A performance measurement system for SMEs taking part in Quality Award Programmes

This work aims to contribute to the understanding of performance measurement systems (PMSs) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) taking part in Quality Award Programmes. The paper proposes a framework to classify PMSs and shows how it can be used to study the PMSs adopted by a group of leading Italian SMEs. The purpose of this paper is not to represent the level of development of PMSs in SMEs, but rather to use the collected data to identify the improvement path these systems have in their implementation in SMEs taking part in Quality Award Programmes. The framework does not intend to provide a normative or prescriptive model, but rather to propose a more comprehensive and descriptive reference that can be used to evaluate PMSs in SMEs.