Enterprise Performance Measurement Research Based On Enterprise Sustainable Development

Enterprise performance measurement is usually a research field with time constraints. In the 21st century, business ethics, environmental protection, natural resource scarcity and other issues are attracting more and more concerns of the whole of society. In the practice of business management, business stakeholders in enterprise governance play an increasingly important role. The theme of modern business management research is moving towards the theme of enterprise sustainable development after it has gone through these themes, efficiency, profits, functions and behavior. Domestic society development trend for building a harmonious socialist society and applyling the Scientific Outlook on Development calls for enterprise to pursuit economic, social, environmental achievement with thorough application of people-oriented, comprehensive and coordinated principles. Under new operating environment conditions, the development mode with too much emphasis on economic performance indicators while neglecting social welfare, social justice and environmental protection, has been unsustainable, which demands new performance measurement to guide enterprise to form a sustainable competitive advantage.From the development situation of enterprise performance measurement at home and abroad, current performance measurement has considered progressively the interests of stakeholders with equality, and demonstrated the trends of a combination of financial and non-financial information as well as economic, social and environmental performance information. However, these are for enterprise to improve economic performance eventually. Economic performance is still the focus at present, and non-economic aspects for social contribution and environmental protection are deficient.In this context, the Scientific Outlook on Development proposes guiding principles of Chinese characteristics for domestic enterprise performance measurement. Enterprises are the main body in micro-socio-economic activities. How to guide enterprises to achieve comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development is the key to thoroughly apply the Scientific Outlook on Development, which requires the performance measurement suited to this concept to play the guiding role.Therefore this paper selects enterprise sustainable development as a new research perspective. For the new perspective, it chooses the sustainable development theory, stakeholder theory and enterprise social responsibility theory as the theoretical basis, which brings the offspring of human and non-human species into the range of business stakeholders and emphasizes to meet the diverse needs of stakeholders in the process of sustainable operations. That breaks through the basis of "Capital wage-labor" and the inherent way of thinking with emphasis of supremacy of interests for shareholders, which are held by traditional performance measurement, and extends the range of theoretical for traditional performance measurement.The framework with new perspective for enterprise performance measurement provides a new reference for domestic enterprise performance measurement research, for application of the Scientific Outlook on Development at the enterprise level. It follows the contingency thought, integrating thought, causal thought, coordinated thought as well as systemic thought, and draws on the sustainable development theory, stakeholder theory and enterprise social responsibility theory for guidance, and combines with domestic society conditions under current historical conditions. From the new perspective, an enterprise of this nature is a "social-economic-ecological" system, the formation of enterprise performance is more than the combined effects of main benefits and mutual compromises. A wide range of interests and demands from various subjects points to economic, social, environmental performance of comprehensive and coordinated development. The relationship between triple performances takes on a benign cycle, instead of an opposite relationship, which is considered by the traditional view. The relationship between triple performance and entire performance constitutes a triangular structure. The top embodies the maximizing of stakeholders-oriented performance, the bottom takes specific indicators of triple performance as information basis, the indicator of development degree and coordination degree in the middle constitute the link between basic information and comprehensive performance. The entire structure totally embodies the meaning of triple performance "comprehensive and coordinated" development which is required by the situation in China.Measurement indicator and method is the key to draw conclusions, which need to integrate with the meaning of performance measurement of the new perspective. For the pursuit of sustainable development, enterprise should be outstanding in economic, social and environmental performance. Comparatively speaking, economic performance indicators have been relatively sophisticated, this paper focuses on environmental and social performance indicators and carries out in-depth research. Based on the needs of triple enterprise performance measurement, this paper summarizes relevant achievements of enterprise social responsibility theory, enterprise social responsibility accounting, environmental accounting, then proposes a new indicator system through literature research, expert advice and business surveys, which is more scientific and practical. After that, this paper selects an appropriate measurement method with characteristics of triple performance from the new perspective.In this process, this paper finds that many current methods of comprehensive measurement are generally facing two issues, which are measurement findings of non-consistency, theoretical research and practical applications which are out of touch, and has taken efforts to minimize the negative impact. Firstly, this paper attempts to reveal the profound essence of the problem through theoretical analysis, to promote understanding of characteristics of the object through literature research, expert opinion and survey methods, so that the indicator system is able to comprehensively and objectively reflect them. Secondly, according to characteristics of the object being measured, this paper selects the application conditions of basic measurement methods, to assure the objectivity of measurement methodology and process with the greatest accuracy.According to the indicator system and measurement method, the paper carries out empirical research and application. Firstly, according to enterprise survey data, it carries out an empirical analysis on the relationship between triple performance indicators, and finds social, environmental and economic performance indicators in general showing positive relationships. Moreover different types of detailed indicators with significant positive relationship predominate, the following are those with significant non-correlation, there is no significant negative relationship, which support the theoretical relationship of triple performance. Secondly, this paper applies the measurement method to the sample with categories of sample size and economic nature, and analyzes similarities and differences of triple performance. The results show that with the expansion of the size of enterprise, comprehensive and coordinated development situation of triple performance is not reflected by a steady increase; in small and medium size range, the situation will be increased, but it is not obvious to the size change; only after it reaches a considerable size, the situation will have a more substantial change; the situation in state-owned enterprises and private enterprises is equivalent.Further comprehensive research finds large state-owned enterprises and large private enterprises in this situation have no significant differences, this finding also applies to small and medium-sized enterprises; but the situation of large private enterprises is more prominent than that of small and medium enterprises; small and medium private enterprises form the vast majority in private enterprises, which mainly represent the triple performance of private enterprise.Finally this paper puts forward advices for the application of performance measurement of the new perspective. Firstly, enterprise sustainable development is a social behavior of the common integration of enterprise behavior, government and public behavior. The government has to apply educational guidance, social coordination management, public service functions. Enterprises in its own development should emphasis the role of people in particular. The public will have to exert public opinion of guidance, social supervision and social services. Secondly, the disclosure manner of enterprise social responsibility and environmental protection information should be innovated, which is reflected below. Related accounts should be listed separately, more accounting-based information should be the primary focus with non-accounting-based information to supplement, information differences in industry are necessarily reflected, enterprise sustainability reports would be encouraged as the way of information disclosure in future. All of these require not only for enterprises to change development concepts to enhance intrinsic motivation, but also for government to introduce an appropriate audit system to form a restraint mechanism.During the research process, this paper tries to obtain three innovations below. Firstly, the paper proposes a new perspective for enterprise performance measurement, which is enterprise sustainable development. Based on the analysis of limitations of traditional performance measurement, this paper expounds the importance and necessity for performance measurement from the theoretical basis and practical requirements. Secondly, this paper builds the framework of performance measurement from the new perspective. This paper extends the theoretical basis for performance measurement, combines new characteristics of time and domestic conditions, integrates the internal contact of triple performance, and forms stakeholder-oriented framework of performance, which provides a new reference for application of the Scientific Outlook on Development at the enterprise level. Thirdly, this paper designs performance indicator system and measurement method from the new perspective. This paper reveals the meaning of enterprise sustainable development and its requirements for performance measurement, especially the indicator system is designed with literature research, expert advice and business surveys, which make the indicator system more scientific and practical.