bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Toward a Political Framework for Flexible Management of Decline
Authors: Rosenblatt Zehava , Rogers Kathryn S. , Nord Walter R.
Published: October 2008

Research on organizational decline suggests that some organizations cope with decline by becoming more rigid, while others become more flexible and risk taking. Few studies have examined the specific managerial activities that lead to the more flexible course. This study reanalyzes a case of organizational decline in a small midwestern school district that coped successfully by implementing a carefully structured participation process. Administrative leaders in the district, in particular the superintendent, “opened a conversation” through a carefully arranged and supported task force with a broad group of citizens, staff, teachers and students about the goals and priorities of the district. The citizens' committee efforts continued for six months and resulted in a strong consensus for action (a tax levy, closing a school, restatement of program priorities and staff rollbacks).

The case points to managerial actions that other organizations could follow to remain flexible and vitalized during decline. Critical steps included: shaping the perceptual fields of participants through information and disclosure in order to help participants recognize a serious and urgent problem without introducing crisis; careful management and operational support of task formats for broadened participation, with minimal influence on the substance of their recommendations; leadership through coaching of submanagers who facilitated the process indirectly; anticipating and dealing directly with conflicts by balancing views and channeling different interests into shared governance opportunities where heterogeneity was valued and institutional knowledge could be gained.

The authors advance a political model, based on management as a process of governance, to explain how the leadership in this organization conceptualized its role. Management acted as a steward for decisions about organizational goals and legitimacy that others would make. By surrendering the power to shape reality for others and instead allowing them through discourse to establish a coherent policy out of heterogeneity, the superintendent created commitment to the organization during a time of stress and eventually a robust consensus which became the basis for action. A model of shared governance that was in harmony with the community's history and values and that reflected the superintendent's personal philosophy was implemented through specific activities.

The shared governance model provides a unified conceptual explanation for why the superintendent acted as he did, and it highlights the specific functions managers might perform if the organization is to respond flexibly during decline. The political interpretation extends and refines current theoretical models of organizational decline processes and suggests approaches that are potentially applicable to other organizations.
Partner Nationality and the Structure-Performance Relationship in Strategic Alliances
Authors: Parkhe Arvind
Published: October 2008

The dramatic growth of global strategic alliances between firms is fundamentally reshaping the nature of international business, Indeed, interfirm cooperation has become a crucial component of the pursuit of global competitive advantage. Yet such alliances are enormously complex to manage successfully, in part because of the opportunity and incentive to cheat, and profit at the partner's expense, that is an inescapable part of these relationships. Consequently, strategic alliances are frequently subject to high instability, poor performance, and premature dissolution.

Thus, an important question arises: Is it possible to promote more stable cooperation and higher alliance performance through a realignment of companies' incentives? This question is addressed empirically in the present paper using recent work in game theory, which suggests that high performance is linked to specific elements of the alliance structure. Further, this study applies insights from international business literature, suggesting that alliance partners from different countries are often characterized by sharp cultural, national, and organizational differences, to test this linkage in an international context.

The study's data strongly support the hypothesis that alliance performance is linked to alliance structure. This finding has broad implications both for managers and management scholars, in suggesting that “up front” attention to alliance structure may help arrest the high failure rates, and improve alliance stability and performance levels. However, the data also support the hypothesis that the linkage between structure and performance varies by partner nationality. This finding points to the need for: (a) systematic assessment of salient characteristics of potential international partners; (b) development of programs to effectively deal with important differences between partner firms; and (c) attention to different key alliance structure dimensions, depending upon partner nationality. Finally, this study shows game theory to provide an extremely useful perspective in understanding crucial aspects of strategic alliances, although in the analysis of cross-border strategic alliances, the perspective must be enriched by an appreciation of interfirm diversity.
Explaining the Limited Effectiveness of Legalistic “Remedies” for Trust/Distrust
Authors: Sitkin Sim B. , Roth Nancy L.
Published: October 2008

Organizations frequently adopt formal rules, contracts, or other legalistic mechanisms when interpersonal trust is lacking. But recent research has shown such legalistic “remedies” for trust-related problems to be ineffective in restoring trust. To explain this apparent ineffectiveness, this paper outlines a theory that distinguishes two dimensions of trust—task-specific reliability and value congruence—and shows how legalistic mechanisms respond only to reliability concerns, while ignoring value-related concerns. Organizational responses to employees with HIV/AIDS are used as a case illustration that supports the theory's major propositions. The paper concludes with an agenda for future research.
Organization Studies as a Scientific and Humanistic Enterprise: Toward a Reconceptualization of the Foundations of the Field
Authors: Zald Mayer N.
Published: October 2008

