Based on the levers of control (LoC) framework and contingency theory, this study examines the relationships among the sophistication of a firm’s performance measurement system (PMS), the firm’s emphasis on the interactive and diagnostic use of the PMS, and the organizational outcomes of the PMS. We also examine whether firm size moderates these relationships. Based on a survey of 276 midsized enterprises, this study provides empirical evidence of direct, positive relationships between both types of use and the benefits of a PMS. However, PMS sophistication positively moderates the relationship between interactive use and PMS benefits, but it negatively moderates the relationship between diagnostic use and PMS benefits. Thus, our study suggests that an increased emphasis on diagnostic use may reduce benefits for the firm when the PMS is more sophisticated. This result contributes to our understanding of why existing outcome effects of PMSs in the literature have been shown to be sometimes negative, positive or nonsignificant. We also find that, compared with smaller firms, larger firms benefit more from the interactive use of a PMS, whereas our results are robust for other contextual or structural variables.

基于控制（LoC）框架和权变理论，本研究考察了企业绩效评估系统（PMS）的复杂程度，企业对PMS交互和诊断性使用的重视以及企业的组织结果之间的关系。 PMS。我们还研究了企业规模是否能缓和这些关系。基于对276家中型企业的调查，该研究提供了使用类型与PMS收益之间直接，积极关系的经验证据。但是，PMS的复杂性可以积极地调节交互使用与PMS收益之间的关系，但是可以负面地调节诊断性使用和PMS收益之间的关系。从而，我们的研究表明，当PMS更复杂时，对诊断使用的更多重视可能会降低公司的收益。该结果有助于我们理解为什么文献中PMS的现有结果影响有时显示为负面，正面或不重要。我们还发现，与较小的公司相比，较大的公司从PMS的交互使用中受益更多，而我们的结果对于其他上下文或结构变量是可靠的。