The dangers of centralized economic planning

There is little evidence that there is much value in riveting attention on the question of strategic planning in an era of low growth or negative growth. Rather, there is value in discussing strategic planning in terms of the efficient realization of society's goals— whether expressed as economic goals or as non-economic aspirations. This article contains some observations on corporate strategic planning, provides perspective on the energy and materials scarcity question, and warns that detailed economic planning by government thwarts the optimal use of resources to improve living conditions for everyone. The author holds that renewed government reliance upon the workings of a competitive market economy is indispensable for achieving this goal.     

The stability of strategic alliances: Characteristics, factors and stages

This paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of strategic alliances. Using an integrated process model, we analyze the conceptual characteristics and antecedents of the stability of strategic alliances. The primary purpose of this study is to (1) conceptualize and characterize alliance stability to fill the academic gap in the literature, and (2) identify a range of endogenous factors underlying alliance stability across four developmental stages — partner selection, structuring/negotiation, implementation and performance evaluation — so as to fill the managerial relevance gap. From the discussion, we develop a number of propositions to facilitate future empirical testing of our conceptual model. Finally, we indicate some key implications for theoretical research and managerial practice.     

Strategic Cognition of Operations Executives

The nature of operations executives’ strategic cognition, as the antecedent to their choices about operations strategy, remains underexplored in the literature. This mixed‐methods study examines executives’ thinking about supply chain strategy through the lens of managerial cognition. Our qualitative study at a pharmaceutical distributor, which examined 25 executives’ outlook on the future of the turbulent U.S. healthcare sector and their suggestions for adapting the company's supply chain strategy to that future, suggests that an executive's strategic cognition can be defined by its regulatory focus—whether the executive envisions the future environment in terms of opportunities or threats—and the level of optimism in regards to the envisioned future. We propose a typology that predicts the strategic choices of operations executives based on four types of cognition: pioneering, pushing, protective, and provocative. It describes whether an executive's strategic choices target traditional or novel sources of revenue, and if they seek to influence either the firm's structure and practices or its environment. Our empirical test of the typology using quantitative data collected in a survey of senior operations executives supports the study's propositions associating three of the four types of cognition with their respective preferred strategic choices.     

Evidence of Managerial Short-termism in the UK

This paper considers an aspect of possible managerial short-termism in the UK. It discusses some potential motivations for that phenomenon and presents evidence which suggests that short-termism exists and is positively associated with managerial perceptions of capital market valuation practices. Two hypotheses were developed and tested using the responses concerning R&D expenditure obtained from a postal questionnaire sent to the finance directors of theTimes 1000companies. These were that many top managers in UK quoted companies behave in a ‘short-termist’ manner; and that the extent to which managers behave as hypothesized above is positively associated with their perceptions of the level of emphasis placed by the capital market on measurements related to short-term reported earnings. The results obtained support the hypotheses. Overall, the evidence of the paper is consistent with the view that many finance directors of large UK companies are short-termist in their perceptions and that such short-termism is positively associated with their beliefs about the level of emphasis placed by the capital market on figures of reported earnings.     

知识嵌入性、知识流动与战略联盟结构升级的关系研究

知识嵌入性是知识经济时代战略联盟共享有限资源,推动产业结构升级的重要途径。为打开知识嵌入性与战略联盟结构升级关系的黑箱,以知识管理、战略创新及复杂网络等相关理论为基础,对知识嵌入性的构成维度予以划分。进一步地,设定知识嵌入性的构成维度为联盟结构升级的前置变量,引入知识流动作为中介变量,构建知识嵌入性、知识流动与战略联盟结构升级的概念模型。采用结构方程的研究方法,以长三角地区的战略联盟为研究对象,基于295份有效问卷进行实证检验。研究结果表明:基于知识嵌入的构成维度,知识互补性、知识兼容性、知识紧密度与知识协调度对战略联盟结构升级呈显著的正相关关系,知识流动分别在知识互补性、知识兼容性、知识紧密度、知识协调度与联盟结构升级的关系中起部分中介作用。研究明晰了知识嵌入性、知识流动与联盟结构升级的关系,解释了知识嵌入性对联盟结构升级的作用机理,为战略联盟的管理实践提供有益借鉴。     