Recent critiques of social science have emphasized their ties to the concerns of academic disciplines usually labelled as humanities. Building on this literature, this paper argues that organizational studies must be reconfigured as science and humanities. Substantive examples are drawn from the links of organizational theory to history, the use of semiotics, rhetorical analysis and narrative approaches to policy choices. Reconfiguring the field also has implications for applied work leading to an enlightenment model.
Managerial Autonomy of State-Owned Enterprises: Determining Factors
Authors: Lioukas S. , Bourantas D. , Papadakis V.
Published: October 2008

The present paper reports on managerial autonomy of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), or its reverse: the control which is exerted by government and supervising public authorities on SOEs. First, it examines the types of control applied. Using evidence from a sample of 110 Greek SOEs, the paper identifies certain distinct dimensions of control related to: strategic business-boundary issues, pricing decisions, resource acquisition and mobilisation issues. Second, environmental and organisational “determinants” of the control intensity are identified. Results broadly suggest that the intensity of control, as perceived by enterprise managers, is (i) positively related to dependence on the state for resources, to enterprise size, and to “political visibility,” i.e., social orientation of product market strategy, and (ii) negatively related to market competition and demand unpredictability. An interpretation of the results is attempted drawing on wider organisational, social and economic theories. Policy implications are discussed.
A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation
Authors: Nonaka Ikujiro
Published: October 2008

This paper proposes a paradigm for managing the dynamic aspects of organizational knowledge creating processes. Its central theme is that organizational knowledge is created through a continuous dialogue between tacit and explicit knowledge. The nature of this dialogue is examined and four patterns of interaction involving tacit and explicit knowledge are identified. It is argued that while new knowledge is developed by individuals, organizations play a critical role in articulating and amplifying that knowledge. A theoretical framework is developed which provides an analytical perspective on the constituent dimensions of knowledge creation. This framework is then applied in two operational models for facilitating the dynamic creation of appropriate organizational knowledge.
Beyond Industry Boundaries: Human Expertise, Diversification and Resource-Related Industry Groups
Authors: Farjoun Moshe
Published: October 2008

This paper is concerned with revealing and explaining patterns in the ways firms diversify into new products and industries. Shifting the focus from the observable similarity of products provided by the firm, to the less observable underlying resources required in different industries, can be a useful and interesting way of looking at patterns of diversification. The theory outlined in the paper suggests that firms diversify within groups of industries that are related to one another in the types of human skills and expertise required in each industry. Within these resource-related industry groups, firms can more efficiently utilize their resources by sharing and transferring them across similar products. The theory was tested with a sample of 12,781 diversified firms operating in all sections of the U.S. economy. Across the firms studied, much of a firm's diversification was found to be on average within resource-related industry groups and was consistent with the efficiency arguments developed. The study demonstrates the utility of looking at human expertise similarity to reveal and explain patterns in diversification. It suggests new ways of examining the concept of resources. It also suggests that the industry group, rather than the single industry, needs to be used to analyze the context where diversified firms operate. By looking at resource-related industry groups, the study encourages strategic thinking that views demand, competition, and relatedness of industries more broadly.
The Illegitimacy of Successful Product Innovation in Established Firms
Authors: Dougherty Deborah , Heller Trudy
Published: October 2008

This paper reports on a theory building effort to understand the persistent difficulties with successful product innovation in large, established firms. Drawing on an institutional approach, we suggest that the constituent activities of effective product innovation either violate established practice or fall into a vacuum where no shared understandings exist to make them meaningful. Product innovation, therefore, is illegitimate. This means that to enhance their innovative abilities, managers must weave the activities of product innovation into their institutionalized system of thought and action, not merely change structures or add values. We use insights from 134 innovators to identify the different ways that product innovation is illegitimate, and to consider alternate ways to overcome these problems. Exploratory results suggest that successful product innovators experience as many instances of illegitimacy as others, but creatively reframed their activities more often to legitimate their work. We conclude with some new insights for why barriers to innovation exist in large, established firms, and how those barriers can be managed.
Designing Information Technology to Support Distributed Cognition
Authors: Boland Richard J. , Tenkasi Ramkrishnan V. , Te'eni Dov
Published: October 2008

Cognition in organizations is a distributed phenomenon, in which individual members of an organization reflect upon their experience, make plans, or take action. Organizational learning or organizational cognition are familiar terms, but it is only the individual persons in an organization who create interpretations and test understandings, as they think and learn in their organizational setting. Coordinated outcomes emerge in organizations when individuals think and act in ways that take others in the organization and their interdependencies into account.

