Risk Framing in Performance Measurement Systems: The Effect on Risky Decision-Making

To address the limitations of the traditional performance measurement systems (PMSs) in visualizing risk and preventing excessive managerial risk-taking, a number of research studies proposed to extend the functionality of PMSs by incorporating risk measures and goals and thereby enabling a better view on organizational risk exposures. While researchers still continue to provide claims regarding the benefits of a balanced approach to combined risk and performance representation in PMSs, the literature still lacks a uniform vision about the design of such risk-aware PMS and about how effective it is in the context of making risky decisions. In this study, a laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate how framing risk through strategic goals and key indicators incorporated in a PMS affects risky decision-making. The findings demonstrated a significant direct effect between PMS problem frame and risky decision-making. Specifically, the choice of a PMS frame with performance-driven strategic goal (emphasizing organizational focus on increasing gain/performance) and no risk measure was proved to result in a higher level of managerial risk taking compared to the choice of a risk-aware PMS frame which adopted a risk-driven strategic goal (emphasizing organizational focus on minimizing potential loss/risk), a risk measure or both. The study demonstrated that the inclusion of risk measure(s) and/or risk-driven strategic goal(s) in PMSs allows for risk information to be incorporated in managerial decision-making and thereby results in lower risk-taking.