned incidents which negatively impact their operations, especially in warehouses as they store inventory temporarily within the supply chain network. The a uthor s also discuss the impact of natural or unnatural crises that disrupt business operations which are unavoidable risks that can significantly affect the business’ survival (Mahmoud et al., 2021) . One such recent crisis is the Covid - 19 pandemic that h as disrupted the global production and supply chain systems , greatly impacting the economic sectors and activities, including manufacturing, supply chain logistics, warehousing and distribution centers, etc. ( Ivanov and Dolgui, 2020; Barman, Das and D e , 2021). Among several disruptions to firms are transportation interruptions, unscheduled plant shutdowns, material shortages, logistics and supplier failures (Mahmoud et al., 2021). During the Covid - 19 pandemic, warehouse operations experienced both positive (high demand f or certain products and services) and negative (inventory shortages and delayed deliveries) impacts (Dube, 2020). An organization's OPM is directly affected by disruptions in the supply chain a nd shortages of labor and as Chowdhury et al., (2020, p.10) point out that “the impacts of the pandemic vary across industries, future studies could explore industry - wise impacts to explore how the Covid - 19 pandemic has impacted each industry” . Thus, this paper addresses the research gap on the OPM of warehouse operations during the Covid - 19 pandemic as they are the key link in the supply chain that ensures a smooth flow of materials throughout the system and finally to the end consumer (Kumar, Narkhede and Jain, 2021). 1.1.4 Warehouse operations of Atea The Covid - 19 pandemic impact ed the IT industry positively according to many recent articles due to social distancing protocols that demanded a large population around the world especially in the developed nations to work and study from home (Franck, T., Fitzgerald, M. and Stevens, P. , 2020 ; He et al., 2020; Harjoto and Rossi, 2021) . However, there are l imited studies on the IT industry firms wi

th warehouse operations during the Covid - 19 pandemic as this is a current situation and the research in this field is ongoing . Hence, t his research is focusing on a single case company Atea Logistics AB , as they are the leader in information technology in Sweden, offering a wide range of product competencies and have a strong local market presence in the Nordic and Baltic regions with commercial operations in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland , Lithuania, Latvia and Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 5 Estonia (Atea, n.d). Atea Logistics AB, located in Växjö (Sweden), is the Nordic hub for IT takeovers and a new world - class, modern warehouse and logistics center focusing on the life cycle management of IT products. The newly bu ilt 27,400 sqm building consists of three floors - a warehouse, production area, and office space and employs approximately 220 personnel . With its optimal design, the building has a flexible floor plan, and 3,000 square meters of solar cells on the buildi ng's roof that is able to cover most of the company's energy consumption. Atea Logistics AB provides an integrated sense of sustainability while simultaneously increasing customer and business value by offer ing services such as hardware configuration and r enovation of hardware through recycling (Atea, n.d. ). 1.2 Problem Discussion In this chapter the usefulness of BSC in OPM of an organization is addressed in regard to the popularity of BSC as a tool to link operations to strategic goals since it was int roduced 3 decades ago (Tawse and Tabesh, 2022) . Thereafter, the study explores the case study company’s OPM by addressing the impacts of the disruptions on the operations during the Covid - 19 pandemic and how the impact helped the company prepare for future disruptions. 1.2.1 Usefulness of BSC in OPM in an organization The BSC aims to produce a holistic and value - based balanced report, not just as a performance assessment exercise but also as a management tool for describing, communicating, and implementing strategy (Shariff et al., 2020). BS

C has been described as a new approach to strategic management by other researchers (Kong, 2008; Speklé & Verbeeten, 2014; Bénet, Deville and Naro, 2019; Arjunan et al, 2020). However, BSCs are often misunderstood in the literature, including studies on their validity as a strategic m anagement control tool and there are a number of related concerns regarding BSC's usefulness as a management tool (Ratnaningrum, Aryani and Setiawan, 2020). It is a common misperception that the primary aim of the BSC is to monitor results as its main purp ose is to present the carefully selected measurements that reflect the strategic intent of the management team and to facilitate an ongoing knowledge of what must be done to align the organization's activity and priorities with its strategic goals. Moreove r, strategy Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 6 is not static and involves responding to continuous change so the strategic objectives pertain to the adjustments an organization must make to maximize stakeholder value (Cokins, 2020). Researchers began noticing widespread use of the BSC when 70% of the firms in western countries implemented it encouraging formulation of theories to test its effectiveness (Hasan and Chyi, 2017). A number of studies indicate that BSC is widely seen as the dominant framework in the domain of performance manageme nt (Ratnaningrum, Aryani and Setiawan, 2020). In the early 2000s, research has also pointed to the potential of the balanced scorecard concept to measure and manage sustainability performance, resulting in sustainability balanced scorecards (SBSCs) (Berg et al., 2021). Therefore, to adapt to the contemporary business world to survive and accomplish sustainability, it is necessary for the firms to move away from a strictly financial approach to a more holistic, cross - functional one that includes the societa l and environmental aspects (Hasan and Chyi, 2017). Prior research has empirically examined the use of BSC for decision - making and decision - rationalizing, coordinating activities and self - monitoring (Sharma and Sharma, 2020). Despite

the popularity of BS C, empirical studies give conflicting results concerning the impact of BSC on firm performance indicating the need for further empirical research to assess the effectiveness of the BSC in performance management and to gain and understanding of how and why organizations use it (Hoque, 2014; Cokins, 2020; Sharma and Sharma, 2020; Tawse and Tabesh, 2022). Philbin and Kaur (2020) also suggest that further research should be conducted to determine the use of BSC in different organizations and how it can be adapt ed across different industries. Hence, this paper provides a holistic view of the usefulness of BSC in OPM in an organization through a literature review to get a current understanding of the concept. The theory is further supported with empirical data f rom an organization on the usefulness of BSC in OPM in the IT industry during the Covid - 19 pandemic focusing on the warehouse operations where the main objective is customer satisfaction. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 7 1.2.2 Atea´s warehouse OPM during the Covid - 19 pandemic, with regards to quality and delivery from the customer perspective of BSC According to Lyu, Chen and Huo (2019), the operational performance of companies is influenced by flexibility, delivery time, order efficiency, and inventory turnover, all of which are cr itical for sustaining a competitive advantage . In a study by Karim et al., (2020 ) only one dimension was taken into account , namely productivity leaving other dimensions such cost, delivery and quality to be further researched, hence this study will focus on two dimensions of delivery and quality as they both lead to “ customer satisfaction and customer loyalty ” ( Bhamra et al., 2022; Koay, Cheah and Chang, 2022, p.14 ). T he outbreak of Covid - 19 pandemic has been reported as an exceptional case that had an adverse impact on global stability due to the interruption of almost all manufacturing and logistics activities (Singh et al., 2020). The Covid - 19 pandemic disrupted supply chain operations, making it difficult fo

r companies to sustain operational excellence. W arehouse activities including loading and unloading, storage and packing, were hindered, where everything was on hold, including the supply of goods and services. Companies began to operate at a c apacity that was below their actual capability (Mishra, Singh and Subramanian, 2021). To measure the performance of operations accurately, industries require specific indicators (Chen et al., 2017) and studies relating to the disruption of the supply chain and its impact on warehouse operations are relatively rare. Therefore, Kumar, Narkhede and Jain (2021, p.3488) suggests that "there is a need to include more industry - related studies in warehousing to cope with the challenges faced due to disruptions and other risks like the ongoing pandemic" . This study focuses on a specific IT - industry warehouse (Atea Logistics AB) OPM during the Covid - 19 pandemic from the customer perspective of the BSC. According to the CEO of Atea Sweden, “ the pandemic has created a challenging and difficult - to - read market ” that created a change in customer demand (Atea, 2020). As one of Sweden's largest suppliers of IT services, Atea logistics AB, like many other companies in the sector, has had trouble maintaining regular delivery levels. Although Sweden did not pose any lockdowns, employees were encouraged to work from home and students took online classes (Weman Josefsson, 2021) . Not all businesses can provide a work from home option as in the case of Atea Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 8 Logistics where hardware/software components must be assembled/installed and can only be transported from the warehouse facility. Atea is responsible for providing the support to facilitate work and study from home by supplying hardware and software components to busines ses and public sector organizations. Hence, this study focuses on Atea’s OPM from the customer perspective of BSC to meet the customer delivery and quality during the Covid - 19 pandemic . 1.2.3 Preparedness for future disruptions in the war

ehouse OPM f rom the customer perspective of BSC It is important to note that many production and service organizations are establishing preparedness plans to deal with the potential pandemic situation in the future (Kumar et al., 2020; Aldrighetti et al., 2021) . If a warehouse is disrupted, customers must be reallocated to an active alternative, incurring higher transportation/management costs and potentially suffer severe consequences such as decreased customer satisfaction, mistrust and pessimism toward the company, price inflation, and longer lead times (Aldrighetti et al., 2021). Stocking of necessary items and raw materials during the pandemic is essential to meet customer demands , th erefore, organizations should concentrate more on the products/services in deman d and ensure their supply to meet those demands during an unexpected disruption (Kumar et al., 2020). It is also suggested by authors that in addition to recovering from the current crisis, it is also required to be well prepared in advance to conduct thei r daily operations since any disruptions may hinder them from providing their products/services (Chowdhury et al., 2020; Ivanov, 2020 ; Kumar et al., 2020 ). The use of buffer plans to ensure that the products/services are available to customers is therefore imperative. Managers do not prepare well for future probabilities that may require the development of a plan that will impair performance in their areas of responsibility. However, developing a strategy for unexpected crisis like a pandemic and allocating the resources needed to carry it out is part of preparing for a future disrupting event (Black and Glaser - Segura, 2020). This is also supported by Chowdhur y et al., (2020), that a strategy for preparedness is effective if it is proactive in preparing for disruptions in the future. Hence, this study focuses on preparedness from the customer perspective of BSC in a warehouse of an IT infrastructure service pro vider as majority of the studies have focused on healthcare, and supply chains for food and essential goods. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh

9 1.3 Study Purpose and Research Questions This study investigate s the perception of the usefulness of BSC in OPM during the Covid - 19 pandemic focus ing on the warehouse operations of an IT infrastructure service provider with the primary objective of customer satisfaction . The following research questions will enhance the investigation: RQ1: How can the Balanced Scorecard be useful in Operational Performance Management in an organization? RQ2: How was Atea’s warehouse Operational Performance Management during the Covid - 19 pandemic with regards to quality and delivery from the Customer Perspective of the Balanced Scorecard? RQ3: How has the Covid - 19 pandemic helped Atea to prepare for future disruptions in the warehouse Operational Performance Management from the Customer Perspective of the Balanced Scorecard? Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 10 1.4 Outline of the Paper The structure of this paper consists o f Six (6) chapters and the thesis disposition is presented in Figure 1 below. Figure 1 - Outline of the Study Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 11 2. Methodology Most researchers design their studies around an unanswered question or a problem that needs to be resolved. Then, they determine what data they need and the methods they will use to collect it. Accordingly, it is not unusual for researchers, at the beginni ng of the study, to consider using a questionnaire or conduct interviews (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 2019). This study must, therefore, proceed with the methodology section step by step according to the ‘research onion’ concept from Saunders, Lewis, a nd Thornhill (2019) as shown in Figure 2 . Research onion consists of six layers that will be discussed in the following chapters. The first layer of the onion is Rese arch Philosophy, which is discussed in Chapter 2.1 , the second layer is approach of theory development, which is discussed in Chapter 2.2 , the third laye

r is methodological choices, which is discussed in Chapter 2.3 , the fourth layer is research stra tegies which are discussed in Chapter 2.5 , the fifth layer is time horizon, which is discussed in Chapter 2 .6 , and the last layer is techniques and procedures, which are discussed in Chapter 2.7 , Chapter 2.8 and Chapter 2.9 . Chapter 2.4 discusses research design which pr ovides a framework for the collection and analysis of data. The following sections describe in detail the methodological options available and the selected approach for each choice is presented at the end of each section. F i g u r e S E Q F i g u r e \ * A R A B I C 2 - R e s e a r c h O n i o n Figure 2 - Research Onion, Lewis, and Thornhill (2019, p.130) Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 12 2.1 Research Philosophy Researc h philosophy is the outer layer of the research onion in Figure 2 . Research philosophy refers to the knowledge development process with a set of beliefs and assumptions based on a number of assumptions at various stages of the research. Assumptions refer to three types: ontological, epistemological, and axiological. Ontological refer s to assumptions about the realities encountered and epistemological refer s to assumptions about human knowledge, while axiological refer s to assumptions about how our own values influence the research process. Business and management encompass five major philosophical approaches: positivism, critical realism, interpretivism, postmo dernism, and pragmatism (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.1.1 Positivism The philosophy of positivism works by making law - like generalizations from observable social reality (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). A positivist approach limits the role of the researcher to the collection of data and its interpretation in an objective manner. These types of studies have research findings which are often observable and quantifiable (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.1.2 Critical Realism Critica l realism is a philosophical perspective that seeks to explain what we

see and experience in terms of the underlying structures that shape our observation. Relativism holds that knowledge is relative to the limitations of the human mind and the environment or culture or historical period of knowing. Therefore, each person expresses the world and its affairs in accordance with their own unique experience, which is also highly dependent on the environment, culture, values, beliefs, and historical time (Saunde rs, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.1.3 Interpretivism Interpretivism recognizes that humans are different from physical phenomena as they are able to create meaning (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). The approach is dependent on the concept that a stra tegy must respect the distinction between people and natural science objects, which necessitates that the social scientist comprehends the subjective meaning of social action. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 13 Additionally, interpretivism focuses on the "how" and "why" of social action, in cluding the process through which things take place (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018). Furthermore, Interpretivism offers an in - depth insight into certain context, such as cross - cultural studies, factors influencing certain development through collection and interpretation of qualitative data that may lead to deeper insights and conclusions different from others. Adoption of Interpretivism would result in high - level validity for data, since it is based on personal contributions and takes into account a number of variables (Alharahsheh and Pius, 2020). 2.1.4 Postmodernism The term postmodernism refers to a philosophical way of thinking about the social sciences and how knowledge is conveyed through the language of science (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018). Accor ding to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2019) postmodernism focuses on language and power relations and it aims to question accepted ways of thinking and give voice to alternative marginalized viewpoints. Researchers view the findings of their studies as ve rsion of a constructed reality with the key determining factor being whether o