We argue that much of the effort to design information technology to support cognition in organizations has not addressed its distributed quality. Such systems have tended to focus either on the individual as an isolated decision maker, or on the group as a producer of a decision or policy statement in common. In distributed cognition, by contrast, the group is a set of autonomous agents who act independently yet recognize that they have interdependencies. To guide the design of information technology, we propose that distributed cognition be viewed as a hermeneutic process of inquiry, emphasizing the importance of individual interpretation and group dialogue.

Hermeneutics provides a theory of the interpretive process through which an individual gives meaning to organizational experience. Inquiry systems provide a theory of how a community of inquirers build and test knowledge representations through dialogue. Together, hermeneutics and inquiry systems are used to propose a set of design principles to guide the development of information technology that supports distributed cognition. The design principles we describe in the paper are ownership, easy travel, multiplicity, indeterminacy, emergence and mixed forms.

Applications of information technology which embody these design principles would support distributed cognition by assisting individuals in making interpretations of their situation, reflecting on them, and engaging in dialogue about them with others. The objective is to refine their own understanding of the situation and better appreciate the understandings of others, enabling them to better take their interdependencies into account in their individual actions. A project to develop such a system is discussed, along with some implications for research.
Managerial Overcommitment in Corporate Acquisition Processes
Authors: Haunschild Pamela R. , Davis-Blake Alison , Fichman Mark
Published: October 2008

This study investigates a problem that may occur during corporate acquisitions: managers who become committed to acquiring a particular target firm, regardless of benefit to the acquiring firm. Three factors that may create commitment to a particular target were investigated: (1) personal responsibility for the decision to acquire the target, (2) competition for the target, and (3) whether the decision to acquire the target is public. These factors were varied in a simulated corporate acquisition where participants began an acquisition and then were given negative information about the target. They were later given the choice of continuing with the acquisition or withdrawing and investing elsewhere. As predicted, personal responsibility for the decision to acquire the target, competition for the target, and a public decision context all increased participants' commitment to acquiring the target, despite the negative information. Participant work and acquisition experience did not affect these results.

Field studies of acquisitions suggest that commitment to acquiring a specific target occurs during the acquisition process. Since the acquisition process is a potentially important determinant of acquisition outcomes, commitment to targets has negative implications for these outcomes. This study adds a systematic empirical investigation of the determinants of commitment in acquisition situations. Studies in nonacquisition settings have demonstrated that personal responsibility affects commitment. However, the presence of competition has not previously been studied, and a public decision context has only been studied in a limited way. These are important factors in generating commitment to acquisitions. These results suggest that managers should recognize that overcommitment can and does occur during acquisitions. Further, the factors that cause overcommitment to targets have implications for managers who wish to avoid this commitment. Activities that should help avoid overcommitment problems include assigning target choice and due diligence activities to different individuals, and limiting news of impending acquisitions.
On the Wisdom of Rewarding A While Hoping for B
Authors: Boettger Richard D. , Greer Charles R.
Published: October 2008

We explain the deeper organizational wisdom behind what Steven Kerr called the “folly” of seemingly inconsistent reward structures. Modern organizations—even those Kerr specifically criticizes as “fouled-up”—frequently need to serve two contradictory goals at the same time.

Three conditions in particular require sophisticated organizations to reward A while nonetheless hoping for B. First, operative goals—e.g., for a police department—may require practical activities like “social work” that do not conform to the official culture of “crime fighting command bureaucracy.” Attempting to reward only these police activities which support the official goals would harm both the force and the citizens they serve. Second, times of great change—e.g., for environmental clean-up in Eastern Europe—require short-term inconsistencies such as supporting a highly polluting factory in order to accomplish long term ends. At one moment in time, a snapshot exposes a “foolish” inconsistency, but a long-term view reveals the wisdom of not attempting to treat complex problems with simple solutions. Third, some conditions of the real world will always require the individual to serve two masters, as in a classic matrix structure. Product and functional demands cannot be made perfectly consistent with each other, and to expect the organization to make them so is to wish for the impossible.

