bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Resource Dependence
Authors: Piskorski Mikolaj J. , Casciaro Tiziana
Published: January 2015

Resource‐dependence theory marked a watershed by positioning power at the core of organizational theory.
Rituals
Authors: Anand N.
Published: January 2015

Rituals are a culturally patterned and repetitive rule‐governed social activity infused with symbolic value for participants and observers.
Role Ambiguity
Authors: Polzer Jeffrey T.
Published: January 2015

Role ambiguity denotes uncertainty about the expectations, behaviors, and consequences associated with a particular Role.
Scientific Management
Authors: Kavanagh Donncha
Published: January 2015

Scientific management is a set of techniques and ideology of an organization that seeks to increase the efficiency of operations through systematically identifying and addressing problems in the production process. It was probably the first coherent theory of management and has been of central importance to the field since it emerged in the late nineteenth century.
Self‐Actualization
Authors: Spector Paul E.
Published: January 2015

Self‐actualization is the highest level need in Maslow's need hierarchy theory. It is defined as the fulfillment of a person's goals and potential.
Self‐Efficacy
Authors: Gazica Michele W. , Spector Paul E.
Published: January 2015

Self‐efficacy concerns an individual's beliefs about his or her performance capabilities in a particular domain. Individuals high in self efficacy are expected to perform better than individuals low, but under some conditions high‐self‐efficacy can reduce effort on a task because of over‐confidence, and thus lead to lower performance.
Slack Resources
Authors: Greve Henrich R.
Published: January 2015

Slack resources are resources in excess of what is required to reward the dominant coalition that governs the organization.
Social Facilitation
Authors: West Michael A.
Published: January 2015

The mere presence of others can significantly enhance our performance.
Surveys, Feedback
Authors: Rosenfeld Paul , Edwards Jack E. , Thomas Marie D.
Published: January 2015

Organizations use Surveys to gather information on the attitudes, behaviors, and characteristics of employees.
Team Building
Authors: Dyer W. Gibb
Published: January 2015

Team building is a process of diagnosing team dynamics and instituting plans and processes to improve team performance. Team building grew out of the early “T‐Group” movement of the 1940s and 1950s where groups of strangers were brought together to better understand their own interpersonal styles as well as team dynamics. While the outcomes associated with “T‐Groups”
was largely focused on individuals, team building focused on improving team performance. Using various team diagnostic models, team members identify the problems in the team and
then set specific goals and engage in certain activities designed to improve the team. After team building activities take place the team should monitor its performance and engage in
personal management interviews to encourage continued improvement.
Temporal Perspective
Authors: Blount‐Lyon Sally
Published: January 2015

Temporal perspective refers to a specific point of view or attitude that an actor holds about time.
Theory
Z
Authors: Bass Bernard M.
Published: January 2015

Ouchi introduced the idea of Theory Z to represent the beliefs underlying Japanese management in contrast to Theory X and Y.
Transaction Cost Economics
Authors: Zajac Edward
Published: January 2015

Transaction cost economics (TCE) has become one of the most influential (and somewhat controversial) theoretical perspectives in organizational and strategy research.
Excess Capacity
Authors: Avgeropoulos Stephanos , Caldart Adrián A.
Published: January 2015

A firm is said to have excess capacity when it has production capacity available for use which is more than sufficient to satisfy current demand. This can either be due to market imperfections, or it can be pursued for strategic purposes, to improve a firm's competitive standing.

As far as the former family of causes is concerned, excess capacity is a result of the absence of a market mechanism which balances demand and supply in the short run. Risk of overcapacity is specially serious in cyclical industries (in which optimistic expectations during upturns almost guarantee the creation of overcapacity) and in those with undifferentiated products as competition is based essentially on cost and cost benefits from high volume (i.e.: capacity) and new technology (i.e., building new modern capacity).
GE
matrix (Competitive Position Attractiveness Matrix)
Authors: Caldart Adrián A.
Published: January 2015

During the 1970s, the US General Electric company (GE) and McKinsey & Co. developed a portfolio model measuring the relative attractiveness of the multiple businesses of the firm with the purpose of providing a criteria on how to allocate capital across these. The GE matrix examined those variables deemed by its management as the critical ones affecting their businesses. These factors were then used to map the position of a business in a three by three matrix, divided in areas each of which indicated a recommended investment strategy.
Breakthrough Strategies
Authors: Caldart Adrián A.
Published: January 2015

