bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Designing Information Technology to Support Distributed Cognition
Authors: Boland Richard J. , Tenkasi Ramkrishnan V. , Te'eni Dov 
Published: October 2008

Cognition in organizations is a distributed phenomenon, in which individual members of an organization reflect upon their experience, make plans, or take action. Organizational learning or organizational cognition are familiar terms, but it is only the individual persons in an organization who create interpretations and test understandings, as they think and learn in their organizational setting. Coordinated outcomes emerge in organizations when individuals think and act in ways that take others in the organization and their interdependencies into account. We argue that much of the effort to design information technology to support cognition in organizations has not addressed its distributed quality. Such systems have tended to focus either on the individual as an isolated decision maker, or on the group as a producer of a decision or policy statement in common. In distributed cognition, by contrast, the group is a set of autonomous agents who act independently yet recognize that they have interdependencies. To guide the design of information technology, we propose that distributed cognition be viewed as a hermeneutic process of inquiry, emphasizing the importance of individual interpretation and group dialogue. Hermeneutics provides a theory of the interpretive process through which an individual gives meaning to organizational experience. Inquiry systems provide a theory of how a community of inquirers build and test knowledge representations through dialogue. Together, hermeneutics and inquiry systems are used to propose a set of design principles to guide the development of information technology that supports distributed cognition. The design principles we describe in the paper are ownership, easy travel, multiplicity, indeterminacy, emergence and mixed forms. Applications of information technology which embody these design principles would support distributed cognition by assisting individuals in making interpretations of their situation, reflecting on them, and engaging in dialogue about them with others. The objective is to refine their own understanding of the situation and better appreciate the understandings of others, enabling them to better take their interdependencies into account in their individual actions. A project to develop such a system is discussed, along with some implications for research.
Managerial Overcommitment in Corporate Acquisition Processes
Authors: Haunschild Pamela R. , Davis-Blake Alison , Fichman Mark 
Published: October 2008

This study investigates a problem that may occur during corporate acquisitions: managers who become committed to acquiring a particular target firm, regardless of benefit to the acquiring firm. Three factors that may create commitment to a particular target were investigated: (1) personal responsibility for the decision to acquire the target, (2) competition for the target, and (3) whether the decision to acquire the target is public. These factors were varied in a simulated corporate acquisition where participants began an acquisition and then were given negative information about the target. They were later given the choice of continuing with the acquisition or withdrawing and investing elsewhere. As predicted, personal responsibility for the decision to acquire the target, competition for the target, and a public decision context all increased participants' commitment to acquiring the target, despite the negative information. Participant work and acquisition experience did not affect these results. Field studies of acquisitions suggest that commitment to acquiring a specific target occurs during the acquisition process. Since the acquisition process is a potentially important determinant of acquisition outcomes, commitment to targets has negative implications for these outcomes. This study adds a systematic empirical investigation of the determinants of commitment in acquisition situations. Studies in nonacquisition settings have demonstrated that personal responsibility affects commitment. However, the presence of competition has not previously been studied, and a public decision context has only been studied in a limited way. These are important factors in generating commitment to acquisitions. These results suggest that managers should recognize that overcommitment can and does occur during acquisitions. Further, the factors that cause overcommitment to targets have implications for managers who wish to avoid this commitment. Activities that should help avoid overcommitment problems include assigning target choice and due diligence activities to different individuals, and limiting news of impending acquisitions.
On the Wisdom of Rewarding A While Hoping for B
Authors: Boettger Richard D. , Greer Charles R. 
Published: October 2008