Under the above conditions, it is better to teach individuals how to handle complex, inconsistent demands than it is to hold organizations responsible for eliminating them. While Kerr would work towards an organization in which “no one needs goodness,” we would hold our teaching and training systems responsible for making “goodness” and complexity part of the talent an individual brings to the organization. To put complexity and goodness beyond the individual and entirely in the province of the organization is to demand of the organization the impossible, and demean the human beings who are its substance and soul.
Asset Choice and Supplier Performance in Two Organizations–US and Japanese
Authors: Walker Gordon
Published: October 2008

The problem of vertical integration is a venerable but increasingly important focus of attention in profit-seeking organizations. Over the past ten years, many industries have seen increased cooperation between buyers and suppliers to achieve more difficult goals caused by rising product market competition. In many firms, this cooperation is balanced against the putative advantages of diminishing but still substantial in-house operations.

One way to compare the performance of cooperative suppliers with in-house operations is to focus on the buyer's choice of assets used to produce the inputs needed for the final product. For strategic reasons, some of these assets will be highly specialized and others standardized. The question this paper asks is whether this choice of specialized or standard assets influences the performance of the supplier, controlling for whether it is in the market or in-house.

The hypothesis is that the choice of specialized assets, for strategic reasons, is associated with lower supplier conformance with the buyer's target price for the input. In other words, for these assets the supplier's price, which is higher than the buyer would have liked to pay, reflects some of the strategic value of the input to the buyer. The supplier is simply appropriating some of this value, since it can raise its price with a low threat of termination by the buyer. For standard assets, in contrast the threat of termination is omnipresent, so that the choice of assets is irrelevant for supplier price performance.

The test is performed using data on both in-house operations and market suppliers from a quite large US manufacturing firm and on market suppliers to a very successful Japanese manufacturing firm. Interestingly, there is no difference between these firms in the applicability of the hypothesis. Also, in-house and market suppliers differ in price performance only for standard assets, market suppliers performing better. Organizations can therefore gain quite a bit from outsourcing the production of less specialized inputs but achieve roughly the same performance from in-house and market suppliers for more specialized inputs. This last result is controversial and should bc tested repeatedly using other micro-level data.

This study therefore addresses three sides of the current debate surrounding modern questions of vertical integration. First, does the strategic value of the input make a difference in supplier performance? The answer is yes, but only for specialized inputs. Second, do in-house and market suppliers differ in their performance? The answer is yes, but only for standardized inputs. Third, do US and Japanese firms differ in the performance of their suppliers, given variation in asset specialization and strategic importance? The answer is no, at least for the two firms studied here. All caveats regarding the generalizability of results from small sample studies apply.
Organizational Theory at the Crossroads: Some Reflections on European and United States Approaches to Organizational Research
Authors: Koza Mitchell P. , Thoenig Jean-Claude
Published: October 2008

Organizational research in Europe and the United States differs in style and substance. Viewed comparatively, important inter-continental differences persist in theory, method, and problem. However, viewed longitudinally, convergence of the two traditions over the last decade is striking. Forces for the historic separation and contemporary convergence of European and United States organizational theory derive from changing instutitional patterns affecting the social location, training, mobility, and rewards of scholars on the two continents.
Research and the Practice of Management: A French View
Authors: Berry Michel
Published: October 2008

Researchers at the CRG (Management Research Center) carry out their work through “clinical studies” lasting from one to four years and generating in-depth observations on how organizations function. The observations are analyzed through systematic discussions: over a span of 20 years the CRG has carried out more than 100 clinical studies, debated in hundreds of internal meetings. These exchanges have made it possible to identify similarities and differences among the management situations studied, and to build up a body of knowledge in the field. Although the guiding principles behind this approach are rooted in the unique nature of the French “Grandes Ecoles d’Ingénieurs”, the research results can be useful for stimulating fruitful discussion in the field as a whole.
Crossroads Style as Theory
Authors: Van Maanen John
Published: October 2008

