bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Organizational Culture, Structure and Market Expectations on Technological Innovation: A Hypothesis
Authors: Demirag Istemi , Tylecote Andrew 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYThis paper is chiefly concerned with the causes and technological effects of ‘short‐term pressures’ on and in large firms in British manufacturing. ‘Short‐term pressures’ (STP) are defined as factors acting upon (or within) an organization which tend to cause decision‐makers (explicitly or implicitly): (a) to raise their time rate of discount; and/or (b) to foreshorten the time horizon beyond which future revenues are ignored altogether. Such pressures will tend to reduce the rate of investment (defined very broadly as present sacrifice of cash flow for future gain), and/or bias it towards ‘short‐term’ projects. In the British context such pressures upon firms arise from the nature of the relationship with shareholders. (High interest rates and low profitability have similar effects but should be analysed separately.) STP can also be generated and/or transmitted within organizations. STP acting within an organization are likely to be associated with pressures on middle and lower management to take a narrow, ‘sectional’ view, avoiding efforts and expenditures whose benefits may go largely to other parts of the firm.The first section sets out a theoretical framework within which to predict the intensity of external STP, and uses this to assess their likely incidence. After defining and discussing the concept of culture in organizations, it is argued that culture dominates structure at higher levels, and the reverse at lower levels. The second section deals with internal STP, and shows how performance pressures on managers at various levels are determined by the interaction of structural and cultural factors. Structural factors considered include organizational configurations and methods of auditing and management accounting. Internal performance pressures may at various levels be quite different from the external pressures. The third section shows how, by contrast with economic rationality, STP may affect technological progress ‐ distinguishing between process change, which under certain circumstances may actually be stimulated, and product change, which is likely to be seriously inhibited. (It is pointed out that the impact of any set of performance pressures must be evaluated by comparison with an alternative set, which may themselves not be ideal.) At each stage the analysis is differentiated to allow for the differing circumstances of the UK electronics, Pharmaceuticals and mechanical engineering industries, building up a hypothesis as to the differing incidence of STP among them. This hypothesis can account for the very different record of these UK industries in innovation.
The Economic Characteristics of De‐diversifying Firms
Authors: Markides Constantinos C. 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYDuring the 1980s, many diversified firms reduced their diversification by refocusing on their core businesses. This research note tries to identify the characteristics that distinguished the companies that refocused from those that did not. It is found that relative to their industry counterparts, the refocusing firms were characterized by high diversification and poor performance. In addition, a firm was more likely to refocus if its core industry was ‘attractive’.
Managing AMI in a Just‐In‐Time Environment in the UK and Japan
Authors: Currie Wendy L. , Seddon Jonathan J. M. 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYIn recent years many commentators have addressed the ‘crisis’ in manufacturing industry (Gerwin, 1982; Drucker, 1988, 1990; Hayes and Jaikumar, 1988). Some have offered cross‐national comparisons on Japanese and Western management methods and techniques (Kharbanda and Stallworthy, 1991; Oliver and Wilkinson, 1987; Pascale and Athos, 1981) whilst others have concentrated on improving performance in specific fields such as management accounting (Kaplan, 1984; Cooper, 1991) or manufacturing management (Schonberger, 1982; Halt, 1983). Empirical research into managing AMT in Japan and the UK (Currie 1991a) considers some of the broader managerial issues in manufacturing. Cultural differences are common in the areas of investment appraisal, post‐auditing of AMT and preventive maintenance policy. For example, in Japan JIT is perceived ‘holistically’ incorporating production management, total quality assurance (TQA) and total preventive maintenance (TPM). This is contrary to the UK in that many large manufacturing companies fail to include TPM in their manufacturing strategies (Currie and Seddon, 1991). There are few management information systems (MIS) which provide an understanding of machine performance using both non‐financial and financial information. Focusing on maintenance as a central theme, the paper discusses the development of the Failure And Scheduled Maintenance Analysis (FASMA) system, which offers a practical solution to the problem of collecting and manipulating manufacturing data on the shopfloor (Seddon, 1991a). Essentially, FASMA attempts to interface both the manufacturing and management accounting functions by translating machine performance data into valuable information from which preventive maintenance policy may be improved. Using FASMA to measure machine performance at a major UK automotive manufacturer, machine down‐time has averaged 61% each month over a 3‐year period. By manipulating this data, performance measurement information may be utilized by management accountants. FASMA thus develops a link between manufacturing and management accounting by providing data on machine performance which can be used for cost analysis within a manufacturing environment. The paper concludes by arguing that manufacturing strategies can only be developed using appropriate management information systems (MIS) designed to enhance functional integration. This will enable a better understanding of how the ‘manufacturing jigsaw’ fits together.
