bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
More Critical Comments on Knowledge-Based Theories of the Firm
Authors: Foss Nicolai J.
Published: October 2008

This paper continues the critique of knowledge-based theories of the firm that was undertaken in Foss (Foss, N. J. 1996a. Knowledge-based approaches to the theory of the firm: Some critical comments. Organ. Sci. 7(5) 470–476.), specifically criticizing the reasoning in Kogut and Zander (Kogut, B., U. Zander. 1996. What firms do? Coordination, identity, and learning. Organ. Sci. 7(5) 502–518.) and Conner and Prahalad (Conner, K. R., C. K. Prahalad. 1996. A resource-based theory of the firm: Knowledge versus opportunism. Organ. Sci. 7(5) 477–501.). I argue that Kogut and Zander (Kogut, B., U. Zander. 1996. What firms do? Coordination, identity, and learning. Organ. Sci. 7(5) 502–518.) attempt to explain firm organization in terms of a preference for such organization—a distinctly non-economic mode of explanation—and that Conner and Prahalad fail to sufficiently characterize the nature of the firm, because they identify firm organization with the employment contract and neglect asset-ownership.
Competing Values in Organizations: Contextual Influences and Structural Consequences
Authors: Buenger Victoria , Daft Richard L. , Conlon Edward J. , Austin Jeffrey
Published: October 2008

Managers recognize that they must satisfy a variety of demands, some contradictory. The authors investigated this circumstance using Quinn and Rohrbaugh's competing values model. They report the findings of a study that identified and measured the four competing values (internal process value, rational goal value, human relations value, and open system value) across organizations and investigated whether contextual and structural variables were systematically associated with those value sets.

Data were gathered from a large sample of United States Air Force Commands. Results showed that the operating units pursued the four values defined by the model, but did not emphasize them equally. Certain environmental characteristics (information and resource scarcity and technological uncertainty) and aspects of the units' technology (their task routineness, workflow interdependence, and training complexity) were associated with organizational value sets. The values emphasized were associated in turn with the coordinating structure (vertical or horizontal coordination) adopted by the units.

The study attempted to move the competing values model beyond theoretical concepts. The results confirm the competing values at work in organizations and also suggest that value sets differ from unit to unit. Certain patterns of values appear to exist within particular environmental and technological contexts. These findings indicate tradeoffs among values. Emphasizing some values may hamper pursuit of others. So when managers decide to give priority to programs designed to strengthen to the human relations value, efficiency and short-term profitability may drop off. Managers must be aware of this shifting balance. They must evaluate whether prescriptions for organizational success make sense. Decisions should reflect the organization's value structure (and its deficiencies), its technology, its environment, and its structure as well as show these elements fit together.
Perspective—The Black Box of Organizational Demography
Authors: Lawrence Barbara S.
Published: October 2008

Since its definition in the early 1980s, organizational demography has become an influential research area. Scholars map the relationship between demographic variables and organizational outcomes, examining such questions as whether increasing work group diversity leads to greater turnover and whether decreasing tenure similarity within a top management team leads to more numerous strategic reorientations. Asking such questions requires only a demographic predictor and an outcome, but answering them often requires additional theoretical constructs. For example, the relationship between work group diversity and turnover might be explained by communication and conflict. As work group diversity increases, communication within the group may become more difficult, resulting in greater conflict and thus increasing turnover.

Despite the important, sometimes critical, role of such additional theoretical concepts, researchers often leave them loosely specified and unmeasured, creating a “black box” filled with vague, untested theories. This article presents a critical analysis of this approach. The results show that simple demographic explanations may generate multiple, mutually exclusive, often implicit theories involving numerous additional concepts. An evaluation of these more complex theories against previous research shows that they receive only weak support. Hence, the black box approach to organizational demography presents serious theoretical problems. Examples are provided to illuminate these problems. Four directions are suggested for research in organizational demography: deepening current variance explanations, creating dynamic models, exploring factors that produce demographic distributions, and moving beyond the variance model.
Power and Trust: Critical Factors in the Adoption and Use of Electronic Data Interchange
Authors: Hart Paul , Saunders Carol
Published: October 2008

