Tobias Polzer, together with Evgenii Aleksandrov (Nord University Business School, Norway), Aziza Laguecir (EDHEC Business School) and Sven Modell (University of Manchester, UK; NHH, Norway and Turku School of Economics, Finland), co-curated a Virtual Special Issue on “Institutional Research on Performance Measurement and Management in the Public Sector” in Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management.

The Virtual Special Issue was an opportunity to create a dialogue between the Organization Studies and Accounting research communities. It revisits the enduring “ultimate challenge” of Performance Measurement and Management in the public sector. It explores the role of institutional theory as a valuable lens for investigating PMM, particularly the evolving concepts of institutional logics, institutional work, and hybridity. The Virtual Special Issue commences with an opening paper, reflecting the one-sided application of institutional theory streams to Performance Measurement and Management research. This opening paper has generated a set of four reflection papers in connection to institutional theory progression in and for Performance Measurement and Management in the public sector.

Overall, the Virtual Special Issue raises more questions than answers. The five papers remind of the proverb “still confused, but on a higher level,” which has been attributed to the Italian nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi. In the editorial, several avenues for future research are outlined.

The editorial to the Virtual Special Issue can be accessed here: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/jpbafm/virtual-special-issue-institutional-research-performance-measurement-and-management