A small but significant portion of writing in the still expanding domain of organizational research and theory is devoted to debunking the essentialist and (allegedly) scientifically grounded ideas and programs of our peers. Some of my writing, including this effort, falls within this tradition. Debunking the would-be towers of power in our field bears a loose similarity to the work performed by voluntary firefighters. The fire of interest here is a call to draw in our topical and theoretical borders, and the intellectual incendiary is none other than Jeffrey Pfeffer whose 1992 Distinguished Scholar Address to the Organization Theory Division of the Academy of Management started a modest little blaze that was followed by my own 1993 Distinguished Scholar Address to the same group which was designed to put it out. A stroke of luck too, for what better theorist could a confessed anti-theorist wish to follow and what better foil for debunking could have been sent forward than an acknowledged desperado of the podium like Jeffrey, who courts controversy like a bear in search of honey. In what follows, I recreate in writing what I first committed to speech.
Writing Organizational Tales: The Cultures of Work Organizations
Authors: Trice Harrison M. , Beyer Janice M.
Published: October 2008

The meta-theme of this book is integration of diverse perspectives on culture and on organizations. In this book, we bring together various cultural perspectives, main-stream theories of organizations, and empirical work from various social science disciplines on cultural phenomena in organizations. The inclusiveness of our approach allows us to tell many stories about organizational cultures.
Managerial and Organizational Cognition: Notes from a Trip Down Memory Lane
Authors: Walsh James P.
Published: October 2008

The study of cognition in organizations has burgeoned in recent years. Top-down information processing theory suggests that individuals create knowledge structures to help them process information and make decisions. While the benefits of employing such knowledge structures are widely noted, there is a growing concern that they can limit decision makers’ abilities to understand their information environments and thus, compromise their decision making. This issue has captured the imagination of managerial and organizational cognition researchers. To date, their inquiry has been eclectic in focus and method. To order and advance this work, the author reviews extant research on the developmental origins and decision consequences of both the content and structure of knowledge structures at multiple levels of analysis. A host of research challenges are identified to help develop a better understanding of knowledge structure representation, development, and use in organizations.
Shaping Electronic Communication: The Metastructuring of Technology in the Context of Use
Authors: Orlikowski Wanda J. , Yates JoAnne , Okamura Kazuo , Fujimoto Masayo
Published: October 2008

We argue that the use of electronic communication technologies in changing organizational forms can be facilitated by the explicit and ongoing adaptation of those technologies to changing contexts of use. This paper reports on an exploratory study of the use of a computer conferencing system in a Japanese R&D project group. We found that the system’s use was significantly influenced by the activities of a few individuals who shaped users’ interaction with the conferencing technology, modified features of the technology, and altered the context of use. These activities—which we call technology-use mediation—promoted effective electronic communication both initially at the point of adoption, as well as over time as needs, preferences, experiences, and conditions changed. Drawing on these insights, we develop a theoretical framing of the mediation process which suggests that it can be a powerful organizational mechanism for helping organizations provide the ongoing attention and resources needed to adapt electronic communication technologies to changing conditions, contexts, and organizational forms.
Constructing the Networked Organization: Content and Context in the Development of Electronic Communications
Authors: Lea Martin , O’Shea Tim , Fung Pat
Published: October 2008

This paper presents a case study of the development of electronic communications in a changing organization with the aim of studying the complex relationship between content and context in the design and implementation of technological change in communications. The development of a computer-mediated communication system was followed over a period of four years during which time the participating organization expanded by acquisition and then reformed in conjunction with its neighbours in other countries into an integrated, “networked” organization in preparation for the creation of the Single European Market. The Actor-Network approach, which uses a network metaphor as a framework for understanding the relationship between content and context in technology design, is used to explore the co-construction of the new organizational form and the new communications system. We contrast this approach with traditional and other recently proposed approaches and conclude that the study of actor networks affords an opportunity to transcend the dualities between the technical and the social and between content and context that currently frame studies of electronic communications in organizations.
Learning to Change: An Information Perspective on Learning in the Organization
Authors: Macdonald Stuart
Published: October 2008

