To save, spend or invest : working towards a more balanced view of a municipality’s performance

In this thesis, a new method to determine the performance of Dutch municipalities has been developed. This research was executed using the Design Science Research Methodology. The municipality of Enschede needed a better overview of their current performance to determine an appropriate investment strategy for the future. The performance was measured by building a model consisting of 3 subjects, namely the financial state, investment volume and level of facilities. Indicators were selected to score all 3 subjects. The different indicators were combined into composite variables, 1 for each subject, with weights determined with Factor Analysis. An automated dashboard was developed, in Excel with VBA, to analyse the model for Enschede and some reference municipalities.