Business strategies are characterized as a Breakthrough Strategy as long as they accomplish two essential conditions: to enable the firm to create a new value proposition that challenges the traditional key success factors of the industry and/or redefines the structure of the industry; to be highly successful in the marketplace.
Mission
Authors: Campbell Andrew
Published: January 2015

Large companies typically provide detailed statements of their strategic intent and their major goals in the form of mission statements. These are often criticized for their vacuity. But, before discussing mission statements, it is worth defining the term mission, distinguishing it from vision or values and linking it with other terms such as purpose, goals, and strategic intent. Campbell & Yeung (1991) developed a framework called the Ashridge Mission Diamond. At the top is purpose: the reason why the company exists. Down one side is strategy: the product‐market focus, the value proposition, and the sources of advantage. Down the other side are organizational values: the logic for behavior that is about morals and oughts rather than cost‐benefit analysis. At the bottom, linking the two sides are behavior norms and standards: the behaviors in the organization that symbolize both the strategy and the values system. In this framework, a mission statement includes all of these parts, and companies with a “sense of mission” need tight alignment between the different parts and between the organizational values and the values of the employees and managers.
Business Process Reengineering
Authors: Masih Anwar
Published: January 2015

Business process reengineering (BPR) is about the fundamental redesign of processes, organizations, and information systems to achieve radical improvements in time lead‐ins, cost, quality, and customer experience. This was conceived in the West at a time when the Japanese experience in continuous improvement systems was yielding a substantial cost advantage. However, the experience of BPR has been very disappointing. The reasons for failure are outlined and the connection with more recent transformation programs is indicated.
Efficiency
Authors: Avgeropoulos Stephanos
Published: January 2015

Efficiency is about the optimal use of inputs to produce an output, requiring no unnecessary resources and creating minimal waste.
Blue Ocean Strategy
Authors: Mi Ji
Published: January 2015

Blue ocean strategy provides a theoretical framework and a practical roadmap for companies to break away from the cutthroat competition in existing industries and create new market space of profitable growth. Whereas competitive strategy stresses the importance of choosing a distinctive position of either differentiation or cost leadership under structural constraint, blue ocean strategy aims at breaking the trade‐off between value and cost through cognitive reconstruction of market elements across industry boundaries. On the basis of a reconstructionist view of strategy, blue ocean strategy argues that industry structure can be changed endogenously by the strategic actions of micro‐level actors. This, in turn, requires the alignment of the value, profit, and people propositions of a strategy in support of pursuing both differentiation and low cost.
Strategy Content
Authors: de Wit Bob
Published: January 2015

The strategy content refers to all decisions and choices on the company's future.
Strategy Making
Authors: de Wit Bob
Published: January 2015

Strategy making refers to the process of formulating and implementing an organizational strategy. The process requires on the one hand deliberate planning and execution of process steps, and on the other hand sufficient room for addressing issues that emerge. The right balance between deliberateness and emergence relates to company‐specific factors such as industry and national context however, there is widespread agreement among academics and practitioners that some kind of balance is required.
N‐Form
Authors: Smith Chris
Published: January 2015

As the costs of coordinating different parts of the firm have diminished because of advances in information and technology it has become more cost‐and value‐effective for some firms to allow various functions and departments to operate as a market‐based network of interdependent suppliers (N‐form) than as functions/departments of one centrally managed organization.
Disruptive Innovation
Authors: Möslein Kathrin M. , Neyer Anne‐Katrin
Published: January 2015

Disruptive innovation, in its original sense, refers to a technology that has the potential to disrupt traditional value creation models and markets. It can be contrasted with sustaining innovation that mainly improves or evolves existing value creation models and markets. Over time, the term “disruptive innovation,” popularized by Clayton Christensen in the 1990s, has left its original focus on technological innovations and has been widely used to describe almost every type of innovation from radically new products, processes, and services to discontinuous business models, change processes, and value propositions. This broad use of the term undermines the usefulness of a powerful concept of disruptive technologies and their strategic impact on organizations and markets.
Downsizing
Authors: Channon Derek F. , McGee John
Published: January 2015

Downsizing refers to a head count reduction which usually occurs as a result of attempts to achieve radical shifts in productivity in the face of declining or slowing sales. It is used usually to indicate significant changes in numbers and consequently has important social as well as economic effects. Downsizing can be part of a continuous process of “rightsizing” and can therefore have clear strategic justification. However, extreme downsizing particularly as a first‐response device is often associated with failures to monitor and engage with volatile external environments.
Stakeholder Analysis
Authors: Avgeropoulos Stephanos
Published: January 2015