A Study in Studying Corporate Boards Over Time: Looking Backwards to Move Forwards

This paper is based on data collected in the late 1980s and again in the late 1990s from interviews with chairmen, chief executives and board members in 12 large UK organizations such as Hanson, Marks & Spencer, Prudential and Glynwed. Although the primary focus is on theorizing and theory over time, this also leads us to question matters of method and methodology. The first section considers some of the study design issues raised by conducting this sequel study, noting that it was not possible to ‘repeat’ the first study for a number of important reasons. The second section observes that while our earlier analytical metaphor of organizing as explaining endures, the nature of the explanations has changed: ‘strategic focus’, ‘shareholder value’ and ‘corporate governance’ are now the contemporary watchwords although were unheard of in our interviews a decade earlier. The following section develops on this, concluding that in making judgements about future shareholder value, the primary evidence is drawn from events already past and interpreted through current explanations. We conclude on the importance of time to our theorizing, where there appears to be a confluence between time and person, in part, created and in part, supported by particular (judgements of) explanations of organizing prevailing at that time.     

The Intervening Role of Innovative Climate: A Study of Middle Managers in Manufacturing Organizations in Iran

Based on a developed model, this study deals with an investigation on whether innovative climate is a variable that moderates the relationship among middle managers' technological innovation and organizational factors such as structure, strategic posture, and environment. We used path analysis framework to study this relationship. The respondents (N=158, n=96) were all the managers of large or medium manufacturing companies with headquarters in the province of Tehran in Iran. The study found that innovative climate has an intervening role in the relationship among organizational structure, strategic posture and environment, and middle managers' technological innovation. The results have implications for the executive and human resource management practices.     

Accounting information for managerial decision-making in shareholder management versus stakeholder management

With global challenges like climate change and, of course, the crisis of capital markets in the recent past stakeholder oriented management receives enhanced attention whereas shareholder value management is increasingly criticized for its undesirable external effects on stakeholders other than owners. Regardless of whether these criticisms are well founded or not, the question arises how accounting-related techniques for supporting managerial decision-making differ in shareholder and stakeholder value management. Accounting information can affect managerial decision-making in two ways: directly as input to decisions or indirectly by influencing the behavior of managers. This article reviews the contributions and limitations of information that prominent accounting-related techniques of shareholder management and stakeholder management provide for managerial decision-making. In a comparative perspective we find that the approaches in shareholder value management are much more advanced. In particular the two roles of information in shareholder value management are manifest in accounting-related techniques which are focused on increasing firm value. The value driver models or residual income-based performance measures may serve as examples. In comparison, accounting-related techniques to support managerial decision-making in stakeholder management are not as well advanced. So far we have approaches which concentrate on selective stakeholder groups and only partially address the multi-dimensionality of stakeholder value creation. From a conceptual perspective our findings indicate that stakeholder value creation requires a more integrated approach for answering the question whether stakeholder value is created or diminished. As a consequence, if stakeholder-orientation is taken seriously, the time has come to pay more attention to related accounting techniques.     

Environmental Factors,Managerial Processes,and Information Technology Investment Strategies

Although significant research attention has been directed at understanding the value of information technology (IT) investments for firms, very little attention has been paid to understand the IT investment behavior of firms. This article seeks to fill this void. We introduce the concept of IT investment strategy, defined by dimensions of intensity and proactiveness, to characterize the IT investment behavior of firms. Synthesizing the environmental deterministic and strategic choice perspectives of a firm's strategic decision making, we examine the effects of environmental factors, managerial processes, and the interplay between them on IT investment strategy. Specifically, we examine the impact of environmental factors such as industry clockspeed and information intensity on IT investment strategy. We also incorporate the strategic choice perspective to argue that managerial processes such as frequent chief executive officer—chief information officer communications and collective information systems planning play a critical role in shaping the firm's IT investment strategy. The empirical results show that the environmental variables are related to IT investment strategy. Besides, managerial processes serve as a means to understand the environment and thus moderate the relationships between the environmental variables and the various facets of IT investment strategy. The conceptualization of IT investment strategy and the focus on both environmental determinism and strategic choice should enrich our understanding of firms’ IT investing behavior.     