Computer networks are an increasingly important technology for improving the efficiency of information processing and providing shared access to information resources. Because computer networks are increasingly being used to support the flow of information between and within organizations, their use both influences and has consequences for interorganizational relationships. An important and widespread application of interorganizational computer networks is Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), which refers to the computer-based exchange of standardized business-related information between buyer and supplier firms. The following theoretical framework addresses the role that power and trust play in EDI adoption and use. Firms with greater power can influence their trading partners to adopt EDI. But power can be exercised in different ways. Because computer networks provide a way for certain information to be more accessible to outside parties, their use makes organizational boundaries more permeable. When firms use coercive power to force trading partners to adopt EDI, less powerful partners may be left more vulnerable. And, over time this perceived vulnerability becomes a constraint in interorganizational relationships that prevents improvements in coordination through expanded use of EDI. On the other hand, when the event of EDI adoption is viewed as an opportunity to build and reinforce trust between firms, the relationship is able to support organizational changes (e.g., restructuring operational processes or new modes of distribution) related to EDI use which contribute to improving interorganizational coordination. The role of power and trust in EDI adoption has important implications for interorganizational theory. Their role may be especially helpful in understanding how technology, and, in particular, electronic media support strategic alliances that firms create to advance mutual goals.
The Ubiquity and Potency of Labeling in Organizations
Authors: Ashforth Blake E. , Humphrey Ronald H.
Published: October 2008

Drawing on categorization theory, semiotics, and labeling theory, we argue that categories and labels are widely utilized by individuals in organizational settings to help structure and simplify the social environment, primarily for reasons of understanding, consensus, and control. Based largely on such situational criteria as role and rank, people are sorted into various categories and are perceived and treated as exemplars or prototypes of the category. The labels attached to these categories coalesce when individuals triangulate their perceptions of category members with the perceptions that credible peers and powerholders have of category members. Labels distill a complex and perhaps contradictory array of data into concise and coherent packages, and thus provide a potent means of interpreting, representing, and conveying organizational experience and cuing action. However, labels are inherently arbitrary, labels cause individual category members to lose their individuality and assume the affective tone of the category, and labels tend to become reified as objective and normative accounts of social reality. The ubiquity and potency of labeling processes are illustrated with applications to individual-level (service encounters), group- level (intergroup conflict), and organization-level (identity, image, and reputation) phenomena. We speculate that both the process of labeling and the content of labels are similar across levels.
Organizational Performance in the Community Mental Health Care System: The Need Fulfillment Perspective
Authors: Ozcan Yasar A. , Shukla Ramesh K. , Tyler Laura H.
Published: October 2008

The authors identify the key organizational and environmental characteristics that influence the effectiveness and efficiency of publicly funded service organizations. In a study of 40 community mental health centers (CMHCs), they used fulfillment of community needs as a measure of effectiveness and utilization of various services as a measure of efficiency. The results indicate that client educational status, state facility utilization, minority population, personnel expense, management type, and board composition affect need fulfillment. The study also illuminates the relationship between efficiency and effectiveness of publicly funded service organizations. The findings suggest that the allocation of resources to these organizations from local, state, and federal governments tends to he based on the extent of unmet needs for services. That is, the less the publicly funded service organization meets community needs, the more government funds are allocated to meet the needs. If the unmet needs that stimulate higher levels of funding actually reflect inefficiency, the inverse relationship between effectiveness and efficiency suggests that the government's resource allocation may not be based on performance, but may in fact be rewarding inefficiency. The findings suggest that legitimacy does not enhance efficiency and that legitimacy and efficiency may be entirely independent, which is consistent with institutional theory. The study results will be of practical use to community leaders, taxpayers, consumer advocates, regulatory agencies, and managers of community mental health organizations.
Crossroads—“Soul Work” in Organizations
Authors: Mirvis Philip H.
Published: October 2008

Essay about Organization behavior from the point of view of community building in the sense of shared values, congruent interests, cohering rituals, and a common purpose.
The Disaggregation of Corporations: Selective Intervention, High-Powered Incentives, and Molecular Units
Authors: Zenger Todd R. , Hesterly William S.
Published: October 2008

A vast array of organizational innovations and changes are transforming US corporations. Large firms have dramatically downsized, refocused, and vertically disaggregated. They increasingly obtain goods and services, pursue complex development efforts, and exploit horizontal synergies without the aid of formal hierarchy. Large firms are also internally disaggregating into smaller, more autonomous units that are treated much like external subcontractors. The authors argue that these organizational innovations share an important underlying commonalty: economic activity is converging toward exchange involving either internal (within-firm) or external (between-firm) networks of small, autonomous production or service units. Small units and small firms have become the basic building block, the molecular units, of these new forms. Further, exchange among the small, autonomous units is commonly a mix of both market-like and hierarchical features. The authors develop a theoretical explanation for these trends. They argue that disaggregation is motivated by the powerful performance incentives that accompany small size. They further argue that disaggregation is facilitated by recent innovations in information technology, organizational design, and performance measurement that permit the selective intervention of market elements in hierarchy and hierarchical elements in markets.

