identified seven main reasons for this recent interest including: the ‘changing nature of work increasing competition; specific irnprovement initiatives national and international
awards and the power of information technology’ 09991210).
Atkinson and Brander Brown (2001) argue that deregulation and
privatization, globalization and product differentiation, increasingly sophisticated customers, increased emphasis on the supply chain and stakeholders has resulted in ‘an emerging new competitive order’ (2tX)1:128),
where companies are changing the way they monitor and measure performance.