Change in the organization is usually analysed in the context of the organization in which the change is taking place. This is quite understandable and yields recognition of those internal factors most instrumental in the change process. From this organizational perspective, external factors seem to play a marginal role in change, at most a catalytic role. Change is always relative, but not simply to what the organization has done before. Organizational change should also be relative to what is going on outside the organization. What appears to be major progress from an organizational perspective may look like stagnation in a wider context. This paper suggests that notions of the “learning organization” have often emphasied internal aspects of the change process and neglected the external. In particular, they seem to have paid little attention to the essential contribution of external information to internal change. Information is so fundamental to the learning required for deliberate change that it is not unreasonable to see change as an information process. This view affords an information perspective of change in the organization, and a revealing contrast to the usual organizational perspective. Change in the organization is seen as a process in which the finding and acquisition of external information are critical. So, too, is mixing these external bits of information with those already in use within the organization. The result is not just another model of what is already understood about change in the organization. It has profound implications for those who seek to understand and manage the process of change. The information perspective indicates that organizational change is largely dependent on the information activities of individual employees acting on their own account as much as that of the organization. These activities may be—and sometimes must be—beyond the control of the organization. Thus, those who would manage change face the challenge of managing without control. The information perspective suggests that the concentration on structure and control inherent in notions of the learning organization may be mimical to the real learning required for organizational change.
Crossroads Tempered Radicalism and the Politics of Ambivalence and Change
Authors: Meyerson Debra E. , Scully Maureen A.
Published: October 2008

“Tempered Radicals” are individuals who identify with and are committed to their organizations, and are also committed to a cause, community, or ideology that is fundamentally different from, and possibly at odds with the dominant culture of their organization. The ambivalent stance of these individuals creates a number of special challenges and opportunities. Based on interviews, conversations, personal reflections, and archival reports, this paper describes the special circumstances faced by tempered radicals and documents some of the strategies used by these individuals as they try to make change in their organizations and sustain their ambivalent identities.
The Impact of Executive Information Systems on Organizational Design, Intelligence, and Decision Making
Authors: Leidner Dorothy E. , Elam Joyce J.
Published: October 2008

Managerial decision making is regarded as among the most important functions of senior managers. The presence of easily accessible, reliable information contributes to effective decision making. Sources of information may be oral, written, or computer-based. The computer-based information sources remain the least studied in the context of executive decision making because executives have tended to use other managers and their own intuition as their primary information sources. Recently though, computer-based information systems directly tailored for use by executives have begun to be implemented within organizations. Such systems, referred to as Executive Information Systems, may help executives make faster and higher quality decisions, an increasingly important requirement for executives given such trends as globalization and heightened competition. This study uses survey responses of 91 high level managers to empirically examine the relationship of executive information system use by managers with decision making speed, problem identification speed, information availability, and the involvement of subordinates in decision making. The study found that when used frequently and over time, executive information systems are positively related to perceived problem identification and decision making speed for senior and middle managers. Whether such effects lead to higher quality decisions are topics for further study. In addition, the frequency of use of executive information systems is shown to be related to a perceived increase in information availability although the length of time the system is in use is not related to perceived information availability. This suggests that the information needs of senior and middle managers is malleable and systems designed to support the decision making of managers need to be flexible to adapt to changing information needs. Lastly, the study found that the use of executive information systems does not reduce the reliance of senior or middle managers on their subordinates to help in decision making. This may be because the involvement of subordinates does not necessarily connote a consistent positive or negative behavior among American managers, whereas speed and information are consistently considered as positive. The implications of the results for a previously developed theory of the effects of advanced information technology on organizational design, intelligence, and decision making are discussed.
The Management of Complex Tasks in Organizations: Controlling the Systems Development Process
Authors: Kirsch Laurie J.
Published: October 2008

Control theory attempts to explain how one person or group in an organization can ensure that another person or group works toward and attains a set of organizational goals. Prior empirical work investigating control theory has shown that characteristics of the task and of the organizational environment predict the use of various types of control. However, this paper argues that when control theory is applied to a complex, nonroutine task such as the management of information systems development, the theory of control is incomplete. In particular, it proposes that knowledge of the task is a key determinant of type of control.

