26 • 1

CHAPTER

26

DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE

MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS FOR

A GLOBAL WORLD: THE

COMPLEXITIES TO COME

Stephen J. Mezias

New York University

Patrice Murphy

New York University

Ya-Ru Chen

New York University

Mikelle A. Calhoun

New York University

CONTENTS

26.1 Introduction 1
26.2 Adaptive Aspirations 4
(a) Arguments Concerning
Aspiration Levels 5
(b) Role of Aspiration Levels 5
26.3 A Field Study of Adaptive
Aspirations 6
26.4 Three Preliminary Analyses 8
(a) The Data 8
(b) Empirical Confirmation of the
Adaptive Process 8

(c) Aspiration Levels through the

Balance Sheet 9

(d) Adaptive Aspirations at the

Boundary and in the Technical

Core 10

26.5 Conclusion 11

SOURCES AND SUGGESTED

REFERENCES 13

26.1 INTRODUCTION. The growing intensity of global competition has been
widely documented, both with respect to the structure and strategy of transnational
organizations^1 and the effects on behavior in organizations.^2 In order to compete
more effectively in global markets, increasing numbers of firms are establishing

(^1) Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1989.
(^2) Adler, 1992.