The enhanced ability to intervene selectively necessitates a rethinking of traditional assumptions about the discreteness of governance choices. Innovations in organization, measurement, and technology shift decisions about optimal governance from simple market versus hierarchy choices to choices of an optimal mix of hierarchical and market elements. Consequently, managers and scholars must increasingly view organizations as complex webs of governance arrangements rather than as entities with definable boundaries.
Strategic Response to Institutional Influences on Information Systems Outsourcing
Authors: Ang Soon , Cummings Larry L.
Published: October 2008

This paper underscores the importance of examining strategic response to institutional influences in light of hypercompetition. Focusing on the banking industry, which is hypercompetitive and highly institutionalized, affords a unique opportunity to understand how individual corporations in such an industry respond strategically to institutional pressures.

We examine critical contingencies arising from hypercompetition that moderate institutional influences on information systems outsourcing in commercial banks. Using data from 226 banks and hierarchical moderated regression analyses, we show that the propensity of banks to conform to or resist institutional pressures depends on the nature of institutional pressures, perceived gain in production economies, financial capacity to resist institutional influences, and transaction cost considerations.
Control and Performance in International Joint Ventures
Authors: Mjoen Hans , Tallman Stephen
Published: October 2008

The authors examine the meaning of control in international joint ventures (IJVs) and the relationships of potential means of control in such organizations to the performance satisfaction of the foreign partner. They propose a conceptual model that provides both a traditional ownership-focused internalization perspective on those issues and an integrated approach combining a broader transaction cost interpretation of control with a resource input-based bargaining power model. A set of simultaneous structural equations with endogenous explanatory variables provides multiple possible paths from various resource and power inputs through different means of control to perceived performance satisfaction. In such a model, intermediate variables act both as dependent and independent variables; thus the complex theoretical interactions of the variables are modeled more comprehensively and realistically than in single-equation models.

To test the model and compare the theoretical relationships, the authors used data from a survey of managers in Norwegian multinational firms having at least one IJV. For structural equation modeling with latent variables, they used the LISREL VII program that simultaneously fits the measured variables to the latent variables and provides a maximum likelihood solution for the structural equation system. The results clearly reject the traditional internalization approach to IJV governance that relies strictly on ownership share to delineate degree of control. However, relative resource input has a strong relationship to relative bargaining of the parent companies, which then drives equity share, control over specific activities, and perceptions of overall control of the IJV. That result supports a bargaining-power-based model of IJV control. The relatedness of the strategic resources of the parent and the joint venture also drives specific control, implying that although transaction risk is important to governance, governance is provided by specific control rather than ownership level. Perceptions of performance are strongly and positively related to overall control.

Those results suggest that specialized control provides both protection and exploitation of key resource inputs and is gained through increased bargaining power. Higher levels of specific control result in a perception of overall control and thereby satisfaction with perceived levels of IJV performance among foreign parent company managers. Interestingly, traditional exogenous determinants of IJV control and performance such as government mandates, cultural similarity, and international experience levels fail to provide significant effects. Rather, the focus is on endogenous aspects of the parent-IJV relationship, suggesting that the key to parent firm satisfaction with an IJV is control over operations that use key strategic inputs from the parent.
Social Network Effects on the Extent of Innovation Diffusion: A Computer Simulation
Authors: Abrahamson Eric , Rosenkopf Lori
Published: October 2008

Theories of innovation diffusion no longer focus exclusively on explaining the rate at which innovations diffuse or the sequence in which they are adopted. They also focus on explaining why certain innovations diffuse extensively, becoming de facto standards, whereas others do so partially or not at all. Many of these theories specify a bandwagon process: a positive feedback loop in which increases in the number of adopters create stronger bandwagon pressures, and stronger bandwagon pressures, in turn, cause increases in the number of adopters. Factors affecting if and how many times this feedback loop cycles explain if and how many potential adopters jump on a bandwagon. We argue that one important factor has not yet been incorporated into theories explaining bandwagons' extent: the structure of social networks through which potential adopters of innovations find out information about these innovations which can cause them to adopt these innovations. We advance a theory of how the structure of social networks affects bandwagons' extent. We propose that both the number of network links, as well as small, seemingly insignificant idiosyncracies of their structures, can have very large effects on the extent of an innovation's diffusion among members of a social network.
A Dynamic Model of Organizational Decision Making: Chemco Revisited Six Years After Bhopal
Authors: Kunreuther Howard , Bowman Edward H.
Published: October 2008

