Balanced Scorecard and Performance-Based Budgeting in Healthcare: A Bibliometric Mapping of Research from 2000 to 2024
Keywords:
Balanced scorecard, Bibliometric analysis, Healthcare performance management, Meta-analytic indicators, Performance-based budgeting, Publication trends, VOSviewerAbstract
Healthcare organizations require performance-management systems that connect strategic objectives, resource allocation, service quality, and evidence-informed decision-making. The balanced scorecard (BSC) and performance-based budgeting (PBB) offer complementary approaches to aligning organizational strategy with financial and non-financial performance. This study mapped the growth and conceptual structure of research on BSC and PBB in healthcare between 2000 and 2024. A bibliometric corpus of 280 articles was compiled from Web of Science, Google Scholar, SID, Noormags, and Ensani. Publication trends, keyword co-occurrence, and thematic clusters were examined using VOSviewer. Publication output increased gradually until 2018 and accelerated thereafter, reaching 43 articles in 2024. BSC occupied the central position in the co-word network and was strongly connected with strategy, performance measurement, management control, information, knowledge management, innovation, technology, healthcare, hospitals, and decision-making. Five thematic areas were identified: strategy and performance measurement; information and decision-making; innovation and technology; operations and supply chain; and public-sector and healthcare applications. The literature has progressively positioned BSC as a strategic performance-governance framework rather than solely a reporting instrument. Its connection with PBB may support more integrated approaches to resource allocation and organizational accountability in healthcare. Digital and artificial-intelligence applications remain prospective research directions rather than findings directly established by this review.
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