Some Implications for Management Development of Research into Managers' Moral Dilemmas
Authors: Maclagan Patrick , Snell Robin 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYIn this paper, we present two cases of moral dilemmas as told by the managers who had faced them. We analyse the cases, drawing on frameworks developed by Toffler (1986), Kohlberg (1981) and Maclagan (1990). We also comment on the broader findings of the research from which the cases were taken. These analyses and findings and those of other researchers (e.g. Waters et al., 1986) suggest a number of requisite ‘moral attributes’ for managers and have, we argue, significant implications for the curriculum for ethical education and development for managers and intending managers. One is that case material needs to reflect more strongly the actual experiences of practising managers; another is that there is scope for wider use of experiential methods on management ethics courses. We conclude with a call for a multifaceted approach to ethical education as a lifespan process entailing the development of personal and interpersonal skills and qualities, and self‐knowledge as well as cognitive skills. While we acknowledge that ethical education needs to take account of learners' differing levels of prior experience, stages of moral development and levels of learning maturity, our over‐riding concern is that learners are prepared for and helped to live through the very ‘real’ dilemmas that they are likely to experience in managerial work.
Fitting Management Control Systems to Competitive Advantage
Authors: Bruggeman Werner , Van der Stede Wim 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYRecent publications suggest that existing management accounting and control systems prevent business unit managers realising their desired competitive advantage. Although the concept of competitive advantage has already been thoroughly discussed in strategy literature, it has not yet been integrated in the management accounting and management control frameworks. Only a limited number of researchers have concentrated on contingency research in this area. Contingency theory simply states that organization structure, process and management control systems are contingent upon various internal and external factors, such as industry, technology, size, culture and strategy (Anthony and Young, 1988; Anthony et al., 1992).This article is an attempt to identify and investigate the management control – strategy relationship. We report the results of our exploratory field research in 18 companies (32 business units). Based on our results, we formulate some hypotheses on the observed characteristics of the management control process in case of low‐cost strategy, differentiation strategy in a standard product environment and differentiation strategy for customized products (make to order, engineer to order).
A Two‐Decade Test of Product Life Cycle Theory
Authors: Mercer D. 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYThe product life cycle (PLC) has represented a central element of marketing theory for four decades. Following its development in the 1950s, and its subsequent popularization in the 1960s, it has remained a stable feature of marketing teaching; despite evidence of its limited applicability and the growing awareness, amongst leading academics at least, of its flawed nature. This paper critically re‐examines its practical value in the light of the 20‐year history of 929 brands spread across 150 fast‐moving consumer goods (FMCG) markets in the UK. The main conclusion is that the ‘life cycle’ of the brand leaders is indeed more stable, and much longer, than some of the previous work might have suggested; and that the PLC would have predicted. As a credible aid to marketing decisions the brand life cycle is, therefore, of little value in the majority of FMCG markets ‐ and cannot justify its long‐held position as a theory that has general practical applicability across the whole field of marketing.
Assessing the Height of Mobility Barriers: A Methodology and an Empirical Test in the UK Retail Grocery Industry1
Authors: Carroll Charles , Pandian J. R. M. , Thomas Howard 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYA profitable niche will have few entrants if the presence of significant mobility barriers impedes entry and, hence, reduces the expected rents for entrants. Identifying sources of mobility barriers is critical in explaining how incumbents can sustain competitive advantage and obtain supranormal profits (excess rents). While much of strategic management research (and strategic group research, in particular) focuses on the pursuit of sustainable performance advantages, there is relatively little empirical research exploring the dynamics of firm movement and the impact of mobility barriers on performance. The paper analyses mobility dynamics and, most importantly, develops a method to identify the location and severity of mobility barriers. The method is illustrated on a database of large multiples in the UK retail grocery industry for the period 1982–1986. It appears that there are two dimensions of strategic change that facilitate movement into profitable niches. Implications for competition and profitability are discussed.
