Main points of theoretical framework of CEEPP research program:

• By performance we mean the output of the company’s activities, and also the impact of the company’s activities on their relevant environment (outcome).
• Performance can be understood both as efficiency (input/output relation) and effectiveness (level of goal achievement).
• By performance management we mean the tools and systems that managers use in organizations in order to develop the performance of the organization. Our research covers the IT tools as well.
• The phases of performance management are: goal/target setting, measuring, reporting, and rewarding.
• Our research covers the behavioral aspects of performance management system implementation as well, like the motives behind implementing such systems, change agents of the implementation and critical success factors.

The CEEPP survey:
1. Questionnaire
The survey-based research is individually conducted by the members of international research community.
The questionnaire consists of two parts:
(1) the questions of the 1st part are commonly designed, standard and compulsory for regional comparison;
(2) the questions of the 2nd part are individually designed and optional for local research purposes.
The 1st part is designed in English and then the final version is translated into the local language of the member state. The 2nd part is designed in the local language.

2. Population, sample and data collection
In the first phase of the research program we focus on business organizations (companies).
Since the company sizes worth to research are varying from state to state, the population of CEEPP research is defined as follows: top 200 companies and leading banks - of each CEEPP country (based on total revenues as well as total assets in 2005).
The planned sample from the population: 50 companies and 20 financial service forms - in each CEEPP country.
The questionnaires will be fulfilled by trained conductors via personal interviews. The interviewee will be the CEO or CFO of the company. The survey will be repeated biannually.

3. Analysis of data
The fulfilled questionnaires will be recorded in a decentralized way, under the responsibility of country coordinators.
Data will be processed in a centralized way by the central coordinator (in Hungary). The types of analysis will be defined commonly.
The processed data will be available for the member institutions (for the researchers who represent the member institutions).
The companies participated in the survey can receive back their data compared to the national - and if it is possible: industrial - averages and to the international average.

Research outputs:
Country specific standard reports will be processed by the country coordinators, standard reports about international comparison will be written by the central coordinator.
CEEPP Research Workshops will be organized centrally in each year.
Conferences on the actual results of the research will be organized in a decentralized way.

Further rules, respective rights and obligations are specified in the agreement of CEEPP members.