r not they are plausible, rather than whether or not they are right or wrong in an absolute sense (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018). 2.1.5 Pragmatism Pragmatism considers that con cepts become relevant when they facilitate a certain action, and so theories, concepts, ideas, hypotheses, and research findings are viewed not in an abstract sense, but in terms of their role as instruments of both thought and action, as well as in terms of their practical consequences in specific contexts. Pragmatists recognize the importance of reality for enabling actions to be carried out successfully based on the practical effects of ideas and knowledge (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.1.6 Se lected Philosophy The selected philosophy for this research is Interpretivism as it offers an in - depth insight into the perception of usefulness of BSC in OPM during the Covid - 19 pandemic . It helps to create new, richer understandings and interpretations on BSC’s usefulness during the Covid - 19 pandemic for OPM. Hence, this study fo cuses on `how’ Covid - 19 pandemic has impacted operational performance management and `how’ useful was BSC from the customer perspective on OPM Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 14 focusing on the quality and delivery to the customer during the Covid - 19 pandemic . According to Saunders, Lewis a nd Thornhill (2019), the interpretivist approach is highly suitable for the study of business and management because business situations are not only complex, but they are often unique, at least with respect to industry and size, hence they are related to a set of particular circumstances and interactions involving individuals coming together at a particular moment. 2.2 Theory Development Approach The use of theory is a necessary part of every research study, and it may or may not be emphasized in the desig n of the study, but it will usually be emphasized in the presentation of the empirical findings and in the conclusion. This is the second layer of the research onion, and it has three approaches : Deductive, Inductive and Abductive (Sa

unders, Lewis and Thor nhill, 2019). 2.2.1 Deductive D eductive research begin s with a theory, often derived from reading the academic literature, and then design your study to test the theory. During this process, a theory is developed, and is then subjected to a series of prop ositions that are rigorously tested. The deductive approach is often linked with scientific investigation; thus, the researcher examines what others have done, develops applicable theories that match the phenomenon, and then tests hypotheses that come from those theories in order to reach a conclusion. In this approach, causal relationships are examined between concepts and variables. Furthermore, the concepts must also be operationalized in a way that enables facts to be measured, often quantitatively. Fin ally , the deduction involves generalization, where the samples are carefully selected and ensured that it is sufficient in size (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.2.2 Inductive Inductive research begins by collecting data to explore a phenomenon, and then generates a theoretical concept. The research that is based on an inductive approach will likely be concerned with the context in which such events occur. Hence, an analysis of a small sample size is more appropriate than an analysis o f a large sample size. In this approach, researchers are more likely to work with qualitative data and to employ various methods for acquiring the information to establish multiple viewpoints of the phenomenon (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 15 2.2.3 Abductive An abductive approach is one in which you collect data to explore a phenomenon, identify themes, and explain patterns, to generate a new theory or modify an existing theory which is tested through additional data collection. Abduction begins wit h the observation of a fact that is remarkable , after which a plausible theory is formulated to explain what happened where the researcher can combine both numerical and cognitive or deductive and inductive reasoning (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2

019). In taking an abductive approach, the research process starts with surprising facts or puzzles and the research process is devoted to explaining the reason behind those surprising facts or puzzles (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018). 2.2.4 Selected Approach Th is study uses an abductive approach which is a combination of both inductive and deductive elements with a dual purpose of investigating the practicality of BSC from the customer perspective in terms of the warehouse operational performance objectives of q uality and delivery, during the pandemic. T he deductive element is used to address RQ1 about the usefulness of the BSC in organizations by conducting a literature review and further supporting it with empirical data. Additionally, it contributes to the dia lectical theory of BSC as an OPM tool for warehouse operations during the Covid - 19 pandemic, which is considered as the latest disruption that has impacted organizations worldwide . A n inductive approach is used for the empirical data where the respondents’ viewpoints are collected on the OPM of the warehouse during the Covid - 19 pandemic (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019) . 2.3 Methodological Choice In terms of choosing a research design, the first methodological decision is whether you will use a quanti tative, qualitative or mixed methods approach. Each of these options requires to combine a different set of elements to achieve coherence in a research design (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 16 2.3.1 Quantitative A quantitative approach may be used as a synonym for any data collection or data analysis procedure that generates or uses numerical data, including but not limited to surveys, questionnaires, and statistics. It is based on a number of variables that are measured quantitatively and are analyze d by a number of statistical and graphing techniques, all of which are used to measure the relationship between variables (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.3.2 Qualitative A qualitative approach is often used to refer to a

ny information gathering procedure (such as an interview) or data analysis process (such as arranging the data by category) that is based on non - numerical data. The qualitative research method examines participants' meanings and the relationships between them using vario us data - collection and data - analysis methods for the purpose of developing a conceptual framework and theoretical contribution. Qualitative research focuses on the meaning derived from words and images, not from numbers (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019 ). According to Yin (2018), qualitative research is most suitable for studying real world settings since it helps create an in depth understanding and provides several opportunities for learning and comparing from qualitative research analysis. 2.3.3 Mixe d Methods A mixed method research study combines quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques and analytical techniques to collect data for the same study. The use of mixed methods makes it possible to combine quantitative and qualitative techni ques in a variety of ways, ranging from simple, concurrent to complex and sequential (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.3.4 Selected methodological choice The methodological choice adopted in this research is qualitative research approach as it is i mportant to have a deep understanding of the thesis' objectives and the usefulness of BSC in OPM in a warehouse operation during the Covid - 19 pandemic . This is an important criterion to determine the impact of Covid - 19 pandemic on OPM objectives of quality and delivery from the Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 17 customer perspective of BSC and also creating an understating of the current phenomenon to effectively control future disruption in warehouse operations. 2.4 Research Design The research design is the general plan on how the research questions will be answered (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). According to Bell, Bryman and Harley (2018), research design provides a framework for the collection and analysis of data. The research philosophy and theory developmen

t approach, w hether intentional or by default, influences the selection process of the next three layers of the research onion. The key to making these choices will be to achieve coherence throughout the process of research design. The way in which a research question is formulated, will inevitably lead to exploratory, explanatory, descriptive, or evaluative research (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.4.1 Exploratory An exploratory study is an effective method for posing open questions in order to ascertain what is occurring and gaining insight into a subject of interest. When conducting exploratory research, researchers frequently begin their questions with the terms 'what' or 'how.' Exploratory studies can be conducted in various ways, including literature revie ws, focus group interviews, expert interviews, and in - depth interviews. The interviews will most likely be unstructured and will be guided by the quality of the participants' contributions. While exploratory research may begin with a broad emphasis, as it proceeds, the focus will narrow (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.4.2 Explanatory Explanatory research refers to research that attempts to establish causal relationships between variables and traces them back to their studies. Usually, research que stions seeking explanatory answers begin with, or include questions such as "Why" or "How". A major component of explanatory research is to investigate a situation or a problem to explain relationships between variables (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019 ). Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 18 2.4.3 Descriptive Descriptive research seeks to create a comprehensive understanding of events, individuals, or situations, and thus the research questions are often focused on descriptive features such as 'who', 'what', 'where', 'when', or 'how'. This type of research can be an extension of exploratory research or a forerunner to explanatory research. In this research, an understanding of the phenomenon on which you wish to collect data is essential prior to collecting the data (Saunders, Lewis and

Tho rnhill, 2019). 2.4.4 Evaluative Evaluative research is conducted to find out how well something functions or how efficient it is. Research questions that seek to evaluate answers for this type of research often begin with the word 'How' or may include the word 'What', in the form of 'To what extent'. In the area of business and management, evaluative research is concerned with determining the effectiveness of an organization's strategy, policy, initiative, or process. Evaluative studies often re sult in a theoretical contribution, which emphasis on understanding not only ‘how effective’ something is, but also ‘why,’ and then comparing this explanation with existing theories (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.4.5 Combined studies A research study may be designed to serve more than one purpose at the same time. In order to achieve this, it may be helpful to use multiple methods within the research design, in order to facilitate some combination of exploratory, descriptive, explanatory, and eva luative research in the process (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.4.6 Selected research design In this research we use a combination of two research designs i.e., combined studies. For RQ1, descriptive research is taken into consideration as this q uestion starts with ‘how’ and is concerned with understanding the usefulness of BSC in OPM in an organization. In case of RQ2 and RQ3, the selected research design is exploratory as it includes literature reviews and in - depth interviews of Atea Logistics A B personnel to examine the OPM during the Covid - 19 pandemic and also to Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 19 know the usefulness of BSC from customer perspective in OPM during the Covid - 19 pandemic and how it has helped Atea Logistics AB to prepare for future disruptions in a warehouse operat ion. Therefore, the interview questions are semi - structured, open - ended questions to involve participant contribution on the selected topic. 2.5 Research Strategy A research strategy is defined as a technique for determining how a resea

rcher will respond to a particular research question. Regardless of which research strategy is applied, it should not be regarded as superior or inferior to any other. This is the fourth layer of the research onion, and it is divided into eight categories: experiment, survey , archival and documentary, case study, ethnography, action research, grounded theory, and narrative inquiry (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.5.1 Experiment Experimental research has its roots in the scientific sciences, but it is also prevalent i n psychology and social science research. An experiment's goal is to establish how likely it is that a change in one variable (independent variable) would result in a change in another variable (dependent variable). Experiments, rather than research questi ons, rely on hypothetical explanations known as hypotheses. Experiments are so commonly employed in exploratory and explanatory research to answer the questions "what," "how," and "why." The viability of using an experimental strategy will differ depending on the nature of the research question. However, most business and management research questions focus on identifying how variables link to one another rather than evaluating an anticipated relationship (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.5.2 Survey A survey strategy is frequently used in conjunction with a deductive research approach in business and management research, where the most common questions include 'what', 'who', 'where', 'how much', and 'how many'. It is therefore frequently used i n exploratory and descriptive research. Questionnaire - based survey strategies are common because they enable the collection of standardized data from a large number of respondents, which makes comparison easier. However, Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 20 the questionnaire is not the only i nstrument used in the survey strategy. Additionally, structured observations, as well as structured interviews, are typically considered part of this methodology . A data analysis conducted using a survey strategy is unlikely to be as varied as a data analy

sis conducted using another method (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.5.3 Archival and documentary Digitization of data and the establishment of online archives, in addition to government and corporate open - data initiatives, have expanded the p ossibilities for historical or documentary research (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). It is important for researchers who employ an archival or documentary research strategy to understand that the documents used are not generated for the purposes of s tudying but are considered secondary sources since they were prepared for other purposes. A successful and efficient archival or documentary research will depend greatly on the relevance of the research question and the ability to obtain sufficient amounts of acceptable documents. A variety of approaches can be used to accomplish this task, for example, by conducting documentary research in conjunction with a Grounded Theory based on qualitative interviews and then analyzing both sets of data using comparab le methodologies. Another possibility is to incorporate documentary research into a case study strategy (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.5.4 Case Study As the term implies, a case study is a detailed examination of a particular topic or event in i ts real - life setting. It is vital to note that the term 'case' in case study research can refer to an individual, a group, an organization, an association, a change process (e.g., reorganizing a corporation), or an event. The objective of case study resear ch is to get an understanding of a subject's dynamics in relation to its setting or surroundings (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019) . According to Bell, Bryman and Harley (2018), case study is commonly used in qualitative studies, and it is considered mo re valid than experiments as it is a deep investigation, and it involves all dynamics of the whole phenomenon. A case study strategy offers the potential to gain insights through an intensive and in - depth investigation of a phenomenon in its natural enviro nment, ultimately resulting in rich empirical descriptions and the development of theory. Such insights are obtained by an

alyzing Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 21 data, sometimes qualitatively and sometimes quantitatively, from a variety of sources in order to fully understand the dynamic s of a case (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). As explained in Yin (2018), case studies can be used for descriptive and explanatory purposes in addition to exploratory purposes. 2.5.5 Ethnography An ethnographic study examines the culture or social r eality of a group. This type of ethnography necessitated researchers to spend time with the subjects they were studying, seeing, and speaking with them to develop full narratives of their beliefs, behaviors, relationships, language, rituals, and events tha t shaped their lives (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). Although ethnography is a subfield of cultural anthropology, it has gained popularity in fields such as sociology of work, organization studies, information systems research, public administration , and consumer research due to the fact that it focuses on “more familiar cultures of everyday work, community, and institutional settings” (Prasad, 2005, p.78). 2.5.6 Action Research Action Research is an iterative process of inquiry that uses a particip atory, collaborative model for creating answers to actual organizational challenges that incorporate multiple forms of knowledge and has long - term implications for participants and the organization as a whole. An Action Research strategy facilitates organi zational learning through the identification of issues, the planning of actions, the implementation of those actions, and the evaluation of those actions. Although Action Research begins with a specific context and a study topic, the focus may shift as the research progresses mainly due to its iterative nature. Researchers use the findings of Action Research to develop more generalized theories (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.5.7 Grounded Theory The 'grounded theory method' refers to the data coll ection and analysis procedures that are utilized. Although the term "grounded theory" may be used generically to refer to bo

th methodology and method, it is more specifically used to describe a theory that is based on or produced inductively from a set of evidence. A grounded theory is a method of developing theoretical explanations for social interactions and processes that occur in a variety of situations including business and Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 22 management. Despite the fact that grounded theory is commonly thought of as an inductive method, it may be more accurate to consider it as an abductive methodology. The grounded theory is a valuable and generally accepted research technique, but it has been subject to considerable scrutiny, criticism, and even misinterpretation. Imp lementing Grounded Theory requires planning, effort, and reflection (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.5.8 Narrative Enquiry A narrative is a story that describes events or a sequence of events in a way that interprets them. In general, a narrative is a description of the nature or outcome of a qualitative study. As a result, a narrative might be described as a chronological description of events related to an experience, suggesting a flow of connected events relevant to the narrator and conveying si gnificance to the participant interview. A key objective of Narrative Inquiry is to elicit theoretical explanations from narratives while maintaining their integrity. Though Narrative Inquiry methodology avoids the fragmentation associated with Grounded Th eory, it does not offer an equally well - developed set of analytical methods equivalent to those employed by grounded theorists (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.5.9 Selected research strategy According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2019), a variety of strategies can be used to accomplish this research, one of which is to incorporate documentary research into a case study interview strategy, which is what is done in this research study. For RQ1, an a rchival and documentary strategy i s employed to assess BSC's usefulness in OPM. This aids in enhancing knowledge of the study as well as in analyzing and understanding RQ2 and RQ3 whi