We explain the deeper organizational wisdom behind what Steven Kerr called the “folly” of seemingly inconsistent reward structures. Modern organizations—even those Kerr specifically criticizes as “fouled-up”—frequently need to serve two contradictory goals at the same time. Three conditions in particular require sophisticated organizations to reward A while nonetheless hoping for B. First, operative goals—e.g., for a police department—may require practical activities like “social work” that do not conform to the official culture of “crime fighting command bureaucracy.” Attempting to reward only these police activities which support the official goals would harm both the force and the citizens they serve. Second, times of great change—e.g., for environmental clean-up in Eastern Europe—require short-term inconsistencies such as supporting a highly polluting factory in order to accomplish long term ends. At one moment in time, a snapshot exposes a “foolish” inconsistency, but a long-term view reveals the wisdom of not attempting to treat complex problems with simple solutions. Third, some conditions of the real world will always require the individual to serve two masters, as in a classic matrix structure. Product and functional demands cannot be made perfectly consistent with each other, and to expect the organization to make them so is to wish for the impossible. Under the above conditions, it is better to teach individuals how to handle complex, inconsistent demands than it is to hold organizations responsible for eliminating them. While Kerr would work towards an organization in which “no one needs goodness,” we would hold our teaching and training systems responsible for making “goodness” and complexity part of the talent an individual brings to the organization. To put complexity and goodness beyond the individual and entirely in the province of the organization is to demand of the organization the impossible, and demean the human beings who are its substance and soul.
Asset Choice and Supplier Performance in Two Organizations–US and Japanese
Authors: Walker Gordon 
Published: October 2008

The problem of vertical integration is a venerable but increasingly important focus of attention in profit-seeking organizations. Over the past ten years, many industries have seen increased cooperation between buyers and suppliers to achieve more difficult goals caused by rising product market competition. In many firms, this cooperation is balanced against the putative advantages of diminishing but still substantial in-house operations. One way to compare the performance of cooperative suppliers with in-house operations is to focus on the buyer's choice of assets used to produce the inputs needed for the final product. For strategic reasons, some of these assets will be highly specialized and others standardized. The question this paper asks is whether this choice of specialized or standard assets influences the performance of the supplier, controlling for whether it is in the market or in-house. The hypothesis is that the choice of specialized assets, for strategic reasons, is associated with lower supplier conformance with the buyer's target price for the input. In other words, for these assets the supplier's price, which is higher than the buyer would have liked to pay, reflects some of the strategic value of the input to the buyer. The supplier is simply appropriating some of this value, since it can raise its price with a low threat of termination by the buyer. For standard assets, in contrast the threat of termination is omnipresent, so that the choice of assets is irrelevant for supplier price performance. The test is performed using data on both in-house operations and market suppliers from a quite large US manufacturing firm and on market suppliers to a very successful Japanese manufacturing firm. Interestingly, there is no difference between these firms in the applicability of the hypothesis. Also, in-house and market suppliers differ in price performance only for standard assets, market suppliers performing better. Organizations can therefore gain quite a bit from outsourcing the production of less specialized inputs but achieve roughly the same performance from in-house and market suppliers for more specialized inputs. This last result is controversial and should bc tested repeatedly using other micro-level data. This study therefore addresses three sides of the current debate surrounding modern questions of vertical integration. First, does the strategic value of the input make a difference in supplier performance? The answer is yes, but only for specialized inputs. Second, do in-house and market suppliers differ in their performance? The answer is yes, but only for standardized inputs. Third, do US and Japanese firms differ in the performance of their suppliers, given variation in asset specialization and strategic importance? The answer is no, at least for the two firms studied here. All caveats regarding the generalizability of results from small sample studies apply.
The Management of Complex Tasks in Organizations: Controlling the Systems Development Process
Authors: Kirsch Laurie J. 
Published: October 2008

Control theory attempts to explain how one person or group in an organization can ensure that another person or group works toward and attains a set of organizational goals. Prior empirical work investigating control theory has shown that characteristics of the task and of the organizational environment predict the use of various types of control. However, this paper argues that when control theory is applied to a complex, nonroutine task such as the management of information systems development, the theory of control is incomplete. In particular, it proposes that knowledge of the task is a key determinant of type of control. Four modes of control (behavior, outcome, clan, and self) art identified from the organizational literature; each high-lights different aspects of control in organizations. Building on prior empirical work, this paper integrates the different theoretical perspectives and predicts the circumstances under which each type of control will be implemented. Survey responses from 96 participants of 32 systems development efforts suggest that the extent to which behaviors are monitored interacts with the project sponsor's level of systems development knowledge to determine the amount of behavior control; that outcome control is a function of the extent to which behaviors are monitored and outcomes are measurable; and that self-control is dependent on the extent to which outcomes are measurable and the level of the project sponsor's knowledge about systems development activities. No relationship between clan control and the independent variables was found.
A Multiple-constituency, Status-based Approach to Interorganizational Mobility of Faculty and Input-output Competition among Top Business Schools
Authors: D'Aveni Richard A. 
Published: October 2008