The authors develop a dynamic model of organization decision making that is motivated by the decision-making process at a multinational chemical firm, given the pseudonym Chemco, that they visited shortly after the Union Carbide explosion in Bhopal, India, and again six years later. Two major decisions were taken by Chemco that could be attributed in large part to the Bhopal disaster: the divestiture of one of its plants and the sale of a business. An analysis of those actions by Chemco underscores the importance of reference points and constraints in influencing organizational choices.
Strategy Making Under Causal Ambiguity: Conceptual Issues and Empirical Evidence
Authors: Mosakowski Elaine
Published: October 2008

This paper examines how a decision maker's inability to discern the causal structure that leads to his firm's success or failure (i.e., causal ambiguity) shifts attention away from making the so-called “right” decision toward managing the strategy-making process. For this process, I advocate a calculative experimentation approach that lies somewhere between truly random trial-and-error behavior and planned solutions. To suggest this approach, this paper defines causal ambiguity and proposes a typology of causal ambiguities. The primary distinctions in this typology derive from the knowability of causal structures and inputs to the causal structures, and what is actually known by relevant actors. A simple model of decision making is presented based on a hypothesis-testing approach to problem solving, with tentative rules about the relationships between actions and outcomes being revised in a Bayesian fashion. This paper also considers the circumstances under which causal ambiguity will affect strategy making: in particular, pointing to the overall complexity both within the firm and in its environment. To illustrate the effect of causal ambiguity, I examine the prototypical strategic problem of finding the most profitable use of a firm's assets; my objective is to consider the choices and contingencies facing a decision maker operating under causal ambiguity. This paper presents a series of hypotheses that describe these choices and contingencies. In a sample of computer firms, a subset of these hypotheses are tested empirically in the context of experimental diversification as a specific case of calculative experimentation. The empirical results are generally supportive of the idea that diversification may occur as firms search to assign resources to uses. The paper concludes with a general discussion of the relationship between calculative experimentation versus purely random trial-and-error behavior and planned approaches to strategy making. The process of decision making may itself transform over time as causal understanding increases.
Breaches in the Boardroom: Organizational Identity and Conflicts of Commitment in a Nonprofit Organization
Authors: Golden-Biddle Karen , Rao Hayagreeva
Published: October 2008

In recent years, agency theory has substantially influenced research on corporate governance. Organizational sociologists have critiqued the agency theory model of boards as limited and have studied how the functioning of boards is shaped by structural, political, and cognitive contexts. Building on their work, this paper empirically studies the cultural embeddedness of boards in a nonprofit organization called Medlay. It shows how organizational identity—the members' shared beliefs about the central, enduring, and distinctive characteristics of the organization—influences the construction and enactment of the director's role and shapes interactions among board members and managers. The findings demonstrate that the role of the director is shaped by Medlay's Janus-faced identity, as both a volunteer-driven organization and a family of friends; directors see themselves as vigilant monitors and as friendly, supportive colleagues. The findings also portray how some board members' scrutiny of the budget, including “lavish” travel expenditures, surfaces the contradictions in Medlay's identity, and creates conflicts for directors. Should board members take manager to task and thereby exercise vigilance and uphold the ideal of volunteer control, or should they safeguard the principle of friendship and avoid all conflict? An influential subset of directors and top managers resolved the budget issue and preserved Medlay's identity by using different “face-saving” strategies to make directors feel that they had been vigilant, and to affirm sentiments of cooperation. More generally, this study extends the literature on corporate governance by showing how organizational identity influences the construction and enactment of the director's role. It introduces the idea of “conflicts of commitment,” a form of intra-role conflict that arises when directors are besieged by conflicting aspects of the organization's identity. When actions occur that breach the expected role performance of board members, latent contradictions in the organizational identity emerge, and directors are faced with the conflict of upholding one dimension of identity while undermining the other. The study also contributes to research on organizational identity by proposing a model of how organizational and individual identities shape the board role through the processes of identification and action, and how a hybrid identity generates the potential for intra-role conflict.
The Link Between Ethical Judgment and Action in Organizations: A Moral Approbation Approach
Authors: Jones Thomas M. , Ryan Lori Verstegen
Published: October 2008

Existing models of ethical decision making cannot yet explain the disparity between what organization members decide is “right” to do in a given situation and what they actually do. The current paper advances these models with the development of a new idea called moral approbation, defined as moral approval from oneself or others. By arguing that people rely on the opinions of their referent groups when deciding how to behave, the paper also explains how organizational or environmental factors can affect individuals' ethical behavior.

