Benchmarking has been a credible approach to quality improvement and program evaluation for more than 30 years. However, the term has been used and abused so much since the 1970s that now an author might be describing anything from the establishment of performance indicators, to competitor ranking, or gap analysis, through to a continuous quality improvement process. Equally confusing is the plethora of different benchmarking models published. A literature review was conducted in which 65 publications from 1998-2008 were analysed and synthesised in order to untangle the confusion surrounding the contemporary theory and practice of benchmarking. This article clarifies the terminology and concepts of benchmarking, attempts a concise practical definition, examines various approaches in the current theory and application of benchmarking, and explicates the features most consistent with the goal of continuous quality improvement and organisational learning.
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