Styles of Managerial Creativity: A Comparison of Adaption‐Innovation in the United Kingdom, Australia and the Unites States1
Authors: Foxall Gordon R. , Hackett Paul M. W. 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYKirton has proposed that creative styles form a continuum from the most adaptive (implying a preference for solving problems through incremental improvement with the system) to the most innovative (preference for restructuring the system in order to solve the problem). This dimension of creative style has traditionally been measured by the Kirton adaption‐innovation inventory (KAI), a 32‐item measure that contains three factors: sufficiency vs. proliferation of originality, efficiency and rule‐conformity. Studies of mid‐career MBA students in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States indicate that members of the more externally orientated managerial functions (such as marketing and strategic planning) score more innovatively than more internally orientated managers (e.g. in production management, accounting and quality control). However, the research shows that within each of the major functional areas of management, relatively internally orientated and relatively externally orientated management groups can be identified; moreover, the latter score significantly more innovatively than the former. The paper discusses the relevance of these findings to the management of change in organizations (especially in view of recent claims that all managers must embrace and cope with radical and turbulent change), and for the composition and management of effective task groups. Recent criticism has alleged that abridged measures of the KAI (consisting respectively of 20 and 13 of its items) provide more coherent and orthogonal subscales, and that use of the factors comprising adaption‐innovation would elucidate managerial behaviour. These propositions are tested by employing all three versions of the KAI in the analysis. The results lead to the conclusion that the three versions of the KAI produce identical results with respect to the creative styles of managerial functions and subfunctions and that the use of the subscales adds little, if anything, to our understanding of managerial creativity.
An Empirical Model of Managerial Careers in Organizations
Authors: Herriot Peter , Gibbons Patrick , Pemberton Carole , Jackson Paul R. 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYA theoretical model of managerial careers in organizations was tested by questionnaire. Respondents were 200 managers attending management courses. The model incorporated traditional structural predictors of objective and subjective indices of managers' career progress. It also introduced perceptions of the career management practices of an organization as a predictor, together with career progress, of satisfaction with career management. Results indicated that an organization's structure was a powerful predictor of its perceived career management practices; these in turn were more powerful predictors of satisfaction with career management than was career progress; of particular power was the perceived fairness of career management practices. Regression analysis indicated that the model was generally supported. It was concluded that perceived equity is a powerful determinant of satisfaction, and that therefore an organizational model of career management as part of a psychological contract is likely to be more effective than one based on the prescriptions of human resource management ideology.
Technology, Human Resources and Turbulent Change in Lucas and Bosch: A Plant Level Study1
Authors: Harding Rebecca 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYThis paper studies two companies in a period of turbulent technological change. Based on historical data for the 1980s, it examines the technology and human resource strategies of Lucas Industries PLC and Robert Bosch GmbH both at a group and plant level. It draws two main conclusions: first that stability in company strategy is a key to understanding competitive performance and second that the way in which strategy is transmitted to the individual plant level and diffused into actual working practices is similarly central to effective performance.
World Class Manufacturing: Further Evidence in the Lean Production Debate1
Authors: Oliver Nick , Delbridge Rick , Jones Dan , Lowe Jim 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYThis paper reports the results of a study into the performance and management practices of 18 autocomponents plants, nine of which were located in the UK and nine in Japan. The study compared the performance of these plants and used quantitative measures to test the use of lean production techniques among the high performers. Five plants displayed high performance on measures of both productivity and quality. All of these were located in Japan. Several measures of management practice provided some support for the lean production model, particularly in the area of process discipline and control; measures of human resource management policy and work organization proved less significant. Contextual factors pointed to the conditions necessary to support lean production; higher performing plants had more stable demand and lower absenteeism.
The Information Content of Common Stock Repurchases: An Empirical Study1
Authors: Oyon Daniel , Markides Constantinos C. , Ittner Christopher D. 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYShare repurchase announcements are known to be associated with significant positive abnormal stock returns. Past studies have argued that the main explanation of this value creation is that share repurchases signal new (and favourable) information about the repurchasing firms' future cash flows. This paper examines this hypothesis and provides evidence on the nature of the information revealed by share repurchases. Using a sample of 41 repurchase announcements from the USA, we show that the new information signalled to the stock market through share repurchasing is not only about changes in the level of future cash flows but also about changes in the riskiness of these cash flows.