Stakeholders are all the people and organizations that have an interest in a company, and that may influence the company or be influenced by its activities.
Acquisition Strategy
Authors: Angwin Duncan
Published: January 2015

This article reviews acquisition strategy. Specifically it deals with classical acquisition strategies from the perspective of different academic disciplines and also highlights strategies existing in the real world, that have received little research attention to date. Acquisition strategies are also related to overall performance and risk in order to show that prevailing limited perceptions of acquisition strategies in the literature may also be partly responsible for the way in which performance outcomes are viewed. A number of international M&A examples are used to illustrate the main points.
Leveraged Buy‐Outs
Authors: Channon Derek F. , Sammut Bonnici Tanya
Published: January 2015

Leveraged buy‐outs (LBOs) occur when the management of a company purchases its shares from existing shareholders and effectively becomes the owners. The target is typically a public company or a subsidiary of one which is taken private, with a significant portion of the cash purchase price being financed by debt. This debt is secured not by the credit status of the purchaser but by the assets of the target company. The debt used has usually been high‐yield securities of substandard investment grade quality. An important criterion for an LBO is a gap between the existing market value of the firm and the value determined by a reappraisal of the assets or by the capitalization of expected cash flows. Moreover, after an LBO the incoming management is often able to achieve dramatic savings in the business's operating costs.
Cooperative Strategies
Authors: Angwin Duncan , Sammut‐Bonnici Tanya
Published: January 2015

Cooperative strategies are categorized into the two main subsets of collusive strategies and strategic alliances. Through collusive strategies, several organizations in an industry cooperate to decrease industry output below the competitive level and raise prices above the competitive level. Strategic alliances are formed when several organizations cooperate in order to increase the competitive position of the industry as a whole.
Strategic Alliances
Authors: Angwin Duncan , Sammut‐Bonnici Tanya
Published: January 2015

Strategic alliances have made it possible for corporations to swiftly gain access to markets, exchange technologies, form defensive shareholding blocs, enter third markets in combination with other partners, and engage in otherwise prohibitively expensive technologies and production facilities. Strategic alliances overcome many of the limitations of mergers and acquisitions, and seem to avoid culture and organizational shock and yet, achieve rapid presence in new markets.

There are three main types of strategic alliance amongst noncompeting firms.
International expansion joint ventures
are formed by companies that originate in different countries.
Vertical partnerships
bring together two companies that operate at two successive stages in the same production process.
Cross‐industry agreements
are cooperations formed by companies from different industries to leverage their complementary capabilities.

Strategic alliances amongst competitors fall into three categories.
Pre‐competitive
or
shared‐supply alliances
cover one stage in the production process.
Quasi‐concentration alliances
cover the entire production process and results in a common product marketed by all allies.
Complementary alliances
are formed when the assets contributed by the partner firms are different in nature.

Despite the apparent advantages of strategic alliances, their value is less appealing to corporations with proprietary technology, strategic cost advantage, and high market share.
Cost Analysis
Authors: McGee John
Published: January 2015

The microeconomics of strategy is built initially on an understanding of the nature of costs. The links between costs and decision‐making are an essential part of strategy analysis and are central to an understanding of long‐run cost position and competitiveness. The key concepts are opportunity cost, short‐run costs (fixed and variable costs), and long‐run costs (economies of scale).
Network Externalities
Authors: McGee John , Sammut‐Bonnici Tanya
Published: January 2015

Network externalities are defined as the increasing utility that a user derives from consumption of a product as the number of other users who consume the same product increases. Network externalities are the new drivers of the network economy. The exponential adoption of a network service, driven by network externalities, is evident in the rapid rise of peer‐to‐peer networks in three main categories: social networks, e‐marketplaces, and information services, such as Facebook,
eBay
, and Wikipedia. Network market shares tend to “tip” consumer expectations toward one player and away from its rival. The valuation of a product increases the more that others consume the product, leading to a “winner‐takes‐all” scenario. The exception to this phenomenon would be a regulated network market with strong interconnections between competing platforms. The mobile telephone industry is a classic example, where market shares tend to be equitable among competitors. With the advent of technology disruptors, network industries tend to shift from monopoly to oligopoly. Similar trends are evident in other
IT
‐intensive industries. Thus, the focus of interest in network economics has shifted from the analysis of natural monopoly toward issues of interconnection, compatibility, interoperability, and coordination of quality.
Replacement Demand
Authors: McGee John , Channon Derek F.
Published: January 2015

