Target Setting And Firm Performance: A Review

Abstract

The consequences of missing targets can be found on a daily basis in many organizations. As such, targets and target setting in an extremely important topic to companies and one that should receive more attention.

Although the vast amount of reasons for missing targets are difficult to study, the process of setting the target which includes budgeting has been proven to affect performance and achievement through goal setting theory (Locke & Latham, 2002). Thus, targets are an important element in almost every organization (Chenhall, 2003).

We focus this review of literature exclusively in the relationship between target setting and firm performance and as such consolidate, organize, and synthesize past literature in this field and provide a clear direction for future research. We further identify two impactors found to affect firm and management performance but never researched as an impactor of the relationship between target setting and firm performance. Those impactors are Transparency of targets and length of management experience.

In this paper, we fill the gaps identified above and inform the study of target setting in order to spark future research on this topic. We also identify the dimensions affecting the relationship between target setting and firm performance as well as the different measurement approaches in target setting literature.