ch have been undertaken as a single case study . In this study, the research is focused on the organization, 'Atea Logistics AB', to gain insight into a real - world case (i.e.,) how was Atea’s OPM during the Covid - 19 pandemic from the customer perspective of BSC and also to gain insight into how helpful BSC in OPM is to prepare for future disruptions. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 23 2.6 Time H orizon A time horizon can be classified into two categories: a "snapshot" taken at one moment in time, and another resembling a diary or a series of snapshots depicting events over a certain period of time (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.6.1 Cro ss - sectional A snapshot time horizon is also known as a cross - sectional time horizon. The term refers to the process of examining a particular phenomenon (or series of phenomena) arising at a particular point in time. These methods are predominantly used in quantitative research, but they can also be applied to qualitative or mixed methods strategies in which case studies based on interviews can be completed in a very short period of time (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). According to Bell, Bryman and Harley (2018), cross - sectional studies combine data from more than one case and at a single time point in order to analyze patterns of association between two or more variables. 2.6.2 Longitudinal 'Longitudinal' refers to the perspecti ve of a 'diary'. Longitudinal research's main strength is its ability to examine change and development. Even if your study is constrained by time, you can include a longitudinal component (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). A longitudinal design is use d to determine changes in business and management research; however, because of the time consuming and expensiveness, they are rarely used. Similar to cross - sectional studies, this study also uses different timing for different events for the same study, h owever in longitudinal studies, the timing can affect the results (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018). 2.6.3 Selected Time Horizon In this study, RQ1 is mainly

focused on a literature review (i.e., archival and documentary) that explores the usefulness of BSC in OPM, it is based on recent articles dating back to a maximum of six years. This ensures a current understanding of the topic as the concept of BSC was introduced nearly 30 years ago and has had mixed reviews for implementation over the years (Philbin a nd Kaur, 2020). RQ2 and RQ3 are examined using a cross - sectional approach since the interviews are conducted within a short period of time, approximately one month. Moreover, both Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 24 research questions help to examine various phenomena such as BSC, OPM, and d isruption due to the Covid - 19 pandemic. 2.7 Sampling and population In a sampling technique, data is collected by focusing on a subset rather than on all possible cases or parts. A sampling technique can be classified into two types: probability or repres entative sampling and non - probability sampling (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). A multi - stage sampling design is one that has more than one successful step and incorporates probability, non - probability, or a combination of the two types of sampling t echniques. With probability sampling, the likelihood of each case being selected from the target population is known and usually equal for all cases. Probability sampling is often used in conjunction with survey and experiment research methods. As long as one does not know the probability of each instance coming from the target population, answering research questions or achieving objectives that involve statistical judgments about the population's attributes becomes difficult. It may still be possible to g eneralize about the target population from non - probability samples, but not statistically (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.7.1 Sampling of literature Conducting a literature search requires an understanding of the field in which the study will be carried out. To develop a viable research topic, a creative approach to the literature must be used in order to transform current work into an innovative and p

recisely applicable study. An initial search, which includes refining, focusing, and operation alizing the original study concept into a feasible study subject and subsequently into research questions, goals, and objectives, is referred to as the preliminary or first inquiry (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). Therefore, to initiate the researc h process, preliminary literature reviews had been conducted with respect to BSC, OPM, warehouse operation and Covid - 19 pandemic disruptions. To conduct the preliminary literature review, a total of ten published articles between 2019 and 2022 were selecte d for the problem discussion, however, a few prior articles were used to support the concepts that were selected and were searched in Google Scholar, OneSearch, Scopus and Taylor & Francis. The Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 25 following keywords were used to address the problem discussion : BSC, OPM, WOPM, disruption, Preparedness, future disruption (abbreviations and full form of concepts was searched). To address RQ1, a second round of literature review process was conducted to provide an understanding of the usefulness of BSC in an organ ization and the result included 7 , 835 articles so another round of article was searched by adding the : BSC and OPM, BSC In Warehouse, BSC Usefulness , BSC usefulness in OPM. This search yielded 35 articles for which the abstract, findings and conclusion were studied to reduce the number of relevant articles to 18 articles limited to 2017 to 2022 so that a current perspective is presented in regard to the usefulness of the BSC. As mentione d previously in Chapter 1.1.1 that Operational Performance Management and Measurement go hand in hand, we also included articles in the literature review that had measure ment in their title. 2.7.2 Single Case Study sampling The case study sampling for this research paper is Atea Logistics AB, an IT infrastructure solutions service provider with a warehouse in Växjö, Sweden. According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (201 9), when there are fewer cases to co

llect data on, more effort can be spent developing and testing methods and collecting data thoroughly. The single - case study design allowed the researcher to gain a deep knowledge of the perception of usefulness of BSC f rom the customer perspective in OPM of a warehouse (Atea Logistics AB, Sweden) during the Covid - 19 pandemic. By examining a single case study, focusing on the situational details of the OPM of a warehouse and during a specific event, which is the Covid - 19 pandemic, helped in capturing the " complexities and contradictions of real life " (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018, p.66). According to Flyvbjerg (cited in Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018), argues that it is a common misconception about case study res earch that one cannot generalize and draw conclusions from a single case study. He suggests that an in - depth case study provides a basis for acquiring concrete, context - dependent knowledge focusing on the uniqueness of a particular case and gaining a deep understanding of its complexity. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 26 2.7.2.1 Company Background Atea Logistics is a major distributor and service provider for IT infrastructure in the Nordic area. They are the internal supplier for the Atea Group and provide goods and services to th e Nordic and Baltic sales offices. Atea offers cutting - edge expertise in IT infrastructure and the largest configuration and recycling center (Växjö) in the Nordic region. Through direct purchasing, they provide tens of thousands of clients with a vast sel ection of items from top manufacturers like Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, etc. They acquire, stock, ship, and dispose of IT items to simplify and streamline the administration of our clients' IT products (Atea, n.d.). One of the goals of the company is to have Växjö’s most satisfied customers as per the CEO along with being one of the leading companies in Europe. Consumers are well - informed in today’s competitive environment which makes customer experience even more important for Atea as they build I T solutions for consumers and bus

inesses (Atea, n.d.). 2.8 Data Collection method When conducting any research project, data collection is an important part of the process. Certain methods of data collection require a structured approach in which the researcher outlines in advance the broad contours of the research they wish to find out and designs the research accordingly. For example, interviews and questionnaires are structured methods. Other methods of data collection are less structured, such as p articipant observation and semi - structured interviews, which provide a more open platform in terms of topics and issues (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018). There are two main data collection methods used commonly which are primary data and secondary data. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 27 2.8.1 Primary data collection Primary data is collected by the researcher s themselves for the purpose of a study or research which is collected through questionnaires, interviews, and observations . 2.8.1.1 Interview A research interview is a dialogue betw een two or more people in which the interviewer asks clear, succinct questions and listens carefully to the interviewee (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). Interview method entails a systematic conversation that has a specific purpose and focuses on cer tain planned topics (Sekaran and Gisbert, 2016). According to Bell, Bryman, and Harley (2018), interviews are a common method to gather empirical data. There are three types of interview methods according to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2019): Structured , Semi - structured and Unstructured. 2.8.1.1.1 Structured interview In structured interviews, questionnaires are filled out by the researcher. It is 'standardized' because it is based on a predetermined set of identical questions. In a structured interview, each question should be read exactly as written and with the same tone of voice to avoid indicating any bias. (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.8.1.1.2 Semi - Structured interview A semi - structured interview begins with a predetermined list of themes, and possibly

some key questions related to these themes, to prov ide direction. Using an abductive approach, it is necessary to apply theoretically derived themes consistently in the semi - structured interviews that are subsequently conducted in order to be able to test the applicability of the emerging theory within the se settings (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). In a semi - structured method, the researcher can remain open - minded about what they need to know, so that concepts and theories are derived from the data. Hence, they may not follow the outline exactly as t hey are designed to give the interviewee the opportunity to lead the conversation (Bell, Bryman, and Harley, 2018). 2.8.1.1.3 Unstructured Interview Interviews that are unstructured are informal and, therefore, are sometimes referred to as in - depth interv iews. Rather than framing themes or questions that are predetermined, it will be interesting Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 28 to see what themes emerge from the data collected from participants (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.8.1.2 Selected Interview method In this research paper , a semi - structured interview is conducted as the questions in the interview guide ( Appendix 8.6 ) are related to the topic studied which are mainly focused on RQ2 and RQ3 with a general view on RQ1 relating to the usefulness of BSC in OPM of an organization, therefore, they may not follow the outline exactly as they are designed to give the interviewee the opportunity to lead the conversation The usefulness of the BSC is generally determined by the management of the organization, therefore, the researchers interviewed the CEO and th e Operations Manager as they are the decision - makers in regards to the BSC implementation, interpretation and changes/adaptations needed to be made to the warehouse operations based on the results. As this study is related to the field of management accoun ting, the researchers interviewed the relevant key management personnel that are responsible for warehouse operations management rather than interviewing shop floor manag

ers that report the data to the management. Both the respondents are responsible for m ore than one managerial role at the company that are directly related to the warehouse operations; respondent 1 is the CEO and the Business Development Manager whereas, respondent 2 is the Operations Manager and the Customer Relations Manager. As the usef ulness of BSC is decided, Table 1 - Interview Process below, shows the interview process which are based on RQ1, RQ2 and RQ3. The interviews were conducted via Zoom meetings and additional data was gathered by email. Table 1 - Interview Process Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 29 2.8. 2 Secondary data collection The data collected for addressing the research question(s) or achieving the objectives is considered when evaluating the data that were originally collected for another purpose. These secondary data include both raw data and published summaries. Secondary data are classified as quantitative (numerical) or qualitative (non - numeric) and are typically utilized for descriptive and explanatory investigations (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). The secondary data also includes information collected from the co mpany in the form of KPI reports for incoming orders, customer delivery orders, and incidents reported by customers that exhibits the changes in operations prior to and during the pandemic. These reports were the basis of analysis for the respondents of th e OPM from the customer perspective of the BSC of the warehouse operations. 2.8. 2 .1 Literature review A literature review demonstrates the ability to engage in academic discussion based on the comprehension of other author’s published work. Engaging with the current literature review facilitates the creation of a justification for the study and its significance. The literature review is categorized under three types: Reading critically, Systematic review and Narrative review. Reading critically refers to t he literature review written for the project report should be a critical analysis of what has been written by other authors and provide backgro

und information for the research that is being conducted. A systematic literature review is a process for locatin g and reviewing existing literature, analyzing and synthesizing findings and reporting evidence to enable conclusions to be made about what is known and what is not known (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). Narrative reviews of the literature are used t o get a better understanding of the subject area a researcher is currently investigating. It is appropriate for qualitative or inductive researchers who employ interpretive epistemologies in their research methodology (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018). In t his research paper, a narrative literature review and an empirical analysis is provided for RQ1 to gain better understanding of the topic being studied. In RQ1, the literature review provides insight into the use of BSC in OPM in an organization and the em pirical analysis provides the usefulness of BSC in a warehouse operation during the Covid - 19 pandemic. From Figure 3 , it shows that the Literature review process helps in guiding the empirical analysis for RQ2 and RQ3. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 30 Figure 3 - Literature Review process to Empirical Analysis 2.9 Data analysis model The best way to prepare for conducting case study analysis is to develop a broad analytical framework. As part of the analytical strategy, the data from the case study should be connected to concepts of interest, and then the concepts should be used to guide the data analysis (Yin, 2018). Yin (2018) identified five distinct strategies : pattern matching, explanation building, time series analysis, logic models, and cross - case synthesis. These techniques are designed with the specific purpose of addressing both the internal and external validity aspects. 2.9.1 Pattern matching One of the best tools for analyzing case studies is pattern matching. An empirically grounded pattern is compared to an anticipated pattern, based on the case study findings, before the data is gathered. If empirical and expected patterns align, the results can a ssist with the in

ternal validity of a case study. In the case of an explanatory study, the patterns may be related to the "how" and "why" of the case. As long as the pattern of predicted descriptive characteristics was established before data collection, t he pattern matching is applicable (Yin, 2018). Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 31 2.9.2 Cross - case synthesis A cross - case analysis approach is applied in multiple case study scenarios involving more than two case studies. During a cross - case synthesis, each study case is divided and catego rized into tables in order to analyze the similarities and differences between all tabulated studies (Yin, 2018). 2.9.3 Explanation Building Explanation - building methods are used to construct case study explanations by matching skills and generating cause - and - effect explanations for ‘why’ and ‘how’ things happen. The objective is to assess the case study material in order to provide an explanation for the case (Yin, 2018). 2.9.4 Time - series analysis There are numerous key textbooks on single - subject research that discuss time - series analysis. An analysis of time - series can provide additional support for the case study conclusions if the pattern is complicated or accurate. It is vital not only to observe time trends, but to analyze signi ficant ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions regarding the relationship between events over time (Yin, 2018). 2.9.5 Logic models Logic models describe and operationalize complex chains of events occurring over time, in order to demonstrate how complex activities, suc h as developing a program, take place. In addition to helping an organization clarify its vision and goals, the process may also identify the programmatic measures required to achieve those goals. To correlate empirically observed events with theoretically expected events, logic models remain a common tool. In this respect, logic models are similar to pattern matching (Yin, 2018). 2.9.6 Selected data analysis This research will employ pattern matching , which is a frequently used technique in qualitative re sea

rch. As this is a single case study, pattern matching is utilized to determine the usefulness of BSC in OPM in the warehouse operations of Atea Logistics AB during the Covid - 19 pandemic, and how it prepared Atea for future disruptions. Also, prior to th e collection of data, a pattern of anticipated descriptive characteristics was constructed on the concept of usefulness BSC in OPM of an organization, which is depicted in RQ1. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 32 2.10 Research Quality Criteria The quality of qualitative research speaks of t rustworthiness, which asks the question " Can the findings be trusted? " (Korstjens and Moser, 2018, p.121). Based on Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2019), reliability and validity are the two major criteria which are required to assess the quality of the re search and to accept or reject them as appropriate for interpretivist studies. Additionally, there are alternative quality criteria, such as credibility, transferability, dependability, and authenticity (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). These criteria are also supported by Korstjens and Moser (2018). 2.10.1 Reliability and Validity The reliability and validity of research are key to determining the quality of natural science research and quantitative social science research. Replicating a previous stu dy design and obtaining similar results is considered reliable. Therefore, reliability can be defined as replicating and consistent . It is important to determine the validity of measurements, the accuracy of analysis, and the generalization of findings. Th ere is a contrast between internal and external validity. Through internal validity, consistency is ensured whereas, external validity refers to whether the data collected and analyzed can produce consistent results if repeated by another researcher (Saund ers, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.10.2 Credibility According to Korstjens and Moser (2018), research credibility can be defined as the level of confidence in the validity of the research findings. Credibility is established by determining whether the stu dy findin

gs are based on believable original data and are a true interpretation of the original opinions of the participants (Korstjens and Moser, 2018). To ensure the study's credibility, the researcher compared information obtained from the case company' s website to interview responses. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 33 2.10.3 Transferability According to Korstjens and Moser (2018), transferability is the extent to which qualitative research findings can be applied to diverse contexts or settings with diverse respondents. By providing extensive information about the study, the researcher increases the likelihood that the study will be considered transferrable by another user of the research (Korstjens and Moser, 2018). As part of this research, it was ensured that the study's transferability was met by collecting data from publicly available sources and comparing them with empirically collected. 2.10.4 Dependability Dependability of a research project refers to the stability of findings over time. Dependability is considered to involve participants' evaluation of the findings, interpretations, and recommendations of the study such that all are supported by the data and information provided by the participants (Korstjens and Moser, 2018). The researcher was able to d emonstrate the dependability of the study by referring to case company sources that could be consulted by potential participants. 2.10.5 Authenticity Authenticity criteria do not intend to be interchangeable with other criteria, but rather to serve as cri teria tailored to the nature of constructivist/interpretative research. They are intended to enhance justice by including all perspectives in research; to raise awareness and produce learning; and to effect change (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2. 11 Ethical consideration A good ethical practice will require that all research involving human participants be reviewed and approved, especially when the participants are young or vulnerable (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). In order to maintain the anonymity of participants and the confidenti

ality of their data, it may be necessary to specify how the data will be stored, whether they will be maintained after the research has ended, and under what conditions. A general ethical principle is that the re search design should not result in embarrassment, harm, pain, or any other material disadvantage of those being studied. In addition, informed consent requires researchers to provide participants Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 34 with sufficient information and assurances about participati ng to enable individuals to fully comprehend the implications of participating and to make a fully informed, considered and freely given decision about whether or not to participate, without coercion or pressure (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). 2.11 .1 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) governs the processing of personal data within the European Union. According to the law, all personal data processing must adhere to the GDPR's fundamental principl es, which include not processing more data than is necessary for the original purpose, not saving personal data for longer than is necessary, and not disclosing personal data (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019 ; Linnaeus University, 2021 ). In this thesis, the interviewees' personal data will be handled in accordance with GDPR requirements, therefore a consent form ( Appendix 8.6 ) is being obtained from the m before the interview questioning session begins. 2.11.2 Individual Contributions Research on this topic was conducted by three researchers from Linnaeus University: Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata and Chioma Ngeleh. The three researchers actively participated in the entire course of the research, meeting regularly to share ideas and suggestions and receiving feedback fro m each other from the beginning to the end. It was decided to divide the research amongst the three authors as a brief period of time was allowed, and the research was later reviewed by all the authors to make corrections, and/or adjustments. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana

Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 35 2.12. Summ ary of Methodological approaches selected An overview of the methodologies that contributes to the scientific foundation of the research is demonstrated in Figure 4 : Figure 4 - Summary of methodology approaches selected (based on Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019) Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 36 3. Literature Review This chapter presents a review of literature on the Operational Performance Management (OPM) discussing the operational objectives of cost, delivery, flexibility and quality with a detailed review of delivery and quality in C hapter 3.1 as this study is concentrating on these two objectives ; as an OPM tool, Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is discussed in C hapter 3.2 with a detailed review on the customer perspective that is the focus of this paper ; the sub C hap ter 3.2. 1 .1 discusses the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs ) from the customer perspective as BSC helps an organization to track KPIs and take necessary measures. This research paper focuses on warehouse operations and management which is discussed in Chapter 3.4 , dur in g the Covid - 19 pandemic disruptions that impact warehouse OPM discussed in Chapter 3.4.4 and the preparedness for future disruptions is discussed in Chapter 3.5 as pr esented in Figure 5 to give a clear view of the literature review process : 3.1 Operational Performance Management (OPM) Multinational organizations measure performance to make decisions at strategic, tactical and operational levels, which encompass production, assembly, and distribution processes (Schmidt and Wilhelm, 2000; Kovac and Djurdjevic, 2020; Singh and Ardjmand, 2020) . On a strategic level, the logistics network is designed, including the locations of the facilities, technologies, and capacity of the plants. At the tactical level, material flow management policies are prescribed, such as production levels in all plants, the assembly process, inventory levels, and

lot sizes. The operational level coordinates operations to ensure the quality of the products and the timely delivery of final products to customers, as well as coordinating a lo gistics network to respond to customer needs (Schmidt and Wilhelm, 2000 ; Kovac and Djurdjevic, 2020 ). According to Liu et al., (2012), there are four theoretical performance objectives based on cost, quality, flexibility and delivery dimensions that link o perational and strategic performance management. This study Figure 5 - Literature review process Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 37 focuses solely performance management at the operational level with a detailed view on the objectives of quality and delivery. OPM systems enable keeping up with trends, such as incorporating net work performance into internal structures (i.e., collaborative teams) and external environments (i.e., supply chains) as well as incorporating dynamic and learning performance management for compliance with disruption and transformation in business trends. As a result, effective and agile management systems that can handle the dynamics of the real world are created, and the daily operational performance is enhanced (Moynihan, 2021). OP objectives are areas of performance that a business strives to improve to achieve the company's strategic goals (Gebauer and Lee, 2008). According to Ranganathan and Brown (2006), after defining corporate strategy, a business must identify the appropriate operational performance objectives to monitor and manage the environme nt in which the objectives can be met. For instance , it is critical to understand the operational performance objectives of a manufacturing operation to increase the overall production efficiency (Gribbins, Subramaniam, and Shaw, 2005). These OP objectives include those relating to quality, cost, flexibility, and delivery to ensure that operational resources are distributed effectively, it is required to track, monitor, and review several aspects of OP (Dwivedi et al., 2021). Globalization has compelled co mpanies to source materials and components from sup

pliers all over the world. Various suppliers have different production costs and transportation costs that can vary significantly from one supplier to another. Furthermore, the cost of holding and transpor tation in warehouses can also vary significantly (Pokharel, 2008). All organizations, including those that compete by differentiating their products or services, must attain low costs. A low - cost strategy is advantageous from the consumer's viewpoint since it results in a cheaper services/product (Espino - Rodriguez and Padrón - Robaina, 2004). In case of flexibility, it is the capacity to create something innovative, to create a different product mix, to vary the quality level, to change the amount of producti on, or to change delivery schedules (Slack, 1983 ; Custodio and Machado, 2019 ). In order to respond to the workplace challenges, modern organizations must redefine their strategy and restructure their operations. Considering the changing environment, manage ment should rethink corporate strategies to meet uncertainty in a free - market economy and a recession by using a Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 38 flexible method (C â ndido, Coelho, and Peixinho, 2021). Operational flexibility is the capacity to build product lines to fulfill various criter ia and quickly react to changing requirements by (i) reinventing their corporate strategy, (ii) using flexible mechanisms, (iii) redefining the organization culture, and (iv) devising dynamic, competitive function plans (Chavez et al., 2015). According to Shin, Collier and Wilson (2000) both supplier and buyer performance improves when a buyer emphasizes quality and delivery as a competitive strategy. Furthermore, a cost reduction in the supply chain may be influenced by the supplier's performance in the ar eas of quality and delivery (on - time delivery, delivery speed, etc.) rather than focusing on their cost performance (Bhamra et al., 2022; Koay, Cheah and Chang, 2022) . Therefore, this paper focuses on the Quality and Delivery objectives as a competitive st rategy to achieve the goals and objectives. 3.1.1 Q

uality A product or service of high quality is often a requirement by the customers today's market. For companies to remain competitive in the market, they need to continuously deliver and improve the quality of their products (Zhang and Xia, 2012). Many organizations believe quality is a necessity for success in an increasingly competitive global market as customers demand better quality and are loyal to or ganizations that deliver it. Furthermore, quality is an order qualifier; a requirement that a firm must meet to be taken seriously, which is also the foundation for other operational capabilities. Hence, continuous improvement of quality allows organizatio ns to gain a competitive advantage in the market (Zhang and Xia, 2012). A product's quality is defined as a measure of its suitability for use and its ability to satisfy a consumer's needs Along with customer retention better quality products or services t end to be one of the key factors in discovering new customer needs that lead to customer satisfaction and loyalty (Jahanshahi et al., 2011). An organization's quality objectives must be transparent in order to determine its quality policies. A company th at focuses on quality produces high - quality products or services (in relation to performance, conformity, dependability, and durability) and as a result, its policies must be improved by emphasizing on quality and consumer interests (Ahire and O’Shaughness y, 1998 ; Lee and Lee, 2019 ). An effective quality management strategy must concentrate on the needs of the customer, because ignoring the consumer can have catastrophic results, even when using advanced process optimization tools and a competent management team. Using the customer Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 39 focus, a quality management strategy on products or services can be developed as follows (Ahire and O’Shaughnessy, 1998 ; Lee and Lee, 2019 ): ● Implementing innovative technology and ideas to respond quickly to consumer requests. ● Meeting or exceeding customer expectations through the production of high - quality goods or ser

vices. ● Providing products and services that anticipate and meet the needs of customers. Purbey, Mukherjee and Bhar (2007) points out that staff involv ement is critical to achieving high quality management. The quality management process's approach must be carefully considered to underline the importance of achieving efficiency and effectiveness in organizational processes (Rantanen et al., 2007). In the opinion of Mohamed and Hussain (2005) every organization should come up with an objective to be actively involved in continuous improvement as part of its quality management program. Therefore, it is necessary for an organization to have the following fou r elements for quality management: Quality Planning - Quality is achieved by planning for it rather than reacting to problems after they have occurred. This includes determining a project's quality criteria and deciding how to meet them (Daddey and Watt, 2021). Quality Improvement - To adjust a process in order to increase the likelihood of a certain outcome being achieved. Furthermore, quality improvement of products or services are based on different attributes of the current product and customer satisfaction (Ostasz, Siwiec and Pacana, 2022). Quality Con trol - In order for organizations to succeed, they must have quality control checklists to emphasize the importance of quality as a priority for continuous improvement. It contributes to the ongoing effort to ensure the integrity and reliability of a proce ss in achieving a desired outcome (Liao, Soltani and Wilkinson, 2021). Quality Assurance - The concept of quality assurance is the process of ensuring that a customer may buy a product or service with confidence and use it satisfactorily for a long time. T herefore, it is the systematic or planned procedures required to ensure the reliability of a product or service in order to meet its stated specifications (Ramanathan, 2020). Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 40 3.1.2 Delivery Delivery management is the practice of implementing logistics sys tems to ensure that items are moved suc

cessfully and efficiently from one location to another until they reach the end consumer (Bonner et al., 2021). According to Confente et al., (2021), the growth of ecommerce has driven many brick - and - mortar businesses to rapidly transition to online selling, thus there is a drastic surge in deliveries and the growing importance of efficient delivery management . With customers’ increased expectations to receive items in the shortest amount of time, scaling operations ha s become challenging to meet these expectations. Frazelle (2016) maintains that a proper delivery management must employ KPIs which are also essential for business improvement strategy to evaluate various areas of delivery service. Delivery management invo lves both external and internal activities. External operations pertain to processing orders, sorting items, product distribution, and delivering to the customers according to their requirements. Internal operations relate to products and delivery details, such as, creating, amending, and deleting delivery orders, pre - reserving delivery items, and creating the delivery products table (Ling et al., 2015). According to Staudt et al. (2015), the emphasis is on ensuring that the products or services are deliver ed on time and the customer is satisfied. The warehouse monitors its delivery activity using the on - time delivery indicator, which covers the time until the product is delivered to the customer. Additionally, the author mentions that warehouse activities h ave become more and more customer - oriented, thus the most frequently used indicators include labor productivity, throughput, on - time delivery, order lead time and inventory costs. Accurately detecting delivery delays enables delivery participants to asses s the causes and zero - in on the areas contributing to delivery timetable extensions (Marilly et al., 2002). The company's competitiveness will be improved if delivery control is based on a set of KPIs that helps reduce lead time and achieve faster delivery . Delivery speed and reliability are key attributes in increasing profitability, and these two factors evaluate the performance of the company. A significant infl

uence on performance is achieved from measurements such as lead time, delivery time, and on - ti me delivery (Nabhani and Shokri, 2009). According to Qureshi, Kumar and Kumar (2008), when companies outsource delivery service to third - party logistics providers (3PLs) within their delivery management system, the efficiency advantages are offset by a dec rease in direct involvement. Monitoring a chosen 3PL's performance using measures such as on - time delivery Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 41 percentage, shipping accuracy, order correctness, order time - to - fill, and cost per unit shipped can assist in determining their efficiency. As an integrated results - oriented performance management tool, BSC is composed of financial and non - financial measures that link the mission, core values, and vision for the future of the organization to strategies, targets, and initiatives designed to improve e fficiency and effectiveness. A balanced performance management is provided by BSC as it consists of a number of measures that can be applied across different organizational perspectives which will be discussed in detail in the next chapter. 3.2 Balanced S corecard Kaplan and Norton developed the Balanced Scorecard in 1992 as a tool for measuring business performance from four perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal business process and Learning and Growth as shown in Figure 6 . In a BSC, strategy and vision are emphasized over control using goals as a guide to allows employees to follow the necessary steps to reach their objectives. Through these measures, the employees can move towards the o rganization's overall vision (Kaplan & Norton, 2005). To be effective, the BSC emphasizes that all employees need access to financial and non - financial information related to the organization. In the BSC, shareholders' and customers' interests are balanc ed with internal measures of critical business processes, innovation, and learning and growth (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). According to Daft (2015), a BSC is a strategic planning tool businesses use to prioritize their prod

ucts, initiatives and services, c onvey their targets, and schedule their normal activities. The BSC enables businesses to monitor and assess the success of their plans to determine their overall performance. The BSC is a structured report that evaluates the management performance of a bus iness and also the collection of performance targets and results based on four performance perspectives: financial, Figure 6 - The Balanced Scorecard with its 4 Perspectives (Kaplan and Norton, 1996, p.9) Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 42 customer, internal business, and learning and growth that maximizes data performance and eliminates lagging factors ( Balaji et al., 2021; Pi erce, 2022). For instance, employees are reliant on an organization for employment and salary increments, while the shareholders rely on a business to protect their investment and incremental dividends, therefore, the organization must strike a balance bet ween these two interests. Thus, the BSC approach is used to assess how well an organization performs in light of competing stakeholder interests ( Kaplan and Norton, 1996; 2005; Balaji et al., 2021; Pierce, 2022 ). Because of its balanced approach, the BSC is the perfect tool for integrating social and environmental criteria that results in scorecards that are commonly known as sustainability balanced scorecards (SBSCs) (Hansen and Schaltegger, 2017). Today's leading businesses increasingly emphasize sustainability, therefore organizations incorporate sustainability practices into their operations not just in response to demand from their stakeholders but also because sustainability enhances alignment between practice s, objectives, missions, and/or values of the organization. The ultimate goal of sustainability is to continuously satisfy peoples' needs, hence the concept of corporate sustainability emerges as a result of translating this notion on a business level and organizations must assess their performance if they want to increase corporate sustainability (Küçükbay and Sürücü, 2019). The proper use of performance measurement and management contro

l systems can aid in strategy implementation and help organizations ac hieve sustainability objectives (Mio, Costantini and Panfilo, 2021). SBSC combines the traditional four perspectives of the BSC with sustainability aspects in order to incorporate environmental, social, or ethical issues, as well as include sustainability - related objectives and performance metrics. It can be a useful tool that can help organizations in implementing sustainable strategies, fostering sustainability management standards, decision - making, reporting, supporting regulatory data requirements, meet ing stakeholders' information needs, and increasing employee awareness towards sustainability issues (Mio, Costantini and Panfilo, 2021). Prior studies indicate that customers play a vital role in affecting organizational sustainability and profitability in a highly competitive market. As the IT industry is a competitive market where the main objective of the warehouse operations to achieve customer satisfaction, this paper focuses solely on the customer perspective of the BSC (Nair et al., 2022). Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 43 3.2. 1 Customer Perspective From a customer perspective of BSC, managers identify the markets and customers in which a business unit will compete, along with the measures of da ta monetization of the business unit's performance in these targeted segments (Pierce, 2022). In this perspective, the success of a well formulated and implemented strategy is measured by a variety of core or generic terms ( Mohamed, 2019 ). Customer satisfa ction, customer retention, customer acquisition, customer profitability, market share in targeted categories are the primary outcome measures that guarantee data quality, services, and infrastructure (Pierce, 2022; Moullin, 2017). According to Mohamed (201 9), the customer perspective should also include specific measures of the value propositions the company provides to customers within targeted market segments. According to Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson (2019), segment - specific drivers of core customer outcomes refer to the elements