This theory proposes that individuals consider four factors when determining their own or someone else's level of moral responsibility in a given situation: the severity of the act's consequences, the certainty that the act is moral or immoral, the actor's degree of complicity in the act, and the extent of pressure the actor feels to behave unethically.

A moral agent in an organizational predicament uses these four factors to determine the level of moral responsibility that his or her referent group will attribute to him or her. Based on that perceived level of responsibility, he or she will plan a certain course of action and estimate how much moral approbation can be expected from that referent group based on that behavior. The agent then compares this anticipated level of moral approbation to the minimum that he or she can tolerate. If the anticipated moral approbation meets that threshold, the agent is likely to establish a formal intention of behaving according to the projected plan, and is more likely to act in accordance with that plan. On the other hand, if the comparison shows that the threshold will not be met, the actor is likely to rethink his or her course of action and continue to go through the moral approbation process until a plan is developed that will lead to the necessary level of approbation.

The moral approbation model begins to fill the theoretical gap between moral judgment and moral action in organizations, with some explicit observations about the effect of organizational influences. These issues are of both scholarly interest and practical concern.
Crossroads—Organizational Performance as a Dependent Variable
Authors: March James G. , Sutton Robert I.
Published: October 2008

Most studies of organizational performance define performance as a dependent variable and seek to identify variables that produce variations in performance. Researchers who study organizational performance in this way typically devote little attention to the complications of using such a formulation to characterize the causal structure of performance phenomena. These complications include the ways in which performance advantage is competitively unstable, the causal complexity surrounding performance, and the limitations of using data based on retrospective recall of informants. Since these complications are well-known and routinely taught, a pattern of acknowledging the difficulties but continuing the practice cannot be attributed exclusively to poor training, lack of intelligence, or low standards. Most researchers understand the difficulties of inferring causal order from the correlations generated by organizational histories, particularly when those correlations may be implicit in the measurement procedures used. We suggest that the persistence of this pattern is due, in part, to the context of organizational research. Organizational researchers live in two worlds. The first demands and rewards speculations about how to improve performance. The second demands and rewards adherence to rigorous standards of scholarship. In its efforts to satisfy these often conflicting demands, the organizational research community sometimes responds by saying that inferences about the causes of performance cannot be made from the data available, and simultaneously goes ahead to make such inferences. We conclude by considering a few virtues and hazards of such a solution to dilemmas involving compelling contradictory imperatives and the generality of the issues involved.
Diversification and the Legal Organization of the Firm
Authors: Bethel Jennifer E. , Liebeskind Julia Porter
Published: October 2008

The existing literature on the relationship between strategy and structure tends to ignore the legal dimension of the organization of diversified firms. Yet, there is considerable variation in the legal organization of diversified firms; while some of these firms are organized as simple corporations, many are organized as “corporate groups” in which certain lines of business are organized as separate, subsidiary firms. In this paper we argue that this variation in legal organization is observed because legal organization can significantly affect firm value. In particular, forming subsidiary firms to accommodate new businesses can protect the outstanding stakeholders of a diversified firm from increases in bankruptcy risk and liability exposure. However, forming subsidiary firms also reduces economies of scope. Hence, there are offsetting costs and benefits to adopting different types of legal organization. Changes in these relative costs and benefits over time can also be expected to trigger changes in legal organization, as well as the divestiture of businesses characterized by particular types of economic hazards.
Organization Studies and the New Pragmatism: Positivism, Anti-positivism, and the Search for Ethics
Authors: Wicks Andrew C. , Freeman R. Edward
Published: October 2008

The central claim of this paper is that organization studies needs to be fundamentally reshaped. Such change is needed to provide room for ethics and to increase the relevance of research. We argue that the new pragmatism provides critical resources for this change. Pragmatism is a particularly helpful tool to use in that it highlights the moral dimensions of organizing (is this useful for our purposes?) while at the same time avoiding entrenched epistemological distinctions that marginalize ethics and make research less useful.