Four modes of control (behavior, outcome, clan, and self) art identified from the organizational literature; each high-lights different aspects of control in organizations. Building on prior empirical work, this paper integrates the different theoretical perspectives and predicts the circumstances under which each type of control will be implemented. Survey responses from 96 participants of 32 systems development efforts suggest that the extent to which behaviors are monitored interacts with the project sponsor's level of systems development knowledge to determine the amount of behavior control; that outcome control is a function of the extent to which behaviors are monitored and outcomes are measurable; and that self-control is dependent on the extent to which outcomes are measurable and the level of the project sponsor's knowledge about systems development activities. No relationship between clan control and the independent variables was found.
Ugly Duckling No More: Pasts and Futures of Organizational Learning Research
Authors: Miner Anne S. , Mezias Stephen J.
Published: October 2008

This article addresses theoretical and research frontiers for learning research, a second theme of Professor Argyris essay—the lead article in the “Crossroads” section. We outline three key theoretical questions for further work. We call for more systematic empirical learning research, suggesting that the paucity of such research may have resulted less from defensiveness than from the demanding requirements of doing crisp, systematic learning research. The need for scholarly empirical work is enhanced, we believe, by the growing popularity of organizational learning models among practitioners. Concurring with Professor Argyris' broad concern with enhancing research fruitfulness, we suggest ways to supplement traditional organizational research methods. In particular, we argue that it makes sense to cast wider nets for models of learning and adaptation, to sustain qualitative investigation, to use simulation techniques, and to maintain stronger—and perhaps even experimental—linkages between applied and theoretical research.
A Multiple-constituency, Status-based Approach to Interorganizational Mobility of Faculty and Input-output Competition among Top Business Schools
Authors: D'Aveni Richard A.
Published: October 2008

A study of inputs (students and new faculty) and outputs (MBA and Ph.D. graduates) of 20 business schools found that status perceived by certain stakeholder groups (constituencies) affects the mobility of individuals between schools and limits the competition among schools for student inputs and for output placement.

The study examined schools that differed in status perceived by three constituencies: the national business community, the academic community, and MBA students. The results indicate that, depending on their status in the opinion of different constituencies, the schools engaged in different degrees of student input creaming, scrambling for inputs, input targeting, input avoidance, and output streaming (all terms developed as part of the model proposed herein). The results suggest that in Ph.D. markets, status hierarchies tend to make groups of schools a closed system, leading to homosocial reproduction of senior faculties and social isolation and immobility for certain Ph.D. graduates. Barriers appear to be created between the subsystems of schools. One major theoretical implication of the study findings is that status hierarchies define patterns of social ecology of business schools and limit competition for resources.

One practical implication of the study findings is that schools are at a disadvantage in competing for student inputs and placing MBA and Ph.D. graduates if they lack status in the national business community. High status in the opinion of students and academics is not associated with all of the advantages afforded by status in the national business community. Hence, teaching and research strategies designed to achieve status among students or academics alone may not be as successful as those that have relevance to the broader “real world.”
“Austrian” and Industrial Organization Perspectives on Firm-level Competitive Activity and Performance
Authors: Young Greg , Smith Ken G. , Grimm Curtis M.
Published: October 2008

Drawing on the Austrian school of economics and the structure-conduct-performance (s-c-p) paradigm of industrial organization, the authors present and test a dynamic model of competitive activity and performance. They examine the model in two stages. First, they explore the influence of industry-level and firm-level cooperative mechanisms on firm-level competitive activity. Second, they examine the effect of firm- and industry-level competitive activity on firm performance.

The authors use the dynamic model of competitive activity to examine the complex linkages between the firm's environment, its actions, and its performance outcomes. They report a longitudinal analysis of a sample of 1,903 competitive moves undertaken in the software industry. Hypothesis testing supports the relationships in the model argued from the Austrian perspective, but provides only partial support for those derived from the s-c-p paradigm. Firm-level cooperative mechanisms are found to increase the firm's competitive activity, and firm-level competitive activity is related positively to the firm's return on assets and return on sales. Contrary to expectation based on the s-c-p paradigm. industry-level cooperative mechanisms are not related to the firm's competitive activity or to its performance. Consistent with the IO paradigm, however, a measure of industry rivalry that directly captures industry-level competitive activity is related negatively to firm-level performance.
The Japanese Beer Wars: Initiating and Responding to Hypercompetition in New Product Development
Authors: Craig Tim
Published: October 2008

In the mid-1980s, the Japanese beer industry, a stable oligopoly in which competition had traditionally been limited to well understood nonprice dimensions, experienced an outbreak of new product “hypercompetition” which saw a ten-fold increase in the industry's new product introduction rate, produced a major shake-up in firms' competitive positions, and forced firms to transform themselves in fundamental ways in order to compete effectively. Surprisingly, this hyper-competition occurred despite heavy government regulation of the industry. Driving it were a variety of demographic, dietary, social, economic, and distribution trends which affected demand for beer, plus the existence of a major player, Asahi, on the edge of bankruptcy and therefore sufficiently desperate to risk a frontal attack on the industry leader, Kirin.

