Lukas Goretzki appointed to Fortnox Chair to advance research on responsible performance measurement
How do organizations define and pursue “success” in an increasingly quantified world? A new Fortnox-funded professorship at the Stockholm School of Economics will explore how metrics, performance measures and rankings shape organizational priorities, decisions and understandings of success.
The initiative will also lay the foundation for a new Center for Responsible Performance Measurement, dedicated to research on how organizations can benefit from quantification without losing sight of purpose, responsibility and the broader forms of value they seek to create. Professor Lukas Goretzki is the holder of the Fortnox Chair.
Lukas Goretzki, Professor at the Department of Accounting at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), has been appointed as the holder of the newly established Fortnox Chair in Business Administration, especially Management Accounting and Control, and will lead the initiative to establish a new Center for Responsible Performance Measurement. The appointment follows the announcement in August of a ten-year collaboration between Fortnox and SSE.
The center will study how organizations define, measure, and pursue success – and what happens when measures begin to shape the very goals they were designed to track.
“Measures are essential for turning strategies and ambitions into action. But what we choose to measure also directs attention and influences what people come to see as important. To enable responsible development, we need to better understand how organizations can benefit from performance measurement practices without losing sight of the broader purposes they are trying to achieve,” says Lukas Goretzki.
Goretzki has been a full professor at SSE since 2022 and is currently Head of the Department of Accounting. His research includes management accounting and control practices such as budgeting and forecasting, the changing role of the finance function, and how organizations measure and manage their impact.
Success, measurement and control – looking beyond the numbers
Measures and metrics have become a central feature of organizational and societal life. They help organizations develop knowledge, coordinate activities, evaluate performance and pursue strategic objectives. However, measures are rarely used in isolation. They are embedded in broader systems of control, accountability and governance that shape how organizations understand success, allocate attention and make decisions.
“We often define success through numbers and metrics, but behind every measure are assumptions about what matters and what creates value. I’m interested in how those measures shape organizations – and how they relate to people’s own experience of what successful performance actually looks like. What success looks like can differ vastly from organization to organization."
As organizations become increasingly data-driven, important questions arise about how measures influence behavior, how they interact with professional judgement and experience, and under what conditions they support rather than constrain organizational learning and value creation.
The new Fortnox Chair and associated center will investigate these questions across a range of settings, including small and medium-sized enterprises, entrepreneurial ventures and mission-driven organizations. The ambition is to develop research that helps organizations use measurement and control systems in a reflective and responsible manner, while remaining attentive to the purposes, commitments and forms of value they seek to advance.
For more information, please contact:
Lukas Goretzki
Professor, Department of Accounting
Stockholm School of Economics
Email: Lukas.goretzki@hhs.se
Phone: +46 8 736 93 13