The paper begins by discussing the relative absence of ethics within the mainstream of organization studies, indicates why this relative absence is problematic, and proceeds to show how pragmatism offers a preferable approach. Epistemology—specifically the debate between positivists and anti-positivists—becomes a central issue because the framework of positivism is overtly hostile to ethics (and other nonquantitative approaches to studying organizations), rendering it a marginal subject. While anti-positivism holds promise for overcoming this hostility towards ethics, it retains some of the destructive elements of positivism that create new and equally troubling difficulties. The paper claims, in contrast to the proposals of others (e.g., Zald's 1993 position) that the preferred alternative is not to split the difference, but to move beyond the positivism vs. antipositivism debate and work from an alternative framework. Pragmatism allows researchers to put this debate to the side and, in the process, develop research that is focused on serving human purposes—i.e., both morally rich and useful to organizations and the communities in which they operate.
Knowledge Worker Communications and Recipient Availability: Toward a Task Closure Explanation of Media Choice
Authors: Straub Detmar , Karahanna Elena
Published: October 2008

Recent innovations in organizational forms, such as delayered management, empowered workers, telework, and ad hoc work groups, have created a need to ensure that communication between dispersed knowledge workers can be supported. The movement toward a less cohesive workplace suggests a need to deploy computer-based media, but it is not clear which media should be deployed and under what circumstances. Addressing such significant issues must begin with insights into why knowledge workers choose particular media for particular tasks in the first place.

Prior research theorizing about media choice has focused on: (1) task, (2) medium, (3) the fit between task and medium, and (4) social environment. It has not sufficiently considered the role of the availability of the intended recipient or the interaction between recipient availability and task social presence variables which could have a significant impact on media choice. To examine the effects of these two factors, the authors conducted an initial exploratory study and a subsequent controlled factor study. In the initial study, an analysis of 1,669 hypothetical scenarios from 100 knowledge workers at a worldwide transportation company indicated that social presence (SP) theory proves to be a good predictor of media choice, as does the recipient availability construct. The analysis also suggested that the interaction between recipient availability and task social presence might be a good predictor. With a partial replication, randomized treatment design, including 1,883 scenarios from 257 workers, the controlled factor study at a large financial institution generally confirmed the study hypotheses.

The authors examine rival explanations simultaneously along the dimensions of task, medium, fit between task and medium, and social environment. They propose and test a new model of media choice and suggest directions for future testing of a new “task closure” model of media choice. They conclude by offering guidelines for managers deploying electronic communications in the workplace.
Crossroads—Mediation in Moderation—A Response
Authors: Connell Ann F. , Nord Walter R.
Published: October 2008

Rejoinder by the authors of the lead article “Mediation in Moderation” to comments.
Organizing and Evaluating Interfirm Networks: A Structurationist Perspective on Network Processes and Effectiveness
Authors: Sydow Jörg , Windeler Arnold
Published: October 2008

Interfirm networks in general and strategic networks in particular are considered as an organizational form with distinct structural properties. Due to a lack of adequate theory, the working of network processes as well as the resulting network effectiveness is not very well understood. Structuration theory, developed by Anthony Giddens as a social theory, offers the potential not only to analyze network processes without neglecting structures but also to understand why many rather than few designs seem to be effective. As conceived here, this potential results, above all, from two interrelated theorems of structuration theory: the duality of structure and the recursiveness of social praxis. It will be concluded that these theorems offer valuable insights into organizing networks, especially into how structures of signification, domination, and legitimation shape network processes and how they are reproduced under the auspices of network effectiveness.
The Scope of Alliances
Authors: Khanna Tarun
Published: October 2008

We develop the notion that the choice of alliance scope materially affects the character of benefits that alliance participants receive, and thereby affects a range of issues having to do with the initiation, evolution, and termination of the alliance. Indeed, while under-emphasized by academics, determining alliance scope ranks among the most important tasks undertaken by practitioners of alliances.

Restricting ourselves to alliances where mutual learning is the primary raison d'être, we first define private benefits as those that accrue to subsets of participants in an alliance, and common benefits as those that accrue collectively to all participants. We demonstrate how the choice of alliance scope affects the mix of private and common benefits, and draw on earlier work to show how this, in turn, affects alliance partners' incentives to invest in learning.

As illustrations of the utility of the framework of private and common benefits, we consider two applications. A simple model illustrates the relationship between the choice of alliance scope, the realization of private and common benefits, and the stability, or lack thereof, of the alliance. A second application sheds light on alliance evolution. It examines factors affecting both (a) how a particular alliance evolves, and (b) how firms manage sequences of alliances.

