Purpose Literature highlights the impact of culture on managerial processes in general and the performance measurement system (PMS) in particular. However, understanding how organizational culture (OC) influences the PMS remains a challenge, especially in SMEs as in these companies the studies are very limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how OC influences PMSs in manufacturing SMEs. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the above purpose, a case study approach has been adopted. Four manufacturing SMEs with heterogeneous OC were investigated by means of companies’ documents reviews, participant observations and semi-structured interviews. A conceptual framework based on the competing value framework proposed by Cameron and Quinn (1999) and the PMS typology proposed by Garengo (2009) has been used to investigate the impact of OC on PMS. Findings According to the results, OC has a huge impact on PMS in manufacturing SMEs. The dimensions of “internal/external focus” influence strategy formalization, monitoring of the external environment and performance review. The “flexibility/control” dimensions influence the adoption of the balanced (or unbalanced) set of performance measures a company uses. Originality/value This paper contributes to clarifying how OC influences PMSs in manufacturing SMEs. Moreover, the study of interplay between flexibility/control dimensions and internal/external dimensions supports the identification of three theoretical propositions and four PMS types related to the four different OCs identified by Cameron and Quinn (1999).