The concept of performance on organizational studies and strategy: a multi-dimensional model of analysis

A Multi-dimensional Analytical Model of Organizational Performance Concept, developed on the basis of previous models, was used to accomplish a comparative, categorical, cross-national, longitudinal, descriptive-quantitative and inferential-qualitative content-analysis of Brazilian and Foreign empirical studies from Organizational Studies and Strategy areas, published from 2005 to 2007. It was concluded that this new model applies to empirical research analysis, being distinguished from previous models in terms of greater exaustivity and exclusivity of its categories of analysis. Particularly, the new model constitutes an advance because it includes categories of analysis related to attribution patterns and causal interaction. Comparative analysis of Brazilian and foreign researches revealed (a) preference for unidimensional performance indicators from economic-financial-marketing areas and from a rational theoretical perspective; (b) preference for secondary and objective data, from organizational level of analysis and not-cumulative comparative retrospective static temporal perspective; and (c) preference for research designs that estimate direct and horizontal multilinear relations between the variables, in which performance is used as a dependent variable.