. For instance, buyers may place a premium on short lead times and on - time delivery that influence consumers' decision to move or rema in loyal to their suppliers. Alternatively, a supplier can anticipate a steady demand for innovative items and services by the customer and produce innovative items to meet those needs. According to Quesado et al., (2022), BSC paradigm organizations can al ign people, processes, and infrastructures to their goals, improving communication and alignment towards improving customer needs and corporate strategies. According to Lim et al. (2021), the core measurement group of customer outcomes is generic across al l organizations and includes market share, customer retention, customer acquisition, customer satisfaction, and customer profitability. The five measures may seem the same for all kinds of businesses. However, these measures should be tailored to the consu mer segments from which the business unit anticipates the most growth and profitability (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). Figure 7 shows the customer perspective core measure s: Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 44 a) Market share: This explains how much of a business unit's revenue is generated in a given market (by calculating the number of customers, amount of money spent, or number of units sold) b) Customer Acquisition: This refers to the rate at which a business unit acquires or wins new customers or busi ness. c) Customer retention: Measures whether a business unit retains or maintains an ongoing relationship with its customers in absolute or relative terms. d) Customer satisfaction: Determine the level of customer satisfaction according to specific performance criteria within the value proposition. e) Customer Profitability: Measures the profitability of a customer or segment after adjusting for the cost of providing that customer's support. This explains why the BSC is a modern business - standard instrument developed by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton for delivering the best services for customer satisfaction and the continued

expansion of the organization and strategic management system (Wahyuni et al., 2019). O ne of the four models developed to tackle the problem of weakness in measuring performance management of an organization was the customer's perspective, because the market segmentation is a source that would become a component of the company's financial go al by wanting the customer's retention, acquisition rate, and satisfaction level. The organization must emphasize the customer's viewpoint by ensuring that its productivity measuring system prioritizes customer demands. The customer's perspective sets the marketing strategy that the business will utilize to drive sales and customer loyalty by addressing the customer's desires and needs. The BSC approach has achieved popularity among various organizations, including profit and nonprofits, owing to the incorp oration of assets measurement into management systems (Ngure, 2022). Additionally, research in the BSC as a performance metric includes key indicators that have been created to measure the accomplishment of specific goals (Ngure, 2022). Figure 7 - Customer Perspective core measures (Kaplan and Norton, 1996, p.67) Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 45 By using the BSC approach, one can describe strategic dimensions of an organization and balance them with key performance indicators (KPIs) (Sarıgül and Coşkun, 2021) The refore, the following section discusse s the customer key performance indicators as these KPIs examines how the customer perceives the organization and, in particular, how the firm serves its customers ( Rashid, 2020 ). 3.2. 1 .1 Customer Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Customer perspective from BSC is a measurement of a company's capacity to provide customer s with excellent products and services, including delivery efficiency and customer satisfaction (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). This perspective focuses primarily on four dimensions, namely quality, time, service, and performance, and assists managers in answer ing the question, "How do consumers see organizations?" Among others it includes th

e following indicators: the rate of on - time delivery, the percentage of market share, the rate of customer rejections, and the rate of customer retention (Hasan and Chyi, 20 17). KPIs are important (key) indicators of an organization's progress towards an objective (Purbey, Mukherjee and Bhar, 2007). For strategic and operational improvement, KPIs serve as a focal point to give an analytical foundation for decision making and assist in focusing attention on the most important issues (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). Managing KPIs entails setting objectives (the intended level of performance) and monitoring progress towards those objectives. KPIs frequently entail focusing on leading indicators that will eventually result in lagging advantages. Leading indicators are markers of future achievement; lagging indicators reflect the organization's past success in accomplishing results (Narayan, Rajendran and Sai, 2008; Kaplan and Norton, 20 01; Kaplan and Norton, 1996). Customer KPIs are performance metrics that customer service teams use to monitor, visualize, analyze, and optimize customer relationships by applying an advanced 360 - degree customer view (Hristoski and Dimovski, 2020). The de mand on customer service teams to maximize profits and decrease expenses while also providing a greater level of care that matches modern customers' expectations for rapid, personable, and seamless service is enormous because after one negative customer se rvice encounter, customers will discontinue doing business with a company (Kortmann et al., 2014). Customer support may have a significant impact on a company's bottom and top lines, therefore, it is vital for support leaders to evaluate their agents' perf ormance, identify areas for Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 46 improvement, as well as recognize exceptional performance. To do this, certain customer service KPIs must be continuously analyzed in order to alter processes or enhance agent training (Duh, Hsu, and Huang, 2012). Chen et al., (2017) state that the most important aim of a warehouse system is to satisfy customers, whic

h involves implementing the eight KPIs: high quality product/services, on - time delivery, short delivery time, security of goods delivered, good price, satisfaction of latent needs. Further, Staudt et al., (2015), emphasize that on - time delivery and quality of goods/services leads to customer satisfaction and hence, the KPI´s to be implemented are: on - time delivery, orders shipped on time, order fill rate , perfect order and customer satisfaction. However, in order to understand the key drivers of satisfaction, acquisition, retention, and market share, it is necessary to understand the value proposition as exhibited previously in Figure 7 . In spite of the fact that value propositions vary across industries, and even within markets within industries, the following set of attributes were found to be common among all indust ries (Kaplan and Norton, 1996): 1. Attributes of a product or service include its functionality, its prices, and its quality. 2. Relationship with customers includes the provision of the product/service to the customer including the response and delivery time di mensions, and how the customer feels about purchasing from the company. 3. Reputation and image - It is the intangible factors that attract a potential customer to a company. The measurements that organizations employ for the customer perspective of the BSC help in the development of delivery time, quality, and price metrics that will assist them in achieving their objectives (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). The KPIs related to delivery and quality are explained as follows: - Time metric (Delivery) - The ability to r espond quickly and efficiently to a customer's request is frequently the most important ability for acquiring and maintaining valuable customers, including time - based customer indicators shows the significance of attaining and continuously minimizing lead times to fulfill the expectations of targeted customers. If timely delivery is crucial for key customer categories, measuring on - time delivery will Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 47 be an effective performanc

e indicator for customer satisfaction and retention (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). - Qua lity - A customer - perceived quality measurement can be of great value to the BSC from the consumer perspective. Quality can also refer to performance over time, where an on - time delivery metric is an indicator of how well the company delivers on the delive ry date it promised. Other quality measures can include consumer returns, warranty claims, and service requests (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). 3.3 Usefulness of the BSC in OPM in an organization Table 2 is a narrative review of the usefulness of BSC in the OPM in an organization to support RQ1 by including articles from 2017 to 2022 to give an understanding of the concept which are current. It provides the opinions of different authors on the usefulness of BSC and how it helps to achieve the OPM objectives. Table 2 - Articles to support RQ1 - Usefulness of BSC in OPM Author Name Usefulness of BSC OPM objectives (Quality, Delivery, Cost and Flexibility) 1. Cignitas et al., 2022 BSC translates actions into strategy and results The BSC methodology is extremely supportive in terms of costs , and the capacities of staff, quality level, reaction, and cost ti me for managers. 2. Pierce, 2022 BSC for Maximizing Data Performance: Data Monetization, Data Customer, Data Governance and Data Readiness Data monetization improves sales or speed of delivery of products and services and reduces costs ; and Data customer ensures data quality . 3. Quesado et al., 2022 BSC is a useful tool for communicating corporate strategies, accountability, identifying and facilitating people's participation by aligning people, processes, and infrastructures to their goals. From a customer perspective to satisfy customers and even e xceed their expectations through product quality and on - time delivery ; cost saving initiatives for the organization. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 48 4. Balaji et al., 2021 BSC aims to eliminate all lagging factors and develop polic

ies which consider all probes related to the business with a unified and competitive approach. An organization that is facilitated by BSC is able to eliminate all drag factors such as poor customer relationships, higher service times, longer delivery times, inefficient operating practices, low sales, inefficient production practices, and inadequate training, among others. 5. Sardjono et al., 2021 Results on a financial and strategic level, supply chain processes, technologies, interoperability, and capability levels. BSC contributes to the enhancement of efficiency and integration between departments. BSC implementation gains cost efficiency, profitability, and shareholder value from a financial perspective and provides better performance in terms of transparency, responsiveness, flexibility , and visibility. 6. Aryani and Setiawan, 2020 Implementation of the balanced scorecard shows a high level of success and a small amount of failure. The balanced scorecard is an effective tool for addressing the critical factors for performance management without increasing overall costs for organizations. 7. Benková et al., 2020 Using BSC methodology, the results confirmed the significance of nonfinancial indicators in the companies surveyed and the dependence between financial and human resources. Companies utilizing performance measurement tools such as BSC gain better results and emphasize product quality in an uncertain envi ronment by using non - financial measurements in addition to financial measures. 8. Camilleri, 2020 The BSC approach provides a more balanced view of performance, examines past and current performance, and proposes actions to improve employee performance and productivity. BSC's key performance indicators improve universities' quality and reputation by delivering customer - centric education, increasing research impact, and strengthening stakeholder outreach. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 49 9. Tuan, 2020 Balanced Scorecard as a management tool will improve the perform

ance of banks. It is possible to use BSC to track and improve customer debt collection outcomes, property quality , customer satisfaction, and the growth of banking services, as well as employee turnove r and the number of violations of bank laws. 10. Shariff et al., 2020 For warehouse organizations, BSC can be an ideal instrument for assessing and measuring their culture and describing, communicating, and implementing strategy Performance measurements achieved by BSC are management commitment, management system effectiveness, individual and group competence through training, good customer relations through quality food products and on - time delivery and operational control. 11. Faozanudin and Susanto, 2019 A balanced scorecard Customers' perspectives and internal business processes as the important warehouse performance metrics. BSC is used to assess performance, focusing on Customer satisfaction based on quality of cement sa ck delivery and internal business process based on space efficiency of the warehouse and level stock control. 12. Kefe,2019 BSC implementation facilitates decision making process and coordination. The enterprise's objective and vision emphasize product quality , qualified workers, and technical advancements in operational procedures. 13. Leksono, Suparno and Vanany, 2019 In BSC, the customer's perspective is the most important since it significantly impacts performance value. Financial and customer perspectives as drivers of Sustainable Healthcare Supply Chain (SHSC) performance include profit, quality of service, revenue, customer satisfaction, and stakeholder satisfaction. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 50 14. Quesado, Aibar Guzmán and Lima Rodrigues, 2018 BSC provides a resource for knowledge and information, ensuring that the people involved can communicate regularly; enable the linking of long - term strategy to short - term actions, and facilitate developing strategic awareness within the organization. BSCs have several advantages over traditional f

inancial reports, such as increasing flexibility , including non - financial aspects of data, commu nicating performance factors, and facilitating innovation and organizational learning. 15. Valchkov and Valchkova, 2018 High productivity and cost transparency for each unit (department) of the warehouse; enhanced internal communication, more focus on customer satisfaction, improved analysis for employee training and development, and better information for making decisions. BSC implementation at the warehouse achieved: Increasing warehouse delivery reliability, reducing cycle time for re - orders, occupat ional accidents, and increasing operational efficiency. 16. Anjomshoae et al., 2017 BSC measures performance and evaluate it objectively, helps in better deciding on the use of strategic resources for long - term growth rather than short - term goals, and enables better strategic decision making. Dynamic BSCs can enhance criteria given to static BSCs due to their greater flexibility . 17. Hasan and Chyi, 2017 As a two - way control mechanism, the BSC method repeats the loop from top to bottom and back again. BSC is considered a remedy to overcome deficiencies in using financial or output measures, it helps to identify reasons for corporate failure, adapts to the changes in the business environment, and is an essential tool for strategic planning. A ccording to SBSC, each environmental and social metric contributes to sustainability, value creation, and economic success by training and hiring locals reduces employee turnover, utilizing organic farming practices to attract environmentally conscious cli ents, enhanced production processes lead to cost savings and better company reputations. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 51 18. Malagueño, Lopez - Valeiras and Gomez - Conde, 2017 Implementing BSC in SMEs helped in improving financial performance that required managerial and employee involvement and enhance organizational capabilities. BSC can be used to enhance organizational efficiency wit

hout reducing flexibility , as it demonstrates in specific applications. 3.4 Warehouse Operations and Management A warehouse is a central location that stocks products for storage and shipping to customers (Kusrini, Novendri and Helia, 2018; Kumar, Narkhede and Jain, 2021) . The operations of a warehouse encompass both inbound inventory and outbound inventory where inbound inventory are recei ved, processed, packaged and stored in the warehouse and outbound inventory are packaged and shipped out according to customer orders (Cakmak et al., 2012). Warehouse operations are at the heart of supply chain management that aims for meeting the needs of a wide spectrum of customers and to fulfill customer service goals (Dissanayake and Rupasinghe, 2021). 3.4.1 Importance of Warehouse Operations The operations of a warehouse entail planning, controlling and implementing the reception, storage, transport ation of goods and services from the point of production or manufacture to the ultimate customer (Kusrini, Novendri and Helia, 2018). Warehouse operations enable their organizations to cut down on costs of doing business by optimizing processes to be eff icient and effective through planning and control of operations to satisfy customer demand and enhance customer satisfaction (Dissanayake and Rupasinghe, 2021). Warehouse operations allows organizations to have visibility into the product's lifecycle and can define the areas in which the product quality can be improved (Bag, Gupta and Luo, 2020). Timely delivery of a product is an important factor while considering the planning for distribution and availability of products and services which is taken care of within warehouse operations ( Bag, Gupta and Luo, 2020; Schroeder et al., 2020). Warehouse operations also deals with dissem inating information not only about demand and supply, but also volumes, inventory, prices and movements. Consequently, warehouse operations have increased their involvement in sharing pertinent information with the organization's system by serving as a lin k between the numerous departments. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh

52 3.4.2 Warehouse Management In an effort to streamline and manage supply chain process es efficiently many organizations have o pted to set up centralized production and storage warehouses. These warehouses can distribute a great diversity of products and services to cover a vast region of customers, consequently, it has become difficult to manage complex warehouses effectively and efficiently (Faber, de Koster and Smidts, 2013). Warehouse management entails the need for pl anning and controlling operations to ensure that operations run effectively and produce the required results and outcomes the way they ought to (Gu, Goetschalckx and McGinnis, 2010). Planning and control are complementary, while planning is concerned with deciding what should be done and how it is to be done, control puts in place the process of ensuring that the desired output is obtained (Faber, De Koster, and Van de Velde, 2002). There are two levels that are discernible within planning, tactical and ope rational. At the tactical level, warehouses make plans for efficient use of resources and ensure that market demands are met. Tactical plans serve as a foundation for operational planning where the majority of operational decisions concern the sequencing, scheduling, and routing of order picking and storage/retrieval processes (Bag, Gupta and Luo, 2020; Faber, de Koster and Smidts, 2013). As an organization implements plans, they may not go as expected due to changes that are taking place in the environment . Control is the act of adjusting to changes as it pertains to the management system's feedback and corrective action functions (Rouwenhorst et al., 2000). By monitoring what occurs and making appropriate modifications, control ensures that activities meet the objectives specified in the plan (Faber, de Koster and Smidts, 2013). 3.4.3 Warehouse operational performance management Across many industries, managing a warehouse is an essential part of a company's operations as it influences the company's capaci ty to deliver products on demand to customers. Warehouse operational performance management refers to the principles, proc

edure and processes adopted in ensuring that the day - to - day warehouse operations run as efficiently as possible and are cost - effective (Kusrini, Novendri and Helia, 2018). The functions that the management of warehouse must oversee to guarantee the required efficiency include monitoring how goods are received and shipped from the warehouse, training of employees, safe and on - time deliver y to the customer, and workload planning (Gu, Goetschalckx and McGinnis, 2007). Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 53 3.4.4 Impact of Covid - 19 pandemic disruption on warehouse operations The Covid - 19 pandemic is estimated to have shaken the world to its core and impacted businesses and every day life, with warehouses at the front line of disruption (Rana et al., 2021). Due to the uncertain business environment, all of these variables, such as demand, supply, and warehouse capacity, are considered uncertain along with delivery delays and labor shortages (Ferreira et al., 2021; Paul et al., 2021). Furthermore, Covid - 19 pandemic has placed unprecedented strains on the supply chain for all products and services, including labor, processing, logistics, and distribution, as well as significant cha nges in demand (Rana et al., 2021). Some of the Covid - 19 pandemic disruptions in warehouse operations that had an impact on the quality and delivery of the OPM from the customer perspective of the BSC in the warehouse include: - Unpredictable Demand - In the wake of Covid - 19 pandemic, warehouses looked to implement scalable processes to manage unpredictable demand. Utilizing a combination of material handling technology and software solutions, warehouses were required to implement variable order pick ing techniques that enabled them to readily handle peaks (and valleys) in order demand, increasing or decreasing picking speeds overnight that affected the delivery (Barman, Das and D e , 2021; Paul et al., 2021; Rana et al., 2021). - Continued Social Distancing - Even after Covid - 19 pandemic is no longer a threat and the mask mandates go away, socia

l distancing will continue by requiring either a smaller number of workers in the warehouse space or a bigger warehouse space (Singh et al., 2020) . This inc ludes maintaining one - way traffic aisles, sanitization stations, and designated work areas causing delivery delays (Barman, Das and D e , 2021; Singh et al., 2020). - Inventory on Hand - Manufacturers implemented lean manufacturing as the best practice prior to the Covid - 19 pandemic receiving materials just - in - time (JIT) for manufacturing which reduced inventory costs and maximized use of space (Rana et al., 2021). However, once the Covid - 19 pandemic struck, this lean strategy resulted in inventory shortages f or many manufacturers and in many cases, forced production to halt entirely as it may impact product quality . On the other hand, in addition to making space for social distancing, many warehouses were required more space to manage additional inventory that delayed delivery (Barman, Das and D e , 2021; Ivanov, 2021; Rana et al., 2021). Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 54 - Increased e - commerce - In the wake of Covid - 19, the sustained impact of increased e - commerce orders changed the order profile of the warehouse significantly (Rana et al., 2021) . Warehouses transitioned from case picking onto pallets bound for retail outlets – to packing individual items into boxes to be dispatched directly to end customers to fulfill orders (Paul et al., 2021) . This brought a major change for warehouse operations in terms of material flow, processes and storage technologies that affected delivery time (Rana et al., 2021; Singh et al., 2020). - Smaller Decentralized Warehouse Locations - In order to provide same - day or next - day delivery customer s during the Covid - 19 pandemic , manufacturers sought to decentralize their warehouse locations (Barman, Das and De, 2021). Proximity to the customer not only decreases transportation costs it reduces the risk of disruption if there is a delay, interruption or lockdown in one part of the country, b

ut not the other. While some manufacturers looked to establish these decentralized warehouse facilities in key locations, others had to utilize established 3PLs (Third Party Logistics) (Barman, Das and D e , 2021). The Covid - 19 pandemic that halted the world created severe pressure on all organizations and served as a lesson for the future. Therefore, it is necessary for organizations to prepare and focus on the affected parameters in order to mitigate loss significa ntly in the future (Rana et al., 2021). As the Covid - 19 pandemic is the latest disruption that the world still has not fully recovered from there is limited research in this field. Thus, the following chapter discusses the preparedness of organizations for future disruptions. 3.5 Preparedness for Future Disruptions Due to the Covid - 19 pandemic , most organizations faced several strategic issues in managing their supply chains in order to meet product and service delivery commitments and maintain customer satisfaction (Orlando et al., 2021). To be better prepared for future threats, businesses ne ed to reevaluate their inventory management strategies (Zimon et al., 2021) . From past supply chain disruptions caused by terrorist attacks, dock strikes, regional blackouts, and natural disasters, it is understood that companies realized the importance of developing emergency response plans for Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 55 their supply chains in order to respond to and recover from unavoidable organizational interruptions, but historically business performance with regard to crisis preparedness has been poor (Hale and Moberg, 2005). R egarding the recent disruption caused by Covid - 19 pandemic, many production and service organizations had established preparedness plans to deal with the pandemic scenario, which included fulfilling customer demand during the pandemic by storing necessary items and raw materials (Kumar et al., 2020). According to Chowdhury et al., (2021), along with recovering from the current crisis, it is essential to prepare well for the next epidemic or oth

er disruption. Preparedness refers to the ability to anticipate , detect, and respond to unpredictable and harsh outbreaks. According to a study, global disruptions posed a milder impact on firms that were prepared (Orlando et al., 2021). In preparation for future disruptions, retailers will have to focus on safety sto cks and replenishment capacity, with agile planning rather than forecasting (Saarinen et al., 2020). Using demand - and risk - sensing capabilities, managers can create alerts and plans to prepare for events that may disrupt or alter a flow (Handfield, Apte a nd Finkenstadt, 2022). According to Kumar et al., (2020) and Saarinen et al., (2020), distribution centers and warehouses can increase automation for moving goods to maintain social distancing and develop a manufacturing network strategy suitable for alter native sourcing options for raw materials, suppliers, and logistics service providers, etc. Furthermore, Kumar et al., (2020) suggest that in the future, using technology like drones, it is possible to manage the distribution of goods in urban areas, hence eliminating the need for direct interaction throughout the delivery process. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 56 4. Empirical Findings In this chapter the empirical data gathered from the respondents through a semi - structured interview is presented along with the organization chart in Figure 8 to show the responsibilities of the respondents and the departments controlled by them to get an in - depth analy sis of the BSC and OPM in their warehouse . The internal function process overview of the warehouse operations is described in detail in Appendix 8 .1 to give a focused view from the customer order to the order shipping for delivery to the customer. 4.1. Organization chart Figure 8 - Atea Logistics AB - Organization chart Figure 8 , the seven departments report to the CEO, who manages the four perspectives of the BSC. As this study focuses on the customer perspective of the BSC from the OPM objectives of quality and del ivery, only Business Suppor

t and Operations departments are being described. Business support deals with the customer related aspects including customer queries, customer relations, customer feedback, customer deliveries, etc. and Operations deals with pro ducts and services Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 57 quality aspects such as product quality, damaged products, incorrect order shipments, etc. Hence, for this study the CEO, the Business Support Manager and the Operations Manager are being interviewed to get a detailed view of the company ’s OPM and usefulness of BSC during the Covid - 19 pandemic will be discussed further in the following chapters. 4.2 Interview with Respondent 1 An interview was held with Respondent 1 for a duration of 36 minutes at 9:00 on 10 th May 2022 , the CEO/director of Atea Logistics AB who is responsible for overseeing the business activities in the central warehouse facility in Växjö ; however, he is not directly involved in the daily management of the operational activities as there are seven other managers that are responsible for their respective departments that report to the CEO. Atea’s warehouse operations are a key component of Atea's business, as Respondent 1 stated, "The main thing we do is in Atea's operations, and Atea’s operation is important and a big part of Atea's logistics." 4.2.1 RQ1 - How can a balanced scorecard be useful in operational performance management in an organization? The balanced scorecard is used in different ways and applied in various systems in the operational activities of the warehouse. Since "The balanced scorecard is used for the whole site, all our operations and not only for the production, but also closely linked to purchase department and how we get produ cts." The balanced scorecard is helpful in the warehouse operations because the balanced scorecard measures everything within the logistics of the warehouse to control cost, measure effectiveness, and compare facts from performance measured, which provides Atea the opportunity to understand performance flow and make changes to less

effective areas. As Respondent 1 said, "All logistic companies need to measure everything to talk about facts. Hence, the balanced scorecard is really useful in showing that we a re effective and helps us see we are getting the right temperature every day and the opportunity to see where we need to change" . Having a state - of - the - art warehouse in Växjö is not economical while there are “competitors that produce cheaper” versions of Atea’s “ products faster ,” however, the BSC helps Atea in making adjustments to activities to “ keep costs low ” and run operations efficiently. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 58 Measuring the relevant operations is very important for the use of the BSC. According to respondent 1, "if the KPIs measured are not relevant, there exists a problem that can negatively affect the work culture." Atea also plans to use the BSC to assess if the recycling unit is functional and profitable which will not only impact the financial performance but also achieve sustainability goals. According to respondent 1 the BSC will help in measuring “ how many not working PC can you give a new life to and sell on a new market? ” Atea has implemented a balanced scorecard use for many years and it was already a part of the Växjö facility when operations commenced in 2019. The management and employees support the use of the balanced scorecard as it gives everyone an opportunity to view the same information about the current status of the activities in the warehouse in comparison to the expected outcomes. The balanced scorecard makes Atea stay efficient and effective, ensuring that the set goals and relevant KPIs are measured, "It is a good way to measure operation to stay effective to see when things are going the wrong or right direction". 4.2.2 RQ2 - How was Atea's warehouse Operational Performance Management with regards to quality and delivery from the customer perspective of BSC? The BSC is used in the operations of Atea that are closely linked to the purchase and logistics department that is run by employe

es. During the Covid - 19 pandemic, comparing other countries’ lockdown situations with Sweden, we had the advantage of not shutting down completely so people could still work. Respondent 1 stated that there was ne ver a situation during the Covid - 19 pandemic “with a lot of people going home the same time that they had to close down production because that would mean that we close down the business.” At Atea, although the “administrative personnel worked from home an d so on. But the really big challenge was to get products into the warehouse.” Delivery lead times from manufacturers used to be “maybe like ten days or three weeks. And right now it's between 6 to 9 months to get the new PC from Asia to here. So that's b een the challenge. But really the issue was the demands were a lot higher than what could be produced. And that's what caused the situation in our industry.” Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 59 As the lockdowns eased globally and the shipments started to move, Atea received orders that were backed up for a year, so a lot of inventory came at one time, or some components did not arrive that were necessary to complete orders. This resulted in exces sive inventory that needed to be placed at another warehouse so operations could continue efficiently. High inventory has caused some cash flow concerns for Atea. “We normally have a lot of products in stock maybe to two or 300 million Swedish crowns. Righ t now, we are holding three times the normal inventory , so we have a warehouse almost full with products right now. And it is not good for cash flow.” Respondent 1 stated the positive outcome of the Covid - 19 pandemic for the IT industry by saying, “Our bus iness is up like 30% in the pandemic. So, I will not complain about the pandemic and the customers they are being they are being fantastic in this situation.” 4.2.3 RQ3 - How has the Covid - 19 pandemic helped Atea to prepare for future disruptions in the warehouse OPM from the customer perspective of BSC? Respondent 1 sees the Covid -

19 pandemic as “a really good exercise for us as a company. I do not think we have had these big changes in the production” Atea has learned “to plan for pur chases, it has given us some opportunities to work with our customers to make them go from customer - specific products to open stock products so they can share risks and stock with other customers.” Another major lesson is “how we see how we see our workpla ce” as most of the administrative staff worked from home, “they want to” continue to “work from home. They want to be measured on performance” while working from home, “not if they are or on - site from 8 to 5. So, I think that's the biggest change for us.” While automation is part of the new warehouse facility, Respondent 1 places a high value on having a healthy workforce rather than replacing them with new machines as “automated processes make things slower when the customer needs to change something in th e order if you need to stop an order.” Additionally, “We are also doing additional services on like 50% of our orders. So, if we went fully automated then then it wouldn't work for our business. We are not looking for more automation. We want our people, a nd we want to be able to be flexible.” In addition, Respondent 1 mentioned that “ Atea is about the people and only the people's game. When we have happy employees, we deliver with higher precision and better quality" Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 60 4.3 Interview with Respondent 2 The interview was conducted at 15:30 on 12 th May 2022 with the Operations Manager at Atea Logistics AB. She is the head of operations, and she has recently taken over the role of Customer Relations Center for the Nordic division. The Operations Manager wil l be referred to as Respondent 2 hereon. 4.3.1 RQ1 - How can balanced scorecard be useful in operational performance management in an organization? BSC was implemented when the operations at Atea began in 2019 which has helped the organization to stay on track during the Covid