At the firm level, substantial internal change and the building of new organizational capabilities were required both to initiate and respond to hypercompetition. Examining in detail the process and difficulty of overcoming inertia and effecting change within the Asahi and Kirin organizations, two distinct types of hypercompetition-appropriate capabilities are identified. One is specialized capabilities, which allow a firm to compete effectively on the competitive dimension that a particular round of hypercompetition is based on (such as new product development). The other is general capabilities which allow a firm to efficiently carry out the continual recombination and reemployment of resources which a hypercompetitive state, in which shifts in the nature of competition are frequent and continuous, requires. Both types of capabilities are shown to be difficult to build and imitate, and for this reason to be potential sources of sustainable advantage.

The paper identifies three broadly defining characteristics of hypercompetition: (1) continuing, nonmarginal change in the nature of competition, (2) required nontrivial organizational change, and (3) significant effects on firm performance and competitive position. Conceptually, it is argued that hypercompetition is Schumpeterian in nature, featuring recurring and fundamental competitive change, but that hypercompetition is most accurately seen as a particular combination of Schumpeterian, Industrial Organization, and Chamberlinian competition, with Schumpeterian instability weakening, but not replacing, the more stable aspects of Industrial Organization and Chamberlinian competition.
Vertical Integration and Rapid Response in Fashion Apparel
Authors: Richardson James
Published: October 2008

Fashion apparel is a highly competitive business where product life is short and differentiation advantages are built on brand image and product styling that can be quickly imitated. Over the past two decades, competition on price and quality has intensified as low cost global manufacturing became available to even small competitors. Recently, competition has shifted to the arena of timing and know-how where vertically integrated firms gained the lead in implementing a set of process innovations known as ‘quick response,’ designed to shorten the production cycle. Less integrated firms have begun to erode that advantage, but the integrated firms that have linked quick response into retailing continue to have superior capabilities. These firms demonstrate the elements of organization needed to link flexible and fast cycle manufacturing with rapid learning about demand and customer satisfaction.
Knowledge-Based Approaches to the Theory of the Firm: Some Critical Comments
Authors: Foss Nicolai J.
Published: October 2008

It is argued that Kogut and Zander (Kogut, B., U. Zander. 1992. Knowledge of the firm, combinative capabilities, and the replication of technology. Organ. Sci. 3 383–397.) and Conner (Conner, K. R. 1991. A historical comparison of resource-based theory and five schools of thought within industrial organization economics: Do we have a new theory of the firm? J. Management 17 121–154.) erred in the specific way in which they claimed that a distinct theory of the multi-person firm can be constructed on the basis of a theory of organizational knowledge or from resource-based insights. It is not possible to tell very much of a story about why there should be firms in lieu of notions such as “opportunism” or “moral hazard.” However, properly interpreted, knowledge-based theories may help shed light on issues relating to the boundaries and internal organization of the firm.
A Resource-Based Theory of the Firm: Knowledge Versus Opportunism
Authors: Conner Kathleen R. , Prahalad C. K.
Published: October 2008

This paper develops a resource-based—knowledge-based—theory of the firm. Its thesis is that the organizational mode through which individuals cooperate affects the knowledge they apply to business activity. We focus on the polar cases of organization within a firm as compared to market contracting. There will be a difference in the knowledge that is brought to bear, and hence in joint productivity, under the two options. Thus, as compared to opportunism-based, transaction-cost theory, we advance a separate (yet complementary) answer to the question: why do firms exist? Our aim is to develop an empirically relevant and complementary theory of why firms are formed: a theory based on irreducible knowledge differences between individuals rather than the threat of purposeful cheating or withholding of information. We assume limited cognitive abilities on the part of individuals (bounded rationality), and assume that opportunistic behavior will not occur. The latter allows us to determine whether resource-based theory has independent force, as compared to the opportunism-based, transaction-cost approach. The paper predicts choice of organizational mode, identifying whether firm organization or market contracting will result in the more valuable knowledge being applied to business activity. The resource-based predictions of organizational mode are compared and contrasted with corresponding opportunism-based, transaction-cost ones. A principal point is that knowledge-based considerations can outweigh opportunism-related ones. The paper also establishes the relation of a theory of the firm to a theory of performance differences between competing firms.