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Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the identification of barriers to the implementation of benchmarking initiatives. Managers have little guidance on strategies for successful implementation
and face difficulties in anticipating problems. The main objective of this paper is to provide a better understanding of typical barriers that occur in a specific type of benchmarking: internal benchmarking.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper systematically develops a categorized list of barriers to internal benchmarking based on the literature; and validates and enriches them with an in-depth case
study of an internal benchmarking initiative.
Findings – Barriers to internal benchmarking initiatives of different types are found: organizational barriers (people, culture, and context), benchmarking project management barriers (planning and
implementation, leadership, and business pressures) and benchmarking data barriers (difficulty to access/compare data). Future studiesmight take these categories as a solid starting point in furthering the
understanding of barriers to benchmarking.
Research limitations/implications – The exploratory nature of the paper limits its generalizability.
Practical implications – The paper paves the way for the process of devising strategies to overcome the identified barriers. This is especially relevant because few studies to date have focused on these issues and benchmarking practitioners have insufficient knowledge to anticipate and overcome
benchmarking-related problems.
Originality/value – This paper contributes to theory building on the implementation of
benchmarking in general; and on barriers to internal benchmarking initiatives in particular.
Description
A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2006 Conference of the European Operations Management Association (EurOMA), “Moving up the Value Chain”, Glasgow, UK.
Keywords
Benchmarking Manufacturing industries Change management Project management
Pedagogical Context
Citation
AMARAL, Paulo, SOUSA, Rui - Barriers to internal benchmarking initiatives: an empirical investigation. Benchmarking: An International Journal. ISSN: 1463-5771. Vol. 16, n.º 4 (2009), p. 523-542
Publisher
Emerald