eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

Objectives

Performance dashboards are increasingly popular among executives, managers and staff to monitor key business metrics at a glance and move through layers of information to get the insight they need to solve problems quickly, efficiently and effectively. The objective of this thesis is to identify the key factors that enable the successful adoption of performance dashboards. Furthermore, my thesis discusses how, why and when the key factors affect the project outcomes.

Academic background and methodology

In order to achieve the objectives, through a literature review, I first define what a performance dashboard is and discuss the similarities and differences with other decision support systems. Then I gather from earlier research the potential critical success factors and analyze them by making semi-structured interviews in the case organization, which uses dashboard systems and have taken part to the adoption phase. I analyze the data using TOE-framework and process theory approach. Finally, I conclude by reflecting the empirical findings against previous literature on decision support systems.

Findings and conclusions

On the macro level, proper sponsorship and resources for the project are essential. Driving organizational change and proper project planning ensure the end-user adoption from the start of the project. In addition, it is vital to create right metrics and standardize their meaning. A compelling graphical user interface should be designed due to the graphical nature of a dashboard. In addition, users, who involve in the implementation by giving suggestions to the project team, have less resistance to the system adoption. New findings from case study show that in the maintenance phase of the project user requirements should still be gathered and careful grouping of the users at the beginning of the project helps to build proper dashboards and reports for the particular user groups.