By definition durable goods are not completely consumed at the time of their purchase; they yield a stream of services over time. The sale of durables can be seen as replacing that part of the existing stock of durables that has worn out (i.e., replacement demand) and that is really new (i.e., an expansion of demand). The most important factor determining replacement demand is the rate of obsolescence that determines prices in second‐hand markets. There are two elements in obsolescence, physical deterioration and expectations of technological change.
Z

‐Score
Authors: Channon Derek F.
Published: January 2015

The
Z
‐score is a statistically derived predictor of corporate failure, specifically the probability that a firm will go bankrupt in 2 years. The concept provides a useful tool for predicting bankruptcy or financial difficulties largely in manufacturing businesses. The formula makes use of ratios derived from standard financial statements and can, therefore, be applied to the analysis of competitors, customers, suppliers, acquisition candidates, and so on.
Information Goods
Authors: McGee John
Published: January 2015

Information and know‐how are classic examples of public goods. A public good is a commodity or service in which the consumption of one agent (consumer or firm) does not preclude its use by other agents. Information is also an experience good where consumers need to experience it in order to value it. Information goods are classic by‐products of the digital age where the fixed costs are very high but marginal costs are vanishingly low.
Market‐Based View
Authors: McGee John
Published: January 2015

The market‐based view (MBV), alternatively known as the market positioning view) emphasizes the role of market conditions in developing strategy for the firm. This contrasts with the resource‐based view (RBV) which focuses on the firm's resources and capabilities. There has been a lively debate on the relative merits of the two in particular the conditions under which one might be preferred over the other.
Economic Concepts for Strategy
Authors: McGee John
Published: January 2015

Microeconomic analysis introduces us to four key features of the market “context” in which these rival firms sell their products. The supply side of the market tells us how costs arise and from which we can observe the phenomenon of cost advantage. The demand side of the market tells us how value is perceived and paid for by customers and from which we can observe the nature of differentiation advantage. Analysis of markets and competition tells us how competition takes place and the effects on prices and costs. Industry analysis tells us the economic configuration of firms and the impact on strategic choices.
Market Structure: The Analysis of Markets and Competition
Authors: Knight Ben , McGee John
Published: January 2015

A market is, in its general sense, the group of suppliers and buyers who are in sufficiently close contact for market transactions to take place and for those transactions to effect the terms of trade (the price). The structure of the markets indicates the relative number of buyers and sellers in the market and therefore the nature of competition that will take place. Market conditions can vary from the perfectly competitive to the monopolistic, and the consequences of these can be seen in market conduct and performance outcomes.
Strategic Groups
Authors: John McGee
Published: January 2015

A strategic group consists of those rival firms with similar competitive approaches and positions in the market. The identification of strategic groups within an industry enables the competitive structure of the industry to be redefined to compare strategies of various competitors for similarities and differences. Strategic groups' maps are based on the notion of mobility barriers. These are forces which deter or inhibit the movement of a firm from one strategic position to another and, more generally, the expansion of firms in one group to a position held by another group. Therefore, a mobility barrier is essentially a limitation on replicability or imitation. It acts like an entry barrier, but it acts for the group within the industry rather than for the industry as a whole. Strategic groups are thought to provide more sensitive explanation for variations in firm performance than industry structure alone.
Value Chain
Authors: McGee John
Published: January 2015

The value chain is that part of the supply chain that the firm directly controls usually through direct ownership. Each element of the value chain represents a certain cost but the term value is used to show how each of these activities is potentially a value creator capable of being transformed into product that contains value for customers and value (usually profits) for the firm, that is, competitive advantage. The value chain has a generic structure, attributed to Porter, and has considerable value in assessing the configuration of assets and activities in the firm.
Economies of Scope
Authors: McGee John
Published: January 2015

Economies of scope exist when the cost of joint production of two outputs is less than the cost of producing the components separately. These may arise from the leveraging of a core competence based on knowledge and learning, from the efficient use of resources or from spreading the cost of a network across a wider range of products. Scope is concerned with the consequences of increased variety of products produced and not the increases in volume. Scope is a key driver of strategy because the drivers of scope are often very difficult to imitate.
Economies of Substitution
Authors: McGee John
Published: January 2015

Economies of substitution exist when the cost of designing a higher performance system through the partial retention of existing components is lower than the cost of designing the system afresh. This substitution effect arises from two causes. Modularity in design allows new components to be integrated into existing systems if components conform to standardized interface specifications. System upgradeability can take place if there are unused technological capabilities in higher order components such as the
CPU
in desktop personal computer.
Economizing
Authors: McGee John
Published: January 2015

