Purpose The purpose of this paper is to synthesize insights from previous accounting, performance measurement (PM) and accountability research into the rapidly emerging field of knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs). In so doing, it draws upon insights from previous literature and other papers included in this special issue of Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews academic analysis and insights provided in the academic literature on accounting, PM and accountability changes in KIPOs, such as universities and healthcare organizations, and paves the way for future research in this area. Findings The literature review shows that a growing number of studies are focusing on the hybridization of different KIPOs, not only in terms of accounting tools (e.g. performance indicators, budgeting and reporting) but also in relation to individual actors (e.g. professionals and managers) that may have divergent values and thus act according to multiple logics. It highlights many areas in which further robust academic research is needed to guide developments of hybrid organizations in policy and practice. Research limitations/implications This paper provides academics, regulators and decision makers with relevant insights into issues and aspects of accounting, PM and accountability in hybrid organizations that need further theoretical development and empirical evidence to help inform improvements in policy and practice. Originality/value The paper provides the growing number of academic researchers in this emerging area with a literature review and agenda upon which they can build their research.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to debate various critical issues in the implementation and use of the balanced scorecard (BSC) as a management control tool. Because there is no self‐evident solution to these critical issues, they are termed dilemmas.Design/methodology/approachThe paper contributes to the BSC debate by collecting insights from empirical findings, as well as exploring various theoretical aspects.FindingsAfter presenting four perceived dilemmas and how they affect the implementation and use of the BSC in various settings, the paper concludes that there is a need for further debate and research on these dilemmas.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is primarily a contribution to the debate concerning the balanced scorecard and its range of application as a management control model.Practical implicationsThe paper is motivated by an overall high rate of implementation failure in various practical settings.Originality/valueSome of the problems described have been debated before, whereas others are new. However, there has been hardly any discussion of the dilemmas in conjunction with one another. The paper is an attempt to generate important new questions about the future implementation and use of the BSC.

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The present qualitative study explores what eleven Swedish organizations have systematically worked at to increase the understanding of the importance of intangibles as performance drivers. The present analysis is accomplished using a combination of evolutionary theory, knowledge-based theory and organizational learning. The results indicate that assets in an accounting sense seem to be of less interest than perceptions of activities that enable future performance. These “enablers” are often customer and employee perceptions of individual, organizational and relational competence. The way for the firms to ascertain a continuous organizational learning process with respect to the value creation chain is to measure intangibles as well as to maintain organizational routines that ensure the transformation of measurement results into action.

Management control systems may differ markedly from organization to organization. However, the trend within many of today's organizations is to include new perspectives in their formal management control and accounting systems. This ongoing transformation of management control systems is partly driven by the notion that intangibles play an increasingly important role in an organization's value creation process and thereby has to be visualized to a greater extent than hitherto. Nowadays, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders are frequently incorporated into the value creation process of organizations. Together with the growing importance of other intangible resources, such as leadership, employee competence and internal business processes, this approach promotes a highly complex picture of the organizational value creation process. The aim of this paper is to analyze organizational value creation from a management control perspective and, based on a longitudinal case study of a Swedish bank, discuss possible key features of a management control system that enables organizations to understand and allocate attention to the value creation of the firm.