The Contribution of Formal Planning Systems to Strategic Investment Decisions1
Authors: Papadakis Vassilis M. 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYThis paper aims to investigate linkages between formal planning systems (FPSs) and characteristics of the processes followed in making strategic investment decisions (SIDs).The empirical testing was based on a sample of 70 SIDs drawn from 38 industrial enterprises operating in Greece. Primary data on FPSs and SIDs were provided by key participants in the decision‐making process, using a combination of structured interviews and questionnaire completion.Contrary to the argument raised by several academics that much decision making takes place outside FPSs, the findings of this paper support the view that at least for decisions of a clearly strategic nature this may not be valid. Results consistently show that strong associations exist between characteristics of SID processes and dimensions of FPSs. More specifically: The degree of rationality‐comprehensiveness as well as degree of financial reporting in the process of making SIDs is positively associated with FPSs. Particularly strong is the association between the existence of a set of formalized rules guiding the process of strategic decision making and FPSs. Furthermore, the association between both hierarchical decentralization and lateral communication in advancing SIDs and FPSs appears to be fairly strong. Finally, results failed to support any statistical significant relationship between duration timing of SID processes and dimensions of FPSs.
Dimensions of Control in UK International Joint Ventures*
Authors: Glaister Keith W. 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYFrom a sample of UK joint ventures with partners from Western Europe, the USA and Japan, dimensions of parent control of the ventures are considered by way of a taxonomy based on the mechanisms, extent and focus of control. The origins of the mechanisms of control identified in the study indicate that UK parents have not been sufficiently responsible for providing the mechanisms to allow them to exercise a greater leverage of control than that obtained by the foreign partners. The origins of the mechanisms of control also indicate relatively little autonomy for the managements of the joint ventures. Evidence from the study supports the view that joint venture parents seek to focus their influence of control over particular decisions and activities of the venture, rather than attempting to extend their control over the whole venture. The study considers the mechanisms and focus of control across the characteristics of the sample: contractual form of the venture, relative equity shareholding of the UK parent, time period of formation, nationality of foreign partner, industry group of the venture and broad purpose of the venture. Chi‐squared tests show that there is little evidence of any systematic variation in the dimensions of control across the characteristics of the sample, the major exception to this being the relative equity shareholding of the UK parents.
Socio‐biographical Antecedents of Intercultural Effectiveness: The Neglected Factors1
Authors: Mamman Aminu 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYBehavioural, attitudinal, cognitive and personality traits factors have been recognized as the main determinants of intercultural effectiveness. This paper argues for the need to recognize the plausibility that expatriates having similar behavioural, attitudinal, cognitive and traits characteristics may vary significantly in their intercultural effectiveness. This is because some expatriates may be effective or ineffective by chance or birth (ascribed rather than achieved). Therefore expatriates' ‘socio‐biographical’ background, such as hisher ethnicity, age, nationality, educational qualification, profession (role) and religion, is noted as among the most significant factors that can impact on intercultural effectiveness. It is argued that these variables deserve serious attention given the diversity of expatriates from different national and ethnic backgrounds.
The Performance of an NHS Trust Board: Actors' Accounts, Minutes and Observation
Authors: Peck Edward 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYThe corporate board is a common feature of both private sector and public sector enterprises. The roles undertaken by boards are therefore a significant area of interest for writers on organizations. This paper makes two contributions to the study of corporate hoards. First, it presents the results of an intensive study of the performance of the board of directors of a first wave National Health Service (NHS) Trust based on three sources of data: actors' accounts; minutes; and observation. This study concludes that the board has made only a marginal contribution to the governance of the Trust. Second, it provides a critique of the three methodological approaches which are available to researchers undertaking such studies and argues that most reported studies of boards are unreliable as they are based on only one, or at best two, of the three available sources of data.
The Influence of Functional Experience on Perceptions of Strategic Priorities
Authors: Bowman Cliff , Daniels Kevin 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYThis paper reviews three previous studies of functional bias (Dearborn and Simon, 1958; Walsh, 1988; Nystrom, 1991) which have produced conflicting evidence. The results of a study into functional bias in perceptions of strategic priorities are presented. These results, which provide evidence of functional bias, are discussed and some suggestions for future research are made.
Gestalt Approaches to Assessing Strategic Coalignment: A Conceptual Integration1
Authors: Veliyath Rajaram , Srinivasan T. C. 
Published: March 2005

SUMMARYStrategic coalignment involves a configuration comprising the external environment, internal organizational arrangements and organizational effectiveness. Each of the above elements is constrained, quasi‐deterministic (especially in the short‐term) and multidimensional. For the open systems property of equifinality to be satisfied, organizational effectiveness profiles need to be considered endogenous to a gestalt containing all the three elements. Strategic fit would then be assessed in terms of the consistency of the gestalt. This approach would also position coalignment research more consistently with strategic management's goal of adaptive fit, as well the other open systems property of homeostasis. A modified analytical approach is suggested.