The purpose of this study is to explore the changes in performance management practices and effectiveness in Japanese companies, as well as the existence, content, and factors behind the transformation in thinking. The characteristics of this study are the implementation of a longitudinal analysis based on ten years of actual survey data, the in-depth study of the obtained data, and the integrated interpretation with reference to other actual surveys. The results of the analysis indicate that the changes in performance management over the ten-year period from 2009 to 2019 may be a gradual improvement of the traditional P/L (profit and loss statement)-centered management by strengthening the accounting control, rather than a radical change to a management that emphasizes capital efficiency and balance sheet. In addition, it was suggested that the aim of the change was to improve short-term financial performance rather than to enhance medium- to long-term corporate value. Although some signs of transformation were suggested in some groups of companies, it is possible that the average company surveyed is only making incremental improvements as an extension of its existing practices, rather than proactively transforming its performance management. This study is positioned as a hypothesis-generating study, and is useful for explaining the actual situation and analyzing future research topics.

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This study provides additional empirical evidence regarding the role of enabling control in pursuing multiple objectives. Drawing in data from a survey of 168 Japanese firms in the food-service industry, our findings, using PLS-SEM analysis, suggest that enhancing multiple objectives which are essential for strategic differentiation leads to a development of the four design principles (i.e., flexibility, repair, internal transparency, and global transparency), and then working together as an enabling control. We also find that the enabling control is positively associated with the organization’s adaptable capability.

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Sustainable companies are needed to prioritize their CSR issues in order to measure CSR performance. In this paper, we explore the case of Japanese homebuilding company from the perspective of the new institutionalism to show the institutional isomorphism of corporate CSR performance measurement. Our findings show that the isomorphism of the practice of determining materiality of CSR issues and defining CSR performance measures. We also found that the linkage between CSR activities and CSR performance measures.

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This study conducted an exploratory analysis based on questionary surveys about goal setting in the context of target costing in the Japanese manufacturing industry. Using the web-based survey data of engineers, this study identified six attributes related to goal setting (i.e., support for goal achievement by supervisor, dysfunctional aspects of goals, goal difficulty, goal clarity, rewards for goal achievement, and support for goal achievement by the organization), and demonstrated that five of the attributes (except for dysfunctional aspects of goals) were positively related to job performance of engineers.

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