- 19 pandemic . According to Respondent 2, the BSC helps in monitoring “ deviations in quality, cost, and delivery” so that adjustments and improvements can be made to the purchasing, production and delivery processes as shown in Appendix 8.1 . “ Different departments at Atea measure different aspects” so various KPIs get measured in one department that may not be similar to the ones that are measured in another department. BSC enables management to ensure that operations are running optimally to achieve “ short - term goals” . Although the management at Atea finds the BSC very helpful in assessing their operational performance there have been minor difficulties aligning an unde rstanding among managers why certain KPIs were monitored. Lastly, besides tracking quality and delivery KPIs, Atea monitored the “ healthy employees that showed up at work” rather than checking absenteeism as the management believes that the operational per formance is influenced positively when the employees are “ happy and healthy ”. 4.3.2 RQ2 - How was Atea’s warehouse Operational Performance Management with regards to quality and delivery from the customer perspective of BSC? The beginning of the Covid - 19 pandemic brought on challenges of inventory shortage for Atea as the global shutdowns made it impossible to receive products. The lead times for some products extended from a few weeks to several months as the “ suppliers did not provide any reliable inform ation” on estimated delivery time. Despite delays that lasted months at end, “ customers did not cancel their orders” . The management decided that administrative staff would work from home and the warehouse employees would follow social distancing and clean liness guidelines at Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 61 the warehouse (Atea, n.d.). Employee absenteeism was not a concern at Atea because most of the employees worked throughout the Covid - 19 pandemic. During 2021 when deliveries started coming in, Atea experienced massive inventory in the warehouse that was getting in the way of picki

ng orders hindering the delivery of orders that could be fulfilled. The automation unit can handle about 18,000 bins that were at capacity, so an additional space had to be rented to transfer slow moving produc ts and incomplete orders to make space for complete orders to be picked and delivered on time (Atea, n.d.). Holding massive inventory requires a huge investment that has resulted in very “ low cash” on hand for Atea. As orders are filled and shipped Atea ex pects customers to make payments in the near future so the company can build back the cash reserves. 4.3.3 RQ3 - How has the Covid - 19 pandemic help ed Atea to prepare for future disruptions in the warehouse OPM from the customer perspective of BSC? According to Respondent 2, “ there are so many different aspects in delivery alone that can be measured ” as there are different types of orders. For example, a simple order for a laptop being delivered directly to a customer only goes through the picking, p ackaging and ends up in transport. On the other hand, there could be an order for hundreds of laptops for a department in the university or a municipality where special software or security tags must be installed, and the customer does not want packaging t o be included in the delivery, so they need to be placed in special lockers to be delivered together to their final destination. These kinds of complicated orders require more KPIs to monitor the order to delivery process. The Covid - 19 pandemic has helped in learning to “ measure only the relevant processes” for different types of orders. Lead times should be communicated to customers with custom orders to encourage the customers to place orders well in advance. As the BSC gives management a good overview of their current status and helps in addressing “ deviations on a daily basis” , these measurements should be kept consistent during and post - pandemic. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 62 4.4. Email Information from Respondent 3 During the interview with Respondent 2 there were some measu res that she was

unable to provide so the authors were referred to the procurement manager, Respondent 3. Respondent 3 shared information about the incoming orders from suppliers in the form of KPIs that can be found in Appendix 8 .2 . According to Respondent 3, Atea “faced an ‘abnormal’ delivery situation” where the “delivery precision (from suppliers)” dropped from 73% to 61% at the beginning of the Covid - 19 pa ndemic and remained below 70%. As stated previously by other respondents, the “normal lead time went from 4 weeks to upto 8 months” and “component shortages” affected delivery to the customer. Furthermore, Respondent 3 stated that Atea does not have “alter native suppliers so they had to depend on their suppliers with manufacturing facilities in China .” As per Respondent 3 the message from “all suppliers is consistent that this situation will remain until the end of 2022” and it can be mitigated by “planned orders and early order placements” so that Atea can prepare for any future disruptions. Moreover, the suppliers are also trying to mitigate the risks of future disruptions by “securing/building new manufacturing facilities in other regions than Asia/China” Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 63 4.5 Summary of the Empirical Findings Prior to the data from the interviews are analyzed, a summary of the main points is given for each research question in Table 3 . The summaries of the main points are b ased on how the respondents answer each of the research questions. The links between the empirical data and the research questions are shown in the following subchapters. Table 3 - Summary of Empirical findings Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 64 5. Analysis and Results This chapter analyses and discusses the comparison of literature and empirical findings for each research question to understand the similarities and dissimilarities between theory and practice. 5.1 Usefulness of BSC in OPM in an organization In lit

erature BSC helps firms relate everyday operations to strategic goals to become more efficient. It evaluates financial and non - financial performance from financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth perspecti ves (Kaplan and Norton, 1992; 1996; 2005). The BSC helps firms align their people, processes, and infrastructures with their goals, enhancing communication and alignment. This is supported by respondent 1 that the BSC helps to monitor different activities in different departments that are connected so that the management can keep an eye on the operations and keep on track with the short - term goals as stated by respondent 2. Respondent 1 further stated that the BSC helps in identifying deviations so they can be rectified in a timely manner. According to Aryani and Setiawan's (2020) implementing the BSC indicates high success and low failure for the organization. Some authors suggest BSC provides a balanced and holistic review of past and present performance and improvement recommendations that can be used not only for evaluating performance but also for describing, communicating, and implementing strategies to improve supply chain processes, technologies, interoperability, and capability level (Camilleri, 202 0; Sardjono et al., 2021; Quesado et al., 2022). Respondent 1 agrees that the BSC communicates the current status to all users to compare with expected outcomes so that strategies can be implemented to improve processes in purchasing, production and delive ry also described by respondent 2. BSC is a two - way control mechanism that is done from top to bottom and back, identifying problems in assessing financial and operational metrics, identifying the reasons of corporate failures, and adjusting to changes in the business environment (Hasan and Chyi, 2017; Malagueno, Lopez - Valeiras and Gomez - Conde, 2017). According to respondent 1 the dashboard helps in monitoring deviations so they can be addressed in time, for example, the status of an order is visible to al l participants of the warehouse including top management at every step of the order process. If an issue is encountered, it can be flagged by anyo

ne at any given point and handled Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 65 immediately so that an incorrect order is not shipped to the customer. This is especially helpful in batch/bulk orders where several teams are working on the same order and each team might be working at a different pace. The BSC makes employees responsible, shows them where they can improve, and supports goal achievement (Kaplan and Norton, 1996; 2001; Malagueno, Lopez - Valeiras and Gomez - Conde, 2017), however, respondent 2 experienced a lack of understanding among users as to why certain KPIs were being monitored. Both respondents agree that the BSC should measure the relevant KPI s for different departments to make direct comparisons within the departments. If a problem is identified with a product, it can be traced back to the related department where it occurred as relevant KPIs are monitored in their departments. The BSC method is critical for facilities like warehouses that operate under various aspects, ensuring that the operational measures are aligned with the strategic goals, since it was also highlighted that customers' perspectives and internal business processes are impo rtant warehouse performance metrics (Faozanudin and Susanto, 2019; Shariff et al., 2020). As per Leksono, Suparno and Vanany (2019), the customer's perspective is the most important as it significantly impacts performance value of the organization. Accordi ng to respondent 3, the BSC helps in monitoring the Supplier Delivery Precision KPI ( Appendix 8 .2 ) that is directly related to the customer p erspective in regard to the OPM objectives of delivery and quality. This KPI helped Atea in monitoring the abnormal delivery situation during the Covid - 19 pandemic and alert customers immediately about the delay. Furthermore, it is suggested that the BSC i s also a useful instrument in a warehouse for assessing and measuring the culture of the organization, high productivity, and cost transparency for each unit (department) as well as improving internal communications, focusing more on customer satisfaction, improving

analysis for employee training and development as well as providing better information for decision - making (Valchkov and Valchkova, 2018; Shariff et al., 2020). Respondent 1 stated that the BSC helped Atea stay on track during the Covid - 19 pande mic as the management focused on monitoring healthy employees in attendance instead of checking on absenteeism. The top management places high value on their employees’ well - being as they Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 66 believe it directly affects the activities performed in the warehous e by the employees and impacts the quality and delivery of products. According to Mio, Costantini and Panfilo, 2021, the BSC is also useful to implement sustainable strategies, decision - making, inform stakeholders and raise awareness towards sustainability efforts. It is found that Atea takes the initiative to be sustainable and plans to implement the BSC to measure their sustainability efforts of recycling IT products to reduce waste and encourage their customers to buy used products. The BSC will help in analyzing if the effort to recycle products and to resell them in the current market would contribute to sustainability and profitability. 5.2 OPM from the customer perspective of BSC during the Covid - 19 pandemic Figure 9 - Operationalization of the OPM objectives to achieve the core measures of the Customer perspective of the BSC The operational and strategic performance management are interconnected by performance measurement based on cost, quali ty, flexibility, and delivery, yet both supplier and buyer performance improve when a buyer emphasizes on the core measures of the customer perspective of quality and delivery as a competitive strategy (Shin, Collier and Wilson, 2000). The OPM from the cus tomer perspective of the BSC focusing on quality and delivery in literature states that Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 67 quality is necessary to preserve customer loyalty and on - time delivery leads to customer satisfaction hence

focus on retaining the customer (Qureshi, Kumar and Kumar 20 08; Nabhani and Shokri, 2009; Staudt et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2017; Hasan and Chyi, 2017; Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2019; Doaly et al., 2020). The above - mentioned factors can be measured by monitoring the relevant KPIs which serve as the focal point f or both strategic as well as operational improvement. According to respondent 1, the focus is on quality and delivery even though there are cheaper products that are available faster in the market by the competitors, however, Atea has the advantage of havi ng a loyal customer base that depends on good quality products they sell. Furthermore, literature discusses that during the Covid - 19 pandemic, the warehouse OPM suffered from delivery delays and inventory shortages impacting the quality of the products a nd services due to logistics bottlenecks. On the contrary, excessive inventory was also a result of the delivery bottlenecks from suppliers when all delayed orders were received at once (Barman, Das and De, 2021; Ivanov, 2021; Rana et al., 2021). The OPM o f Atea’s warehouse from the customer’s perspective of quality and delivery had a mixed impact from the Covid - 19 pandemic. Respondent 1 stated that the sales increased by 30% achieving the goals of increased market share and customer acquisition, however, t he warehouse was not ready to fulfill the increased consumer demand in expected time. Procuring products from an alternate source was not an option as mentioned by respondent 3 because their brand partners (Apple, HP, Dell, etc.) only have manufacturing fa cilities in China. Atea sells quality brand specific products, therefore, cheaper substitutes were not an option even though they were available in the market. Based on the BSC reports from Atea that monitor the KPIs help in analyzing the warehouse activit ies in regard to achieving the goals of meeting quality and delivery objectives of the OPM. The Inbound Delivery Precision ( Appendix 8.2 ) ran ged from 59% to 73% during the pandemic and this situation is unlikely to improve until the end of 2022 as warned by the overseas manufacturers as they are still experiencing delivery

delays for certain products. As discussed in Table 3 all the respondents mentioned a longer inbound delivery time during the Covid - 19 pandemic that went from a few weeks to several months which led to inventory shortages in the warehouse during the latter part of 2022. This had a ripple effect on the outbound delivery time as products and in some cases components for certain orders were missing so they could not Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 68 be fulfilled lowering the production capacity of the warehouse. Prior to the Covid - 1 9 pandemic the customer order fulfillment to delivery time was 4 - 5 working days which then extended to several months due to longer inbound deliveries during the Covid - 19 pandemic as discussed earlier. Nevertheless, the delayed deliveries did not prompt cu stomers to cancel their orders as the management took swift action to inform their customers about the delays that fulfilled the core measures of customer satisfaction and customer retention. In fact, customers placed orders well in advance to prepare for any unforeseen delays as suggested by Atea to plan their purchases. Outbound Delivery Performance ( Appendix 8.3 ) for Warehouse during the pandemic remained above 96% which measures the number of orders that are received by the warehouse that are fulfilled and above 94% for Production which measures the number of orders that require assembly or customization. This KPI only measures the order s for which the items are in stock. Incomplete orders are not sent to the warehouse for packing (Warehouse) or assembly (Production) so the pending orders are not measured by this KPI, therefore, the report shows high order delivery accuracy despite invent ory shortage. Additionally, Atea measures the quality and delivery based on customer complaints/inquiries that is included in the Customer Incident report ( Appendix 8.4 ) that shows very low or no incidents which indicates that delivered orders are meeting the standards of quality and delivery. Another major impact was seen when Atea started receiving deliveries from suppliers in

2021 it experienced massive inventory as all backed up orders were delivered at once. The surplus in inventory caused cash flow concerns as most of the cash was tied up in inventory which has its advantages and disadvantages according to respondent 1. However, the cash flow will increase when customers start making payments in the near future as per respondent 2. It was also stated by respondent 2 that another consequence was the need for additional warehouse space so that existing orders could be processed efficiently as slo w moving products and components for incomplete orders had to be moved to another warehouse to make space for products that could be processed and shipped to the customers on time. Figures 13 and 14 show a clearer view of the dashboard with product stock status of in - stock and out - of - stock items that are in the warehou se and in production (Konfig) giving a more comprehensive view of the stock, orders, target outcomes, etc. This view helps the management Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 69 to keep track of the stock and order status that can facilitate strategies for operational decision making. The dashbo ard view also helps in tracking particular activities in the warehouse so that adaptations can be made in processes accordingly. For example, respondent 1 mentioned that if the work is pending in one section it shows on the dashboard and more resources can be allocated to that particular section to complete the tasks efficiently. 5.3 Preparedness for future disruptions in OPM from the customer perspective of BSC Researchers agree that disruptions have happened in the past and that prior research indicates that organizations must be prepared for future threats. The recent disruption caused by the Covid - 19 pandemic forced organizations to manage their supply chains effectively in order to meet product and service delivery commitments and ensure cust omer satisfaction. In order to prepare for a future disruption, the literature focuses on stockpiling and improving demand and risk sensing capabilities (Kumar et al., 2020; Saarinen

et al., 2020; Handfield, Apte and Finkenstadt, 2022) which is supported b y the empirics from the point of view of the IT service industry’s warehouse OPM that it is necessary to plan purchases and urge customers to select standard stock items as stated by Respondent 1 and Respondent 2. Suppliers have suggested to plan for purch ases and delivery well in advance and the same was communicated to the customers so that the orders are received and delivered on time without any missing components. Customers are also persuaded to order standard stock items instead of custom products tha t require special components that need to be assembled at the manufacturing facility (respondent 1). Customers can still get some degree of customization in their products which can be handled by the warehouse so that they are less dependent on the manufac turer. Furthermore, Atea’s recycling efforts can also be helpful in adding stock to the warehouse and respondent 1 plans to encourage customers to buy recycled products to reduce waste and save on manufacturing and shipping costs. This effort could be usef ul in reducing the impact of any future disruptions on the warehouse operations as recycled products would be readily available to ship to the customer without delays. The newly planned sustainability effort has to be analyzed by implementing the BSC and i t would have many positive impacts such as reducing waste, reducing costs, and increasing availability of recycled products. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 70 Literature also mentions increasing alternative sources for products (Kumar et al., 2020; Saarinen et al., 2020) which is backed up by Respondent 3 that the suppliers are looking into alternate manufacturing facilities other than China to minimize the impact of future disruptions. The brand partners/suppliers have indicated that over time they will consider new manufacturing facilitie s in regions other than China which is a lesson learned by many countries that are highly dependent on facilities in China. This would reduce the impact on inbound and outbound delivery delays in the fu

ture. While literature suggest increasing automation to maintain social distance for manufacturing, processing, and delivery (Kumar et al., 2020; Saarinen et al., 2020), the empirics disagree as Respondent 1 stated that there is enough automation in the warehouse which can only function if there are healthy employees to operate it, hence they focus on employee well - being. This is mainly because automation is unable to change or stop an order at a certain point in the order process which can incur additional cost if there is a mistake, however, an employee can step in at any point and interrupt the process. Both respondent 1 and 2 believe that employee satisfaction leads to higher precision in quality and delivery of products, therefore, they focus on employee well - being and will continue to focus on it in the future as well. Furthermore, as stated by Respondent 2 the organization would focus on order specific KPIs that are measured consistently in all situations not just during a disruption as this consistency greatly helped them monitor the situation during th e Covid - 19 pandemic. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 71 5.4 Summary of the Literature Analysis and Empirical Findings This chapter is a summarization of the existing literature and empirical data for the three research questions. Table 4 - Summary of comparison between literature and empirical findings Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 72 6 . Conclusion In this chapter the research is concluded by presenting the findings and answering the three research questions, theoretical contribution made to existing research, managerial implicat ions, limitations and future directions for research. The BSC is a tool that is used to align the operational activities with strategic goals of an organization as mentioned in existing research. In our findings, BSC was useful to provide an overview of t he operations so that adjustments could be made when and where necessary to improve quality and delivery in the O

