Abstract
This thesis focuses on the strategic management of a mission company (Article 176 - PACTE Law 22 May 2019). A mission company is a company that cites social and environmental objectives as its reason for being. Here we investigate the aims and modalities of management control and strategic steering that enable mission companies to define and accomplish their social and environmental objectives. More specifically, based on intervention research on the design of a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC), this work questions the relevance of such an instrument to ensuring strategic steering of the mission company. First, we conducted a literature review on management control in the context of not-for-profit organizations and global performance management in the context of corporate social responsibility strategy. We used Robert Simons’ (1995) model of control levers as a conceptual framework. A single case study is also included, which describes and analyses the results of intervention research conducted within the mission-based company Primum Non Nocere. It presents the collective construction of the strategic map of the SBSC by the various actors of the organization, intending to ensure strategic steering, the animation of a mission committee, and the reporting to an independent third-party organisation. We found that the SBSC can be a relevant strategic steering tool provided that it is part of an interactive control process within the framework of an open strategy, characterized by inclusiveness and transparency towards internal employees and dialogue with those stakeholders who are members of the mission committee.