Two broader theoretical points also emerge from this discussion of alliance scope. First, we argue that an analytical focus solely on the individual alliance may be inappropriate for studying a wide range of issues. Of the multiple sources of benefits that accrue to alliance participants, there are some whose realization depends on activities in which the firm is engaged, but that may have little to do with the alliance in question. Second, in contrast to much of the literature on alliances, our analysis is based upon the primitives of benefit streams, rather than on transaction cost reasoning. This complementary perspective is better suited to the task of highlighting how activities not governed by an alliance might nonetheless affect multiple aspects of the alliance.
Production of Collective Action in Alliance-Based Interorganizational Communication and Information Systems
Authors: Monge Peter R. , Fulk Janet , Kalman Michael E. , Flanagin Andrew J. , Parnassa Claire , Rumsey Suzanne
Published: October 2008

This article presents a public goods-based theory that describes the process of producing multifirm, alliance-based, interorganizational communication and information public goods. These goods offer participants in alliances collective benefits that are (a) nonexcludable, in that they are available to all alliance partners whether or not they have contributed, and (b) jointly supplied, in that partners' uses of the good are noncompeting. Two generic types of goods produced are connectivity, the ability of partners to directly communicate with each other through the information and communication system, and communality, the availability of a commonly accessible pool of information to alliance partners. Four types of alliances that can produce these goods are identified: (a) precompetitive, (b) competitive, (c) joint value creation, and (d) value chain. The article examines a variety of factors that influence the production of alliance-based connective and communal goods. Twenty-three integrated propositions are presented. The article concludes with an example of the application of the theoretical model to research on connectivity and communality provided through an alliance-based interorganizational communication and information system linking more than 50 alliance partners.
The Hitotsubashi–Organization Science Conference on Asian Research in Organizations
Authors: Lewin Arie Y.
Published: October 2008

Hitotsubashi University and Organization Science cosponsored a conf erence on Asian Research in Organizations, which was held on the Hitotsubashi campus on October 19–22, 1995. Thirty papers were invited for presentation, out of more than 70 that were originally proposed. The conference was run in a format designed to maximize feedback to authors as a way to speed up and intensify the developmental process of each paper. The objective of the conference was to identify and develop papers for a special issue of Organization Science featuring Asian Research in Organizations.
Crisis Construction and Organizational Learning: Capability Building in Catching-up at Hyundai Motor
Authors: Kim Linsu
Published: October 2008

Effective organizational learning requires high absorptive capacity, which has two major elements: prior knowledge base and intensity of effort. Hyundai Motor Company, the most dynamic automobile producer in developing countries, pursued a strategy of independence in developing absorptive capacity. In its process of advancing from one phase to the next through the preparation for and acquisition, assimilation, and improvement of foreign technologies, Hyundai acquired migratory knowledge to expand its prior knowledge base and proactively constructed crises as a strategic means of intensifying its learning effort. Unlike externally evoked crises, proactively constructed internal crises present a clear performance gap, shift learning orientation from imitation to innovation, and increase the intensity of effort in organizational learning. Such crisis construction is an evocative and galvanizing device in the personal repertoires of proactive top managers. A similar process of opportunistic learning is also evident in other industries in Korea.
The Concept and Dynamics of Face: Implications for Organizational Behavior in Asia
Authors: Kim Joo Yup , Nam Sang Hoon
Published: October 2008

Research on cross-cultural psychology, sociology, and anthropology suggests that the influence of face on social interactions is both pervasive and powerful in Asia. Face, however, has not gained general acceptance as an important theoretical concept in the literature on Asian organizational behavior and management. In this paper, we propose face as a key variable that can explain much of the complexity of social interactions in Asian organizations. We attempted to elaborate on the concept and dynamics of face in Asia in such a way as to capture its pervasive, significant but often subtle influences on organizational behavior. We also examined conditions, functions, and consequences of face dynamics to generate testable propositions for future research. We argue that scholars have to go beyond the individualistic assumptions about human behavior implicit in theories of organizational behavior in the West to better understand the richness of organizational behavior in Asia. In Asia, organizational behavior is better predicted by an individual's external attributes such as face than internal attributes such as desires, emotions, and cognition.
The Process of Improvisation
Authors: Peplowski Ken
Published: October 2008

Jazz musician Ken Peplowski gives his view why managers can learn from jazz music, because a jazz band is “kind of like a corporation.”
Critics' Corner—Critical Resistance to the Jazz Metaphor
Authors: Hatch Mary Jo , Weick Karl E.
Published: October 2008

There was a surprising set of reactions when Mary Jo Hatch began talking about jazz on the colloquium circuit soon after the Vancouver concert. She agonized over these reactions in a brief note she sent to the three co-editors. (A revised version appears below.) Upon reading the note, Weick had a quick, reasonably intense “counterpoint” reaction. Hatch's comment appears below. Following that, unedited—just as was the case for Berniker's spontaneous reaction to the symposium—we reproduce Weick's comments to the other two editors upon reading Hatch's note.
Strategic Learning: The Continuous Side of Discontinuous Strategic Change
Authors: Kuwada Kotaro
Published: October 2008