Economizing stems from Williamson's seminal paper on strategizing and economizing, where he argues that strategizing efforts are burdened by imitation and costs excesses and therefore that economizing is the more prevalent and fundamentally better strategy. Economizing is about cost minimization but is not simply a matter of technical efficiency but the avoidance of inferior internal organization and maladapted operations. This places emphasis on better organizational form, internal incentives and controls, alignment of contractual interfaces both intrafirm and interfirm. More generally it is about more effective adaptation to change. The economizing approach is essentially based on transactions cost economics.
Sustainability
Authors: McGee John
Published: January 2015

Sustainability refers to the extent to which competitive advantage can be maintained over time. It can be based on positional advantage where it is dependent on the strength of the competitive position and/or the value of that position in the market. It can also stem from a resource‐based advantage where it is dependent on the protection around the relevant key resources.
Complementary Products
Authors: Avgeropoulos Stephanos , Sammut‐Bonnici Tanya , McGee John
Published: January 2015

Complementary products or services are utilized in combination with one another. Typically, a complementary good has limited significance when used alone but, when used with its complementary products, its overall utility increases. Examples of complements are cars and tiers, tablets and applications, printers and ink cartridges. Complementary products can be a significant part of a company's product portfolio with important implications for competitive advantage.
Star Businesses
Authors: Whitehead Jo
Published: January 2015

Star businesses are defined as having high market share in a high‐growth environment. They are one of the quadrants of the BCG growth share matrix. The strategy for star businesses is to fully fund them to ensure that they retain their leadership position. Over time they should mature to be profitable cash cow businesses, unless the basis for competitive changes, for example, because of the incursion of disruptive competitors.
Critical Mass
Authors: Sammut‐Bonnici Tanya , McGee John
Published: January 2015

Critical mass is defined as a point at which the rate of change of demand or the gradient of the demand curve changes in magnitude and direction, leading to an exponential increase in the adoption of a product by consumers. The phenomenon of critical mass is evident in network products such as mobile phones, e‐mail software, messaging services, social networks, and collaborative gaming platforms. Before the critical mass point is reached, the product is hardly known by consumers or considered feasible, and adoption rates are gradual. Beyond the critical mass point, the demand for the product accelerates rapidly and continues to grow until it reaches the limits of the consumer population. How fast critical mass is attained depends on consumers' expectations regarding the performance of a new technology product and the final size of its network of users. The higher the expectations that a new product will be successful, the faster the market will reach its critical mass point. Research shows that critical mass is attained when 10–20% of the population has adopted a new product.
Strategic Decision Making
Authors: Wilson David
Published: January 2015

At the heart of strategy lies decision making. Having analyzed the environment, assessed organizational capabilities and investigated technological shifts, managers have to take preferred courses of action. They have to examine possible alternatives and choose amongst them. Strategic decisions are the handful of decisions that drive or shape most of an organization's actions, are not easily changed once made and have the greatest impact upon organizational performance. Strategy may be a grand concept, but it is the individual strategic decisions which matter.
Social Capital
Authors: Sammut‐Bonnici Tanya , McGee John
Published: January 2015

Social capital is the set of resources derived from the networks of cooperation inside and outside the firm for the benefit of customers and shareholders. Social capital constitutes one of the key resource groups of a firm, which include financial capital, organizational capital, and human capital. Inside the firm, horizontal interactions between business units, divisions, and employees have a positive effect on productivity. The internal interactions and cooperative dynamics are likely to develop unique dynamic capabilities that are difficult to imitate and that would increase the firm's competitive advantage. External networks of cooperation are developed by the firm through strategic alliances with suppliers, distributors, and R&D outfits among others. The social capital derived from the networks helps the firms gain access to new materials, markets, and technologies. Firms with strong internal and external networks develop a solid foundation of social capital, which enables them to be more agile and reactive to developments in the marketplace. These firms have a wider network of resources to call upon in order to meet new forms of demand and to exploit business opportunities.
Core Competences
Authors: Griffiths Dorothy
Published: January 2015

Core competences are “a set of differentiated skills, complementary assets, and routines that provide the basis for a firm's competitive capacities and sustainable advantage in a particular business”.
Specialized Businesses
Authors: Whitehead Jo
Published: January 2015

Specialized businesses are those in which there are many ways to build advantage, all of which can provide a significant degree of advantage. Specialized businesses are typically linked with other specialized businesses because there are some synergies between them (distinguishing them from volume businesses).
Stalemate Businesses
Authors: Jo Whitehead
Published: January 2015

