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Purpose-Business networks have to coordinate each of their partners' goals and expectations, as a lack of partner compatibility and goal incongruence could lead to conflict and opportunistic behavior. These potential problems highlight the relevance of partner selection as a means of minimizing opportunistic behavior by building trust in and commitment to a network that influences network performance. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into partner selection as a management control mechanism, which controls the behavior and network performance of business network partners. Design/methodology/approach-The paper provides an analysis of the effects of a well-executed partner selection on business networks' performance. The paper further analyzes the effects of the mediating role of trust within, commitment to, and the risk of opportunistic behavior in business networks. Consequently, the paper highlights the pivotal role of partner selection in business networks as a management control mechanism. Findings-The results provide an exploratory empirical insights into the cause-and-effect relationship between partner selection, partners' behavior, and network performance. Partner selection has effects on trust, opportunism, and commitment. The selection of a partner is a very important managerial control task within business networks, as appropriate selection is a threshold condition for a successful business network. Research limitations/implications-Since the study is based on empirical data collected by individuals, it could be open to general criticism regarding the methodology of broad empirical analysis. Time-lagging effects also remain unrevealed as the data represent only a point in time. Some effects cannot be verified indisputably, while the low variance in some of the construct results is only indicative of suggestions. Originality/value-This paper provides insights into partner selection as a management control mechanism, which controls the behavior and network performance of business network partners.

PurposeOver the past few years, developments in business analytics have provided strategic planners with promising instruments for dealing with turbulent environments. This study aims to reveal whether or not the application of business analytics in strategic planning contributes to better company performance, and to formulate recommendations on how to integrate business analytics in companies' performance management systems.Design/methodology/approachBased on a survey conducted with 89 respondents from high‐technology firms, a group comparison between firms with strong performance and those with weak performance reveals significant differences between the two groups' strategic planning processes and application of business analytics.FindingsThe empirical survey's results show that better‐performing companies are characterized by a more sophisticated analytical planning process. Lower‐performing firms acknowledge this competitive advantage. Based on these findings, the authors develop recommendations on how to integrate business analytics in performance management contexts.Research limitationsThe empirical study's results are limited to high‐technology industries in the cultural setting of Germany.Practical implicationsThe empirical results emphasize the competitive advantage gained by applying business analytics. The recommendations concerning analytical performance management should help managers to sensibly integrate the analytical toolbox in performance management contexts.Originality/valueThis paper combines insights on the best usage of business analytics from the perspective of strategic planning experts, with recommendations for the integration of business analytics into the performance management framework from an academic perspective.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect between intangible and tangible (i.e. financial) organizational performance as well as the effects of the crucial influencing factors "trust", "strategic relevance" and "participation". Design/methodology/approach -Structural equation modelling is used to test a large-scale empirical study of more than 100 German business networks. Quantitative data are collected from the heads of the management accounting departments by means of a written questionnaire. Findings -The results show an interrelation between intangible and tangible/financial performance that is mainly influenced by strategic relevance and participation. In contrast to other studies, trust is not found to have significant effects on tangible or intangible performance.Research limitations/implications -As the study focuses on German business networks, country-specific effects cannot be excluded. Furthermore, no time-lagging effects have been revealed, as the data are only representative of a point in time. As the study is based on empirical data gathered by individual persons, it is open to general criticism of the broad empirical analysis methodology that is applied. Practical implications -The study supports the selection of measures for performance management and the control of intangibles. It differs from prior studies in respect of its findings regarding the impact of trust on intangible and tangible performance; consequently, more research on this topic is essential. Originality/value -This is one of the first studies that focuses on the prerequisites of intangible performance instead of investigating the correlation between different groups of intangible factors. Measures from social capital theory, as well as from organisational system design and strategic management, are integrated into this study.

In recent years, companies have been changing their innovation strategies, as they have realized that original new products can offer a major competitive advantage. Therefore, many companies are focusing on a more closely managed productinnovation process, and have consequently increased their use of performancemanagement frameworks. By doing so, such companies hope to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their new-product-development activities. Within the performance-management framework, the use of innovation metrics plays an important and beneficial role. For this reason, the present paper investigates the relationship between the design of innovation performance management frameworks and the actual utilization of information obtained from the implemented innovation metrics. We collected data from 133 technology-intensive companies and employed structural equation modeling for empirical analysis. This method allowed us to determine which design factors positively affect the extent to which managers conceptually use innovation metrics. In particular, we investigated how the balance, coherence, adaption, and user know-how of innovation metrics relate to their conceptual use. Our results suggest that balance and user know-how of the metrics improve conceptual use of the performance measures, whereas no effect can be observed regarding coherence and adaption of the metrics. Thus, it seems highly advisable for firms