The author introduces the concept of strategic learning to explain long-run dynamics of strategic behaviors and organizations. Because a firm's long-run adaptation is realized through a series of strategic behaviors and organizational innovations, organizational capability to design effective strategic behaviors and organizational structure is critical for a firm's growth and survival. A series of strategic behaviors is shaped through the stable generation mechanism. Strategic learning is organizational learning that improves the strategic capability of the organization and changes the basic assumptions underlying the stable generation mechanism that structures the strategic behavior design process. Organizations have various levels of knowledge and learn at all levels. The levels of organizational learning interact, making higher order learning such as strategic learning problematic. Distinguishing characteristics of strategic learning are that it is learning without questioning and without unlearning in advance. It starts from a current set of basic assumptions and ends with a new set of basic assumptions. Referring to related literature and a case study, the author describes the process of strategic learning as an intraorganizational ecological process, integrating various levels of learning in organizations and including processes of both strategic knowledge creation and strategic knowledge distillation. He also discusses theoretical and practical implications derived from the strategic learning model.
Crossroads—Commentary: What Is Problematic about a Discourse Called “Unproblematic”?
Authors: Scully Maureen A.
Published: October 2008

This paper on discourse makes for lively reading, because it offers such rich examples of the discourse it analyzes. At different points in the paper, the author refers to the idea that “discourse creates institutions” as well as the idea that “institutions create discourse.” The power of discourse is that it creates a circular thread whose beginning and end are hard to find. This paper is therefore especially helpful by analyzing a discourse at the time it is fabricated, to trace how the reinforcing loop is set in motion. Moreover, the author does not lose sight of how the circle might be broken. While many accounts of strong social forces overlook the possibility of resistance, this paper remembers to look for glimmers of resistance and remark on the significance of their absence.
A Mathematical Model for Commuter Traffic in Satellite Towns
Authors: Tan T.
Published: October 2008

A simple mathematical model of a satellite town is presented in this paper. It is shown that the model contains the basic features of a satellite New Town as well as of a satellite Residential Town. The characteristics of commuter travel in a satellite Residential Town are investigated, and the size of the Central Area and of the satellite town, the distance traveled per unit area, and the average distance traveled, are evaluated. For an initial sample set of data, numerical results are presented and discussed.
Letter to the Editor—Traffic Delay at a Signalized Intersection with Binomial Arrivals
Authors: Potts Renfrey B.
Published: October 2008

It is shown that the formula derived by Dunne in a recent paper with the above title can be obtained by a simple direct calculation.
Errata
Authors: Miller Alan J.
Published: October 2008

I wish to correct two errors in my review of the Australian Road Research Board Third Conference, Sydney, 1966, which appeared in Transportation Science, 1, 32–46 (1967). In my comments on N. F. Clark's paper, “Some Benefits and Costs to Road Works and Their Relevance for Priority Decisions,” I incorrectly described his consumption benefits as social benefits. I am informed that his productive benefits are what economists know as social benefits. I have now found a mention of accident costs in the paper.
Stability of Reciprocal-Spacing Type Car Following Models
Authors: Unwin Ernest A. , Duckstein Lucien
Published: October 2008

The problem of studying the stability of the reciprocal-spacing follow-the-leader model of traffic flow is first discussed and an approximate model is proposed. The mathematical functions that are suitable to describe lead-car behavior are examined. The stability of a nonlinear car-following model is then defined rigorously, so that it can be studied in the framework of the Liapounov theory. Previous phase plane results shoiv that the reciprocal-spacing model is barely stable, whereas an asymptotically stable model may describe the dynamics more closely. Using an extension of the Weber Ratio, such a model is derived. A phase plane study of the proposed model is presented together with some numerical results. The results compare favorably with existing data. Results are presented showing the relative behavior of the actual model with time delay and the proposed model, in which a truncated Taylor series has been used to approximate the time delay.
Airline Simulation for Analysis of Commercial Airplane Markets
Authors: Howard Lee R. , Eberhardt Duane O.
Published: October 2008

The Lockheed Airline System Simulation is discussed as a step-by-step evaluation of the economics of different ways of routing passenger travel demand. Interacting items that are discussed include forecast passenger traffic demand, persistence of demand, purpose of travel, passenger preferences toward fare and speed, aircraft characteristics, flight frequency, route interaction, and competitive and regulatory influences. Also discussed are specific uses of the simulation program during the design of the supersonic transport. The first use is in determining the optimum SST size, speed, and sonic boom characteristics. The impact of a refined SST on the air transport environment is then discussed. This latter subject is presented in terms of airplane requirements, load factors, airline earnings, and airline return on investment.