Stalemate businesses are those in which there are only a few ways to build advantage, and the size of advantage available for even the leading player is small. Such businesses tend to suffer from mediocre returns, particularly if they are prone to over capacity. Over time, as the weakest players leave the business, they may consolidate to a more oligopolistic structure – allowing returns to rise to some extent.
Technology Fusion
Authors: Tidd Joe , Sammut‐Bonnici Tanya
Published: January 2015

Technology fusion involves the combination and transformation of a number of different core technologies in order to create new product markets. The key element of technology fusion is that it is both complementary and cooperative. Typically, it is the result of reciprocal and substantial R&D expenditure by companies from a range of industries and with different technological competences. Technology fusion in micro and nano manufacturing is expected to have the greatest growth potential in the surgical, automotive, and biotechnology industries. In the telecommunications sector, the fusion of optics and electronics technologies has been critical. In the automotive industry, the integration of electronic and mechanical systems has become a major locus of innovation, particularly in engine, transmission, and braking systems. In aerospace, the development of fly‐by‐wire systems demands the fusion of electronics and hydraulics technologies – and the next generation of fly‐by‐light systems will also require expertise in optics technologies. There may be significant organizational barriers to technology fusion at the level of the firm. Past strategic choices clearly shape existing organizational structures and processes, and these structures and processes may constrain future strategic options.
Dynamic Capabilities
Authors: Tempest Sue , Starkey Ken
Published: January 2015

Dynamic capabilities have become a key concept in the field of strategic management, as concerns about environmental uncertainty and industry change have become prevalent. Dynamic capabilities are part of a wider debate about the value of the resource‐based view of the firm, and the centrality of knowledge and learning to strategic success. This article considers key definitions of dynamic capabilities; the origins of the term and its conceptual development; and gaps in our understanding of dynamic capabilities which are nature for further research as organizations explore for more sustainable foundations upon which to develop their strategies in future.
Deregulation
Authors: Cave Martin
Published: January 2015

Despite the secular increase in regulation, there are important illustrations of its opposite – deregulation. As well as general assaults on needless regulation, or “red tape,” there are many examples of the more focused elimination of legal and regulatory restrictions on entry into certain economic activities. Example can be found in professional services (the law, accountancy) and in transport, especially by bus and air. In the utilities, entry into parts of the value chain such as electricity generation has been deregulated or liberalized. Customers have usually benefitted from this process, but previously protected firms have resisted.
Human Capital
Authors: Snell Scott A. , Crane Bret
Published: January 2015

Human capital is the economic value of an individual's knowledge, skills and abilities. This article discusses the ways in which human capital can be specific or general, unique, and of strategic value.
Strategy and Planning
Authors: Boyd Brian K.
Published: January 2015

Strategic planning emerged as a management tool in the 1960s and can be considered an umbrella for a range of activities, including mission statements, goal setting, and action plans. Currently, strategic planning has a high rate of adoption and strong user satisfaction among firms worldwide. Firms who do not plan strategically may find themselves at a competitive disadvantage relative to competitors and are consequently at risk for lessened performance. Firms must address a range of questions when developing their planning infrastructures, including the balance of top‐down versus bottom‐up initiatives, the sequencing of decision processes, and the specific elements to include.
Lean
Authors: Radnor Zoe
Published: January 2015

Lean has become known as a concept for identifying value, creating a focus on flow, and reduction of waste within organizational business processes. Lean, although developed in the manufacturing industry, has seen uptake in service organizations both private and public. All industries have met with the challenge of a Lean approach which is engaging with both the technical and, cultural and behavioral aspects.
Manufacturing Strategy
Authors: Roden Sinéad
Published: January 2015

Manufacturing strategy is a critical component of a firm's corporate and business strategies, comprising a set of well‐coordinated objectives and action programs aimed at securing a long‐term, sustainable advantage. It is commonly defined as a set of manufacturing objectives which support business objectives, and a set of policies, decisions, and actions aimed at achieving those objectives.
Value Engineering
Authors: Channon Derek F.
Published: January 2015

Value engineering is (usually) an engineering activity whereby the ratio of an output or value, is maximised in relation to the input costs. Typically, this involves the identification and elimination of excess costs, thus increasing the value to the customer of the functions that are designed into the product. This entry illustrates the process by referring to the eight factor approach developed by Isuzu Motors.
Competitive Landscapes
Authors: Cassiman Bruno , Ghemawat Pankaj
Published: January 2015

Competitive landscapes represent the effect of differences in competitive positioning on business performance. The principal objective of such mapping is to guide strategic decisionmaking by uncovering key performance drivers and anticipating how the competitive landscape might evolve over time We discuss different analytical frameworks that provide insight about the different potential dimensions in space and time that drive performance in such mappings of firms.
Divestment
Authors: Simmonds Paul
Published: January 2015

