Is Bling a Thing? Exploring the Performance Management Systems of a Luxury Fashion Brand

Sammanfattning

This qualitative single case study draws upon eleven interviews and investigates how distinguishable characteristics associated with being a luxury fashion brand have affected the company's Performance Management Systems ("PMS") and the subsequent implications for the interplay between financial and non-financial focus. Empirically structured around Otley's (1999) framework for PMS research and analyzed with Bourdieu's (1986) forms of capital theory, the findings indicate that industry-inherited key characteristics of the company were derivable to a combination of underlying social and cultural capital in the organization. The extensive focus on nurturing the brand identity and the maintenance of the competitive advantage connected to the perceived exclusivity of the products were identified as material resources. This pressured the management team into a resource-based and short-sighted strategy formation, ultimately contributing to a financial bias that permeated the PMS at the company. Finally, high sensitivity to macroeconomic events was identified as the third characteristic. It was not found to contribute to the financial bias in the organization. Instead, it highlighted shortcomings in the critical capabilities of PMS that are deemed material during transformative phases, specifically information and communication.