Performance measurement and management in a VUCA world

It is widely recognised that performance measurement systems (PMS) are important for the management of a factory, business enterprise or public sector organisation. However, the case can be made that the development of PMS and organisational forms are inextricably linked. As the economic, technical and trading environment evolves, organisations need to adapt, and so do the measurement and management systems.

In this editorial, we will retrace the history of PMS from early factory costing systems through to the multi-dimensional approaches widely used today. As the world evolves, organisations and PMS need to evolve too with the papers in this special issue reflecting this. These papers lead us to reconsider the future of PMS as climate change, the internet of things (IoT) and new technology drive us forward towards a complex and uncertain future.