Companies undertake divestment – the disposal of business activities – to manage their corporate portfolios. In the last 20 or so years, many diversified (related and unrelated) companies have embarked on divestment programs designed to achieve greater focus. Divestment has been driven by a lack of investor and analyst support for diverse companies and strong demand from a thriving private equity industry looking for acquisition targets that can be bought cheaply and turned around in a private company environment and then floated/resold at a profit.
Related Diversification
Authors: Simmonds Paul
Published: January 2015

Related diversification is the addition of new activities that have some connection with existing activities. Relatedness may be through adjacent positions in the value system (vertical relatedness) or through similarities in a “core skill” primarily in processes or technologies used (horizontal relatedness). According to the Model of Corporate Development, as single business companies grow they add new activities that are related to their core activities to become dominant business companies and, as those related activities become more substantial, related diversified companies. Some related diversifiers continue to add further unrelated activities to become unrelated diversified companies (conglomerates). In recent years, diversified companies have narrowed their activities seeking greater focus.
Organizational Life Cycle
Authors: Simmonds Paul
Published: January 2015

The basic organizational life cycle is a timeline – creation to dissolution – but it may also reflect changes in diversification. The Model of Corporate Development shows increasing diversification reflecting corporate evolution with companies focused on a single business at one extreme and companies with a portfolio of unrelated business activities at the other with dominant business and related diversified companies being intermediate stages. Companies move through the Model as, in pursing growth, they add more and increasingly unrelated activities. The Model reflects the typical organizational life cycle, although companies may choose not to progress beyond a particular stage and, increasingly, may decide to retreat back toward greater focus.
Value‐Based Planning
Authors: Johnson Peter
Published: January 2015

Value‐based planning integrates the impact strategies have on shareholder value into strategic decision making. To do this, the value that arises from the pursuit of a strategic option for a business is calculated. Initially, strategy practitioners used payback, return on investment, and discounted return methods to determine the financial value of a strategy. Later, these methods were replaced by approaches based on value‐creating spreads that exceeded capital market requirements, which have found their simplest expression in the concepts of economic value added and return on value added.
Vulnerability Analysis
Authors: Channon Derek F.
Published: January 2015

Vulnerability analysis is a way of assessing a threat to a firm. It assesses the potential damage to the firm of removing its key strategic underpinnings. The result of a vulnerability analysis arrays the impact of threat against the ability to retaliate, resulting in a way of ranking vulnerability to threat.
Market Share
Authors: McKiernan Peter
Published: January 2015

The relationship between market share and returns is one of the most examined topics in economics and management research. The principle is simple – capturing a large market share heralds a multitude of benefits due to the increasing scale of operations but, should these operations become too large, then deceasing economies set in due to control, inefficiency, and regulatory issues. Academics have disagreed on the theoretical explanations of the direct link between market share and profits. They have also disagreed strongly on the statistical evidence adduced in favor of a direct link. Nevertheless, there are general strategy prescriptions that are likely to hold in most markets, and these are summarized in terms of advice for large, medium, and low market share holders.
Brand and Branding
Authors: Sammut‐Bonnici Tanya
Published: January 2015

A brand can be defined as a set of tangible and intangible attributes designed to create awareness and identity, and to build the reputation of a product, service, person, place, or organization. The objective of branding strategy is to create brands that are differentiated from the competition, thereby reducing the number of perceived substitutes in the marketplace, increasing price elasticity, and improving profits. Branding strategies are built on the interdependent frameworks of competitive brand positioning, value chains development, and brand equity management. Competitive brand positioning requires the identification of a distinct market space and a cognitive location as perceived by consumers. Value chain development is based primarily on product development and market development. Product development includes strategic initiatives on product design, product innovation, and the ability to introduce new product lines and category extensions. Market development revolves around pricing strategy, distribution strategy, and marketing communications. Brand equity is the set of assets and liabilities associated with a brand. The trend in branding is moving beyond the customer's perception of a brand, to the measureable metrics of customer satisfaction throughout the value chain.
Industry Analysis
Authors: Grant Robert M.
Published: January 2015

Industry analysis involves the systematic investigation of the firm's proximate environment – as defined by its interactions with customers, suppliers, and competitors – for the purposes of identifying sources of profit. In this entry, we look beyond the Porter Five Forces of Competition framework to consider, first, what we mean by an industry and to consider different approaches to industry analysis including game theory, Schumpeterian (or “hyper”) competition, architectural advantage, and the identification of key success factors.
Externalities
Authors: Avgeropoulos Stephanos , McGee John
Published: January 2015