The ethics of health care system reform

The United States is now engaged in a momentous national debate about health care. How can we provide the best care possible while simultaneously containing cost (to promote the general economic integrity of society) and somehow maintain a semblance of a free health care marketplace. This is not just a political question; it is also a question of ethics. It is an ethical consideration because the current debate is not just about designing or promoting health care systems that can best address our concerns for costs, quality, and accessibility. It appears that at least some participants in the debate would not stop at arguing their beliefs as valid; they would make their beliefs law. Some urge the creation of the right to health care as a matter of law. There are significant differences between beliefs and rights, however, and they need to be considered carefully in the ongoing debate over the future of this country's health care delivery and financing system.     

10 Learning and Strategic Alliances

Abstract

Various researchers have suggested that an important explanatory factor for the growth in strategic alliances is that alliances provide a platform for organizational learning, giving firms access to the knowledge of their partners. The notion that alliances are a vehicle for learning is the basis for an important and cross-disciplinary stream of research. This chapter examines theoretical and empirical research in the alliance learning area. We have two central objectives. The first is to integrate a large body of research by examining the key research questions addressed. The second objective is to critically examine the existing research as the basis for establishing a research agenda. Although the alliance learning area has generated a substantial amount of research interest and spawned wide-ranging types of inquiry, many important and substantive managerial issues remain underexplored.     

Attenuating Initial Beliefs: Increasing the Acceptance of Anthropogenic Climate Change Information by Reflecting on Values

Anthropogenic climate change information tends to be interpreted against the backdrop of initial environmental beliefs, which can lead to some people being resistant toward the information. In this article (N = 88), we examined whether self‐affirmation via reflection on personally important values could attenuate the impact of initial beliefs on the acceptance of anthropogenic climate change evidence. Our findings showed that initial beliefs about the human impact on ecological stability influenced the acceptance of information only among nonaffirmed participants. Self‐affirmed participants who were initially resistant toward the information showed stronger beliefs in the existence of climate change risks and greater acknowledgment that individual efficacy has a role to play in reducing climate change risks than did their nonaffirmed counterparts.     

引入外资战略投资者对我国商业银行效率的影响

在当前外资入股我国银行业显著加速的背景下,研究引入外资战略投资者对我国商业银行效率影响,回答引入外国战略投资者后是否能够影响商业银行效率具有重要的实践价值.本文将商业银行按股权结构分为三大类,在随机前沿法理论模型的基础上依据修正的产出法构建了成本利润方程,实证研究了引入外资战略投资者后对我国商业银行效率的影响.实证结果表明:在引入外资战略投资者后,不仅改善了银行的成本效率,同时促进了银行利润效率的提升;研究还证明银行业实施的"财务重组-引入战略投资者-上市-完善治理制度"改革提高了银行效率.     

Work value orientations and patterns: A comparison of future managers with manager and non-manager groups

This study uses the Values for Working questionnaire to classify the primary value systems and value patterns of 501 senior business school students (future managers). The students' scores on six value systems measured by the questionnaire are compared to national data on blue collar and clerical workers and on managerial and professional workers. The business students scored in the average range for four of the six value systems when compared to the manager group, but for only one of the value systems when compared to the non-manager group. Of the business students who had a primary value system, 82 percent wereexistential ormanipulative. There were significant differences in the value systems scores by sex but not by business major.     

信息技术战略价值及实现机制的实证研究

为研究信息技术战略价值及其实现机制,基于企业资源观、竞争战略理论和核心能力理论,构建了信息技术资源、信息技术应用能力、战略层面的信息系统能力、环境动态性和企业绩效之间关系的研究模型,应用结构方程模型对233家中国企业的调查问卷进行数据分析和模型拟合.研究结果表明信息技术资源和信息技术应用能力都无法直接影响企业绩效,其战...     