A study of inputs (students and new faculty) and outputs (MBA and Ph.D. graduates) of 20 business schools found that status perceived by certain stakeholder groups (constituencies) affects the mobility of individuals between schools and limits the competition among schools for student inputs and for output placement. The study examined schools that differed in status perceived by three constituencies: the national business community, the academic community, and MBA students. The results indicate that, depending on their status in the opinion of different constituencies, the schools engaged in different degrees of student input creaming, scrambling for inputs, input targeting, input avoidance, and output streaming (all terms developed as part of the model proposed herein). The results suggest that in Ph.D. markets, status hierarchies tend to make groups of schools a closed system, leading to homosocial reproduction of senior faculties and social isolation and immobility for certain Ph.D. graduates. Barriers appear to be created between the subsystems of schools. One major theoretical implication of the study findings is that status hierarchies define patterns of social ecology of business schools and limit competition for resources. One practical implication of the study findings is that schools are at a disadvantage in competing for student inputs and placing MBA and Ph.D. graduates if they lack status in the national business community. High status in the opinion of students and academics is not associated with all of the advantages afforded by status in the national business community. Hence, teaching and research strategies designed to achieve status among students or academics alone may not be as successful as those that have relevance to the broader “real world.”
“Austrian” and Industrial Organization Perspectives on Firm-level Competitive Activity and Performance
Authors: Young Greg , Smith Ken G. , Grimm Curtis M. 
Published: October 2008

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

In the mid-1980s, the Japanese beer industry, a stable oligopoly in which competition had traditionally been limited to well understood nonprice dimensions, experienced an outbreak of new product “hypercompetition” which saw a ten-fold increase in the industry's new product introduction rate, produced a major shake-up in firms' competitive positions, and forced firms to transform themselves in fundamental ways in order to compete effectively. Surprisingly, this hyper-competition occurred despite heavy government regulation of the industry. Driving it were a variety of demographic, dietary, social, economic, and distribution trends which affected demand for beer, plus the existence of a major player, Asahi, on the edge of bankruptcy and therefore sufficiently desperate to risk a frontal attack on the industry leader, Kirin. At the firm level, substantial internal change and the building of new organizational capabilities were required both to initiate and respond to hypercompetition. Examining in detail the process and difficulty of overcoming inertia and effecting change within the Asahi and Kirin organizations, two distinct types of hypercompetition-appropriate capabilities are identified. One is specialized capabilities, which allow a firm to compete effectively on the competitive dimension that a particular round of hypercompetition is based on (such as new product development). The other is general capabilities which allow a firm to efficiently carry out the continual recombination and reemployment of resources which a hypercompetitive state, in which shifts in the nature of competition are frequent and continuous, requires. Both types of capabilities are shown to be difficult to build and imitate, and for this reason to be potential sources of sustainable advantage. The paper identifies three broadly defining characteristics of hypercompetition: (1) continuing, nonmarginal change in the nature of competition, (2) required nontrivial organizational change, and (3) significant effects on firm performance and competitive position. Conceptually, it is argued that hypercompetition is Schumpeterian in nature, featuring recurring and fundamental competitive change, but that hypercompetition is most accurately seen as a particular combination of Schumpeterian, Industrial Organization, and Chamberlinian competition, with Schumpeterian instability weakening, but not replacing, the more stable aspects of Industrial Organization and Chamberlinian competition.
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.
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.