Co‐evolution in Strategic Renewal Behaviour of British,Dutch and French Financial Incumbents: Interaction of Environmental Selection,Institutional Effects and Managerial Intentionality*

abstract How do incumbent firms and environments co‐evolve and how are firm‐level adaptation and selection at industry level interrelated? Can and do large established organizations renew themselves to adapt to their environment? Three single‐lens theories, relating to environmental selection, institutional theory, managerial intentionality, and a co‐evolutionary perspective are used to investigate strategic renewal of incumbent firms. We derive propositions and distinguish between three dimensions of strategic renewal and develop metrics to investigate our propositions in a multi‐level, multi‐country, longitudinal study of the European financial services industry. Our results provide the following insights. From an environmental selection perspective, we found incumbents have a preference for exploitation renewal actions. Country institutional environments appear to explain to what extent incumbents prefer internal and/or external renewal actions. Managerial intentionality seems to explain outlier behaviour and firm‐specific frequency and timing of renewal actions. From a co‐evolutionary perspective, interaction effects explain deviations from predictions derived from the single‐lens theories applied in this paper.     

Evaluation of age‐related labels by senior citizens

The age‐related labels third age, elderly, 50+, senior, and retired were evaluated by a 40+ sample. Results of a qualitative and quantitative study showed that the labels third age and elderly evoked predominantly negative associations, and the evaluations of the latter three age‐related labels were generally positive. Cognitive age did not appear to add explanatory power, but group membership did (being retired or not, perceiving oneself as a senior or not). Moreover, a significant interaction effect between group membership and age emerged. When people did not belong or did not perceive themselves to belong to a given age group, the evaluation of the related label became more negative when the respondents approached the age to be eligible for group membership. After becoming or accepting to become part of the group, evaluations of the label increased again. On the basis of these results, an alternative‐stage model is proposed: status irrelevance, status rejection, status acceptance, and status championship. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Some New Evidence on the Determinants of Large- and Small-Firm Innovation

Empirical analyses presented by Acs and Audretsch suggest differences in the market structure determinants of innovation between large and small firms in U.S. manufacturing. The evidence they offer is ambiguous. By using data for a different country (The Netherlands), a different measure of innovation and a different aggregation level, we offer new evidence, allowing a revaluation of the findings for the U.S. material. Moreover, the influence of the market structure determinants does not appear to differ between a period of sluggish growth (1983) and one of relatively high growth (1989).     

Measuring and Analysing Competition in the Netherlands

This article analyses the developments of competition between 1993 and 2001 at the industry level. Using the relative profits measure and the price-cost margin based on firm-level data, these competition indicators suggest that competition did not increase in most industries but diverged widely. This is puzzling in light of the regulatory reforms to enhance competition. An econometric analysis suggests that regulatory reforms indeed intensified competition, but also that considerable growth of market demand may have weakened competition. Finally, the two indicators often point in the opposite direction for the development of competition, because they respond differently to a reallocation of output from inefficient to efficient firms.     

Methodological Issues in Cross-Linguistic and Multilingual Advertising Research

This article discusses methodological issues related to language in advertising research. We introduce a framework that distinguishes between cross-linguistic research settings, where several languages are used in the study and different samples of respondents are studied in their own language, and multilingual research settings, where only a single language is used and multilingual respondents are studied either in their native or nonnative language. We review key principles that govern cross-linguistic and multilingual effects in advertising research to formulate guidelines for research design and data analysis. In the cross-linguistic context, these principles address nonuniform cross-linguistic differences in responses (related to nonequivalence of individual questionnaire items) versus uniform response effects (related to nonequivalence of verbal response category labels). In the multilingual context, we bring together evidence that shows how—even when comprehension is not a problem—stimuli, questions, and response categories may be processed differently in respondents' native versus nonnative language.     

Pay‐Level Satisfaction and Employee Outcomes: The Moderating Effect of Employee‐Involvement Climate

The present study examined employee‐involvement climate (i.e., information‐sharing and decision‐making climate) as a moderator of the relationship between pay‐level satisfaction and employee outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intention). Survey data were collected from 22,662 Belgian employees, representing 134 organizations. The hypotheses derived from distributive justice theory and from research on the meaning of pay received partial support. Multilevel analyses revealed that a decision‐making climate buffered the negative effects of low pay‐level satisfaction, and that an information‐sharing climate exacerbated the negative effects of low pay‐level satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of this differential moderating effect are discussed.     

Site competence dynamics in international manufacturing networks: instrument development and a test in Eastern European factories

The objective of this paper is to introduce an instrument that enables the measurement of dynamics in the roles of factories in international networks. Starting from Ferdows’ framework on strategic factory roles, a clear definition and more precise operationalization of ‘site competence’ is provided. Our proposed instrument is tested in a context, being the Eastern European factories of Dutch multinationals, where it is plausible to expect changes in the strategic factory roles over time. This test comprises four exploratory case studies that provide the basis for future, more extensive empirical work. At the same time, they contribute to the under-researched area of company and industry case studies with respect to the international context of operations management.     

Increasing choice satisfaction through goal-based labeling

Business practitioners increasingly seem to believe in the power of goal-based labels (i.e., labels that link assortment items to consumption goals). While previous literature has focused on feature-based approaches to increase choice satisfaction, we introduce goal-based labeling as a consumer-based approach to increase choice satisfaction. Since goal-based labels (e.g., a ??Family Trip?? camera versus a ??Professional?? camera) relate choice alternatives directly to consumption goals, they allow consumers to bypass translating product attributes into goal attainment. Quantitative and qualitative results of an experimental study indicate that novice consumers, but not experts, benefit from goal-based labeling in multiple ways. Novice consumers use goal-based labels as an important cue in their decision making. This can significantly increase their chances at making an optimal choice. Choosing from a goal-based labeled assortment also has a positive effect on the choice satisfaction of novices. Mediation analyses show that a decrease in the choice uncertainty drives the positive effect of goal-based labeling on choice satisfaction. Novices apparently do not blindly follow the labels that are provided but try to understand the link between labels and attributes. Hence, among novices, inaccurately labeled assortments not only result in suboptimal choice but also in higher uncertainty and lower satisfaction. For experts, goal-based labeling is largely irrelevant, as it does not have an effect on their choice satisfaction, nor on their likelihood to make an optimal choice.     

Organisational context of structured on‐the‐job training

Seven cases, all Dutch organisations, are analysed on the relation between organisation characteristics and types of training on the job on the basis of contingency theory. Effectiveness and efficiency, dictated by a competitive environment, influence decisions regarding internal structure, including the form of the HRD function. Contingency theory predicts that the internal structure, resulting from differentiation of components, mediates between such pressures of the environment and the pressure of the operating core, which tries to perform productively according to norms of rationality. The actions of differentiated components of the internal structure must be coordinated. The tendency to differentiate a separate training function off the job can be at odds with the tendency to bind training activities on the job strictly to the priorities of productive work. However, in this article we propose that this opposition can be overcome when the chosen type of on‐the‐job training ‘matches’ the type of organisation and that matching types as a rule are more effective.