The price mechanism ideally allocates resources to their most valued and efficient use. But if the private cost of products diverges from the full costs, then resources are misapplied and there can be corresponding over or underproduction of the relevant goods. The forces behind this are called external costs, externalities for short. There are various types of externality with different consequences and differing solutions.
Portfolio Management
Authors: Smith Chris
Published: January 2015

Portfolio management describes a strategic perspective wherein the grouping of businesses under the corporate umbrella is viewed and managed as a portfolio of investments. Managed at the corporate level via its financial parameters the individual business is part of a collective that is put together in order to optimise an overall investment objective such as cash flow, risk, growth etc. In the 1970s and 80s many different matrices were developed, mainly by strategic consulting firms such as the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey, that placed the businesses in sectors of a grid. The grids reflected an interaction between various business and industry dynamics. The most famous of these derived from the interaction of market share and market growth rate which produced the quadrants (“Boston Boxes”) labelled ‘cash cow’, ‘dog’, ‘question mark’ and ‘star’. The profitable ‘sell and break‐up’ strategies of corporate raiders proved the empirical death knell for portfolio management as an active corporate strategy following theoretical insights that investors could manage a portfolio for themselves and did not need an intervening corporate layer to do so for them.
Vertical Integration Strategy
Authors: Mukherjee Kankana
Published: January 2015

Vertical integration strategy is concerned with the vertical scope of the firm and involves decisions regarding which stages of the vertical chain should be outsourced and which should remain within the organizational boundaries of a firm. This is often referred to as the “make versus buy” decision. It also involves decisions on the type and formality of the vertical arrangements. The decision of whether or not to vertically integrate has been motivated by (i) physical (ii) strategic and (iii) efficiency based considerations. In case of certain production processes, technological interdependencies provide a straightforward motivation for vertical integration. Strategic motives, on the other hand, relate to gaining market power or neutralizing the power of existing and potential competitors. Efficiency motives consider the economies of scale and learning economies that can be achieved by the market firms. The balance between transactions costs involved in using the market versus the administrative costs associated with vertical integration is also considered. A significant feature of the current trend is the hybrid nature of many vertical relationships in the form of strategic alliances, partnerships, and joint ventures that seek to benefit both from the flexibility of market transactions and the reduced transactions cost of integration.
Absorptive Capacity: The Concept and its Usefulness
Authors: Newey Lance R. , Zahra Shaker A.
Published: January 2015

Cohen and Levinthal define absorptive capacity (ACAP) as: “the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends”.
Japanese Sogo Shosha (General Trading Companies)
Authors: Roehl Tom
Published: January 2015

Japanese trading companies (soho shosha) have a long history in which they have contributed to economic growth in Japan. While they have not a smaller role to play in the current environment, they continue to play a key role in large resource projects and in information‐intensive distribution chains.
Kaizen
Authors: Collinson Simon
Published: January 2015

Kaizen or “continuous improvement” encompasses a range of practices including just‐in‐time, total quality management and “kanban” systems, that became associated with Japanese manufacturing efficiency during the 1970s and 1980s. Its success partly relies on the wider social and cultural context of Japanese organizations and on the more “predictable” nature of manufacturing processes.
Zaibatsu Structures
Authors: Collinson Simon
Published: January 2015

Zaibatsu are a distinctive Japanese form of conglomerate characterized by family ownership and a relatively high level of business diversification. Present‐day horizontal (
kinyu
) type
keiretsu
, particularly Mitsui, Mitsubishi, and Sumitomo, are the descendents of pre‐World War
II
zaibatsu. Group members are linked via cross‐shareholdings and/or senior management committees, co‐development and management exchange mechanisms and informal relationships. Their influence has diminished since the beginning of an extended recession in Japan.
Comparative Advantage
Authors: Powell Taman
Published: January 2015

Comparative advantage is a term coined by the economist David Riccardo in the early part of the 19th century. Comparative advantage states that production will be maximized, and therefore, everyone will be better off if all parties only produce what they have a competitive advantage in.
Learning Organization
Authors: Paroutis Sotirios
Published: January 2015

Learning organization is a type of organization that focuses on creating, acquiring, and
transferring knowledge. Employees in such organizations are encouraged to generate new knowledge and actively exchange new learning across departments. Learning organizations are built around the notion of generative learning, which emphasizes continuous experimentation and feedback of the problem definition and solving processes.