PM by measuring relevant KPIs and keeping operational costs low while running processes efficiently by monitoring deviations. It was also foun d that the BSC was very useful in the warehouse OPM during the Covid - 19 pandemic which is an exclusive event that has disrupted all sectors globally. Based on existing literature and empirical research the BSC helped organizations to stay on track during the Covid - 19 pandemic . If the BSC had to be implemented during the Co vid - 19 pandemic it would have been exceedingly difficult to compare and align the operational activities in the warehouse to prior outcomes . First of all, it would have been challenging to identify deviations as it would be hard to make comparisons and sec ond, it would be straining to apply corrective measures proactively. Besides measuring operational activities of the warehouse, the BSC also helped in measuring the employee attendance which translates to their well - being during a physically and mentally s trenuous period of the Covid - 19 pandemic . Employees were scared to go to work due to concerns of contracting Covid - 19 during travel or at work and the management monitored employees that showed up at work and provided a safe working environment for them. Sustainability has become a major part of today’s business environment as more and more organizations are leading the change towards societal and environmental responsibility. According to the Global 100 index survey “ Atea is the world’s most sustainable c ompany in IT services ” and the warehouse in vaxjo will start monitoring their sustainability efforts of recycling products to sell in the market with the help of the BSC (Atea, 2022). Atea has had a varied impact on their operational performance during the Covid - 19 pandemic when the sales increased 30% the company was not able to keep up with the demand of fulfilling Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 73 customer orders as people needed PCs/laptops to work and study from home. The delivery objective of the OPM was impacted due to the global shu tdowns causing delaye

d inbound deliveries from suppliers in China by several months which had a direct impact on outbound deliveries to customers. In regard to quality, the customers were informed about the delays in orders caused by missing components as Atea focused on delivering complete orders, therefore, the quality of the products was not compromised. Atea’s customers remained loyal and did not cancel orders despite lengthy delays as they value the products and services provided by Atea exhibiting cus tomer satisfaction which is one of the core measures of the customer perspective of BSC. The Covid - 19 pandemic has compelled businesses to plan and prepare for future disruptions in advance so that the impact from the disruption is reduced. Atea has cons idered to implement certain measures to prepare for future disruptions beginning with making planned purchases for delivery well in advance. Customers have been advised to take the same steps for planning orders as well as ordering stock items that are readily available instead of customized products that would need to be manufactured requiring a longer delivery window. Atea’s management would focus on order specific KPIs that are relevant for the ir related departments and keep them consistent after recovering from the Covid - 19 pandemic . Atea does not focus on replacing employees with automation as a preparatory step because they believe that employee s are necessary to run the automated machines an d they rather focus on employee well - being and employee satisfaction that leads to higher delivery precision and better quality products . Atea’s will collaborate with suppliers that plan to source facilities in alternative regions other than China to have better accessibility to products worldwide . 6 .1 Contribution to existing research This research adds to the field of management accounting focusing on the BSC in OPM of an organization; the contribution to existing literature is provided by presenting a latest review of different authors on the perceived usefulness of the BSC in differe nt industries. The BSC aligns operations to strategy which is dynamic has to be r

eassessed constantly with the changing environment, therefore, this review provides a generalized view of the BSC in the field of management accounting. Additionally, this pap er empirically assesses the usefulness of the BSC Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 74 from the customer perspective on the OPM to address the impact of the disruptions caused by the Covid - 19 pandemic. Previous research has suggested to focus on industry specific studies in warehousing to dea l with the challenges posed by disruptions, hence this study adds to the existing research on the impact on OPM focusing on quality and delivery from the customer perspective of the BSC of an IT infrastructure service provider warehouse in Sweden. As the C ovid - 19 pandemic is the latest disruption which impacted all the businesses globally this paper not only focuses on the impact on the OPM of the warehouse in the IT service industry but also attends to the preparedness for future disruptions in a warehouse . 6 .2 Practical Implications In a practical situation this study supports the implementation of BSC in an organization affects the OPM positively by gaining a concise view of the operations, identifying any deviations and monitoring the fluctuations to respond immediately to any abnormality. During a disruption when consumer demand is unpredictable and organizational capabilities are tested, the BSC can be useful to analyze the situation and make necessary changes in operational activitie s to cope with the crisis situation. The BSC is a tool to link the operations with strategic goals, therefore, it is beneficial in developing strategies to prepare for future disruptions so that the affect is minimized on current operations. 6 . 3 Limitati on s This paper is limited to the customer perspective of the BSC concentrating on the OPM objectives of quality and delivery. Additionally, this paper is limited to a single case study that makes it hard to generalize the results. This study focused only on the operational level performance during the Covid - 19 pandemic . Time is an addit

ional limitation for this study as the interviews were conducted via Zoom for a limited time due to their busy schedules. Another drawback of an online interview is that dif ferent approaches of observation of the respondents in the same physical setting as the interviewer was missing , which is an important factor of qualitative research (Mulhall, 2003). Furthermore, the online interviews are vulnerable to misinterpretation due to their dependence on technology (internet connection issues) . The availability of the data from the Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 75 company was limited due to confidentiality of company records which affected th e scope of the analysis for this study. 6 . 4 Future research Considering the limitations of this study, following are recommendation for further research that will contribute to the existing research. F uture research can include the other three perspectiv es of Financial, Internal Business Process, and Learning and growth of the BSC including the other two objectives of OPM, flexibility and cost . Future research can conduct a multiple c ase study to give a generalized view of the industry that includes resul ts from various companies . Strategic, t actical and operational level performance during the Covid - 19 pandemic can be analyze d to give an overview of the disruption for the organization at different levels. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh 76 7 . References 2GC Limited (2021). 2020 Survey | 2GC . [online] 2gc.eu. Available at: https://2gc.eu/resources/survey - reports/2020 - survey. [Accessed 25 May 2022]. About A tea - Atea. (n.d.). About Atea - Atea . [online] Available at: https://www.atea.com/about - atea/ . [Accessed 19 March 2022]. Atea (2022). [online] Available at: https://www.atea.se/om - atea/nyhetsarkiv/pressmeddelanden/2022/atea - ar - varldens - mest - hallbara - bolag - inom - it - tjanster/ [Accessed 30 Jun. 2022]. Ahire, S.L. and O’Shaughnessy, K.C. (1998). The role of top manag

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The Implementation and Adaptation of the B alanced Scorecard in a Government Agency. Australian Accounting Review , 30(1), pp.65 – 79. Zhang, G.P. and Xia, Y. (2012). Does Quality Still Pay? A Reexamination of the Relationship Between Effective Quality Management and Firm Performance. Production and O perations Management , 22(1), pp.120 – 136. Zimon, G., Babenko, V., Sadowska, B., Chudy - Laskowska, K. and Gosik, B. (2021). Inventory Management in SMEs Operating in Polish Group Purchasing Organizations during the COVID - 19 Pandemic. Risks , 9(4), pp.1 – 16. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh i 8 . Appendix 8 .1 Customer Order Process from Order received to order delivery Atea’s distribution center is a state - of - the - art recycling logistics and configuration center which includes both office and production space. Atea prioritizes effi ciency and sustainability across the IT products’ lifecycle. Figure 10 shows the order to delivery process where products are delivered to the Atea logistics warehous e daily, here large items such as PCs and monitors are stacked on pallets and racks and smaller items, such as cell phones and IT peripherals, are stored in a new automated logistics storage unit. These items are packed in totes, which are then placed on a moving track and carried into the automation where the newly installed automated logistics storage facilities can accommodate up to 18,000 totes (Warehouse) . When an order comes in, robots select and move totes containing the products ordered by the consu mer. IT goods that will be configured are unloaded from shelf racks into configuration wagons where they are unpacked (Configuration) . Figure 10 - Atea Logistics AB function process overview in the warehouse Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh ii The power and internet connection are then installed and activated on the computers to check functionality, configured, a nd labelled with inventory and anti - theft labels as per the customers’ requirements (Config

uration) . Atea provides services for a variety of product categories, including PCs, mobile phones, tablets, data center print, audio, and video. Once the computers have been installed, order information and filler materials are used to safeguard the merchandise during transport, and they are placed into extremely secure cabinets and shipped to the customer (Transport Planning) . 8 .2 Delivery precision ( inbou nd from suppliers): Figure 11 - Supplier delivery precision % (2020 - 2022) Figure 1 1 shows the supplier delivery precision percentage from 2020 to 2022 for Atea Logistics AB. This KPI helps the management track inbound delivery delays and respond to the delays by informing the customers so they can plan accordingly. 8.3 Delivery Perform ance (outbound to customers) Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh iii Figure 12 - Outbound Delivery Performance Report (2020 - 2022) Delivery Performance report shows that the warehouse maintained the delivery performance above 95% during the pandemic. 8.4 Incident Report (Outbound Orders) Figure 13 - Incident Report (2020 - 2022) The i ncident report in Figure 13 shows the number of orders received (Antal), the number of orders shipped (Rätt), the percent of orders shipped of the orders received (Procent), and finally the number of incidents recorded (Intern incidenter) that include customer complaints, incorrect orders shipped or delivery p roblems. Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh iv 8.5 End user KPI measures for 2020 and 2021 for Atea Logistics AB Figure 11 and Figure 12 exhibit the end user KPIs that are monitored by Atea Logistics AB to analyze performance of the warehouse operations. In this BSC dashboard , all aspects that are relevant to the warehouse are shown that give the management an overal l view of the operations. The following KPIs are included in the report: Delivery precision; Product in stock; Config in warehouse; Product not in stock; Do not Configure in stock, etc. Figur

e 14 - 2020 End user KPI measures Atea Logistics AB Figure 15 - 2021 End user KPI measures Atea Logistics AB Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh v 8.6 Interview Guide ATEA – Questionnaire Record the Interview – Do we have your permission to record this interview? Please note that the disruption in this interview is referring to the disruption caused by the Covid - 19 pandemic. General Questions 1. What is your current position at Atea and what are your main responsibilities? 2. How are your responsibilities related to the operations performance management of the warehouse? 3. What do you see as challenges/problems the warehousing industry is facing right now? 4. To what extent is the Balanced Scorecard used in your warehouse ? Usefulness of Balanced Scorecard in Operational Performance Management in wa rehouse operations 1. How useful do you find the Balanced scorecard in your warehouse operations? 2. How supportive do you find your management when implementing the Balanced scorecard? 3. How do you think the Balanced Scorecard affects the work culture of the warehouse? 4. How efficient do you think the warehouse operations became after the implementation of Balanced Scorecard? 5. What challenges did you face/are you facing with the implementation of a Balanced Scorecard? Impact of disruption on the Operational Perfo rmance Management from the BSC perspective on the warehouse operations 1. How did the Covid - 19 pandemic impact the operational performance objectives of quality and delivery from the customer’s perspective in Balanced Scorecard? a) How was the order fill rate impacted during the Covid - 19 pandemic (2020 - 2021) ? b) How was the orders shipped on - time impacted during the Covid - 19 pandemic (2020 - 2021)? c) How was the on - time delivery impacted during the Covid - 19 pandemic (2020 - 2021)? d) How was t he delivery accuracy impacted during the Covid - 19 pandemic (2020 - 2021)? e) How was the order damage rate impacted during the Co

vid - 19 pandemic (2020 - 2021)? f) How was the perfect order rate impacted during the Covid - 19 pandemic (2020 - 2021)? g) How was the customer satisfaction impacted during the Covid - 19 pandemic (2020 - 2021)? 2. Do you think we are missing any KPIs related to customer perspective that are monitored by Atea and not mentioned above? Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata, Chioma Ngeleh vi Outcomes of balanced scorecard in operational performance managemen t during Covid - 19 pandemic for preparing the managers to control future disruption in the warehouse operation. 1. How do you think integrating more automation processes would affect the operational performance management during a disruption such as the Covid - 19 pandemic, in the future? 2. Which additional measures can be introduced to the BSC to control, monitor and minimize the impact of future disruptions on the operational performance of the warehouse? 8.7 Consent Form Interview Consent Form Declarati on: I agree to be interviewed to provide an empirical foundation for the Master Thesis on Usefulness of Balance Scorecard in Operational Performance Management during the Covid - 19 Pandemic composed by Ann Sarah George, Jyotsana Lata and Chioma Ngeleh unde r supervision of Professor Helena Forslund at Linnaeus University, Sweden. I herewith certify that I was informed about the publication of the Thesis and am aware that the results will be shared with all research participants. I hereby permit that (pleas e mark corresponding boxes): The interview will be audio recorded Notes will be taken Notes will be shared with the supervisor and examination team My name will be mentioned My position will be described The organization’s name will be stated Additional remarks by the interviewee: ...................................................................................................................... ................................................. ... Name, Company, Date Thank you very much for your participation in our research. Ann Sarah Georg