Testing the Time‐Variancy of Explanatory Factors of Strategic Change1

The article proposes an empirical framework able to: (1) assess the relative validity of both adaptive and inertial views of strategic change and (2) verify the potential time‐ or context‐dependency by testing the structural stability of the empirical model, in Spanish banks, 1983–1997. Results offer inconclusive findings regarding (1) but strong evidence to answer (2). The assumption of structural stability is rejected and the effect of many explanatory factors considered in the empirical model varies over time as some factors show different effects and/or significance levels depending on the period considered. These findings suggest that explanatory models of strategic change should be viewed as ‘time‐’ or ‘context‐dependent’. The article provides a conceptual model in which alternative explanations operate in a sequential way. The results highlight, first, that inconclusive past findings about adaptive versus inertial views should be reviewed under this new evidence, and future empirical research must assure that its methods and interpretations are robust to potential structural breakdowns; and second, the limitations raised by the static approach offered by the available theories/models when approaching the dynamic and complex nature of strategic change. Theoretical developments and implications for managerial practice are suggested.     

Performance measurement systems in SMEs: A review for a research agenda

In recent years, literature has identified the increasing complexity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and highlighted their sensitivity to differences in managerial culture and management systems. Research has shown that performance measurement systems (PMSs) could play an important role in supporting managerial development in these companies. In this paper, the literature on performance measurement in manufacturing SMEs is reviewed and the diffusion, characteristics and determinants of performance measurement in SMEs are analysed. Shortcomings in the performance measurement systems are highlighted and the many factors that seem to constrain PMSs in manufacturing SMEs are defined, e.g. lack of financial and human resources, wrong perception of the benefits of PMS implementation, short-term strategic planning. Moreover, using dimensions defined according to the information found in the literature, two PMS models specifically developed for SMEs are compared with generic PMS models. The comparison points out an evolution in PMS models over time; in particular, the models developed in the last 20 years are more horizontal, process-oriented and focus on stakeholder needs. However, it is not clear whether these changes are due to the evolution of the generic models or an attempt to introduce models suited to the needs of SMEs. To clarify this matter and better to understand PMSs in SMEs, further theoretical and empirical studies are necessary. The main issues still requiring investigation are listed in a research agenda at the end of the paper.     

Some initial specifications for a strategic information system

Much of the discussion and published literature on information systems to date has been about systems concerned with the internal administration and operations of an organization. Considerably less attention has been given to the information requirements of the more strategic managerial activities of planning and policy making, in which the future directions and objectives of the organization are decided. Internal information systems in many organizations have now grown to maturity. At the same time, managers have become aware of the need for an additional component of the overall information system to support their more strategic activities. This paper considers the broad characteristics of a strategic component of an organizational information system and derives some initial specifications from which a more comprehensive design can be developed.     

Insider Trading With a Random Deadline

We consider a model of strategic trading with asymmetric information of an asset whose value follows a Brownian motion. An insider continuously observes a signal that tracks the evolution of the asset's fundamental value. The value of the asset is publicly revealed at a random time. The equilibrium has two regimes separated by an endogenously determined time T. In [0, T), the insider gradually transfers her information to the market. By time T, all her information has been transferred and the price agrees with the market value of the asset. In the interval [T, ∞), the insider trades large volumes and reveals her information immediately, so market prices track the market value perfectly. Despite this market efficiency, the insider is able to collect strictly positive rents after T.     

Data analytics effects in major league baseball

The use of data analytics has enjoyed resurgence over the last two decades in professional sports, businesses, and the government. This resurgence is attributable to Moneyball, which exposed readers to the use of advanced baseball analytics by the Oakland Athletics, and how it has resulted in improved player selection and game management. Moreover, it changed managerial vocabulary, as the term “Moneyballing” now commonly describes organizations that use data analytics. The first research question that this study examines is whether the organizational knowledge related to baseball data analytics has provided any advantage in the competitive Major League Baseball (MLB) marketplace. The second research question is whether this strategic advantage can be sustained once this proprietary organizational knowledge becomes public. First, I identify “Moneyball” teams and executives, i.e., those who rely on baseball data analytics, and track their pay/performance over time. Next, using econometric models, I analyze whether these “Moneyball” teams and GMs, have enjoyed a pay-performance advantage over the rest of MLB, and whether this advantage persists after the information becomes public.