Competitive Strategy,Environmental Characteristics and Performance in African Emerging Economies: Lessons from Firms in Ghana

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the impact of the implementation of competitive strategy on organizational performance in response to economic liberalization policies using survey data from organizations in Ghana. We also examine how the perceived intensity of industry competition and industry sector moderate the relationship between competitive strategy and organizational performance. The results show that the implementation of the competitive strategies of low-cost, differentiation, and integrated low-cost and differentiation were all positively related to performance (return on assets and return on sales). We also find that both industry competition and industry sector moderate the relationship between differentiation strategy and return on assets. Moreover, industry competition moderates the relationships between both low-cost and differentiation strategies and return on sales. The results indicate that implementing a clearly defined competitive strategy is beneficial to organizations experiencing significant changes in the environment due to economic liberalization. The findings also suggest that while low-cost strategy is more beneficial to organizations in a highly competitive industry, differentiation strategy is more beneficial to firms in lowly competitive industry. At the same time, organizations in the manufacturing sector benefit more than those in the service sector when they implement the differentiation strategy. Managerial implications are presented.     

Internet Appreciation in Nigerian Business Organizations

ABSTRACT

Internet technology is one of the approaches used by business organizations to execute their business activities. The present research investigated the degree of Internet appreciation in Nigerian companies, factors influencing such appreciation, and the associated efficacy of Internet appreciation. It was found that e-mail was the most used aspect of the Internet system in Nigerian companies. Relatively, it was found that Nigerian business organizations used the Internet system mostly for business communication. The low level of Internet education proved to be the most influencing factor in Internet appreciation in Nigeria companies. These findings were discussed with respect to extant literature and pieces of empirical and anecdotal evidence. Management and policy recommendations were made and areas for future research suggested.     

Why implementing corporate innovation is so difficult

While corporate innovation is commonly touted as a viable strategy for sustaining superior performance in today's corporations, the successful implementation of corporate innovation remains quite elusive for most companies. A recent Accenture survey of more than 500 executives revealed that over 50% report a poor innovation process, while fewer than 18% believe their own innovation strategy provides a competitive advantage for the firm. While many causal reasons can be offered, our research on corporate entrepreneurship and innovation demonstrates there are four key implementation issues that most corporations are not recognizing or responding to effectively. Effective recognition of and response to these four implementation issues may represent the difference between those companies that create a successful corporate innovation strategy and those that do not. The four issues are: (1) understanding what type of innovation is being sought, (2) coordinating managerial roles, (3) effectively using operating controls, and (4) properly training and preparing individuals. Together, these four issues—if understood and appropriately addressed—help create an effective innovative ecosystem within the organization.     

产品市场竞争对企业水信息披露的影响研究——基于2010-2016年中国高水敏感性行业的经验证据

面对日益严格的水监控,企业应如何调整竞争战略以适应竞争与政策呢？基于2010—2016年中国高水敏感性行业300家上市企业的面板数据,文章采用Tobit模型实证检验了产品市场竞争（行业竞争强度与企业市场势力）对企业水信息披露的影响机理。结果表明：行业竞争强度与企业水信息披露呈倒U型相关;温和竞争行业内最高市场势力的企业能够起到行业标杆作用,更愿意主动披露水信息;在进一步分析中,发现国有制身份强化了产品市场竞争（行业竞争强度与企业市场势力）对企业水信息披露的影响。文章丰富了产品市场竞争与环境信息披露的研究文献,为市场竞争能否促进环保责任的履行提供了经验证据,并对相关政府部门引导企业正视水问题具有重要指导意义。     

The Innovation Process and the Development of a Sustainability Strategy

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes what influences a firm's choice of strategy—why some firms stick to defensive strategies while others rely on offensive ones. With this in mind a survey was conducted on mineral sector companies associated with the Brazilian Mining Institute. The results show that the majority of companies use an offensive strategy and that some companies use more than one strategy at the same time. That is, they possess a corporate strategy and a sustainability strategy.     

Managerial Views of Corporate Impacts and Dependencies on Ecosystem Services: A Case of International and Domestic Forestry Companies in China

A line of research is emerging investigating the private sector impacts and dependencies on critical biodiversity and ecosystem services, and related business risks and opportunities. While the ecosystem services narrative is being forwarded globally as a key paradigm for promoting business sustainability, there is scarce knowledge of how these issues are considered at managerial level. This study thus investigates managerial views of corporate sustainability after the ecosystem services concept. We analyse interviews conducted with 20 managers from domestic and international forestry companies operating with a plantation-based business model in China. Content analysis was employed to analyse the data, with a focus on four key areas: (1) interviewee familiarity with the ecosystem services concept; (2) their views of corporate dependencies and impacts on ecosystem services; (3) related business risks and opportunities; and (4) viability of existing instruments and practices that can be employed in detecting and addressing business impacts and dependencies on ecosystem services. Through an inductive approach to the empirical findings, we refined a framework that holds operational value for developing company response strategies to ecosystem services impact/dependence assessment, ensuring that all issues are addressed comprehensively, and that related risks and opportunities are properly acknowledged.     

Creating Value Under Uncertainty

Abstract

The business environment in Nigeria has been unstable and chaotic for many years. Inflation reached 100% in 1995 and frequent unpredictable changes in economic policies have destabilized the economic environment. Yet, some business enterprises have sustained a tradition of superior competitive performance, earning good returns on investment even as many environment wearied multinationals divest.

The aim of this paper is to examine the actions taken by two successful companies to create value in Nigeria's uncertain business environment. The paper begins with a short summary of Nigeria's economic environment and its impact on manufacturing performance. It then reviews the principles of Economic Value Added (EVA) as a measure of corporate performance. The second part of the paper analyses the performance of two selected Nigerian companies-Nigerian Breweries Pic and Dunlop Nigeria Pic-and describes the strategies these companies used to achieve high and sustained corporate performance in Nigeria's economic environment. The paper ends with a discussion on the suitability of EVA-based performance measures in uncertain business environments.     

How Institutional Change Reconfigures Successful Value Chains: The Case of Western Pharma Corporations in China

Management researchers have traditionally emphasized two main factors in the definition of corporate strategies: internal capabilities and industry competition. However, in less stable, transition economies it is particularly the changing institutional environment that influences strategy definition and performance of multinational corporations (MNCs) as shown by numerous international business (IB) scholars. Yet, how institutions matter remains a largely unresolved question. This article examines how institutions have affected the value chain configuration of Western pharmaceutical firms in China. Our research framework identifies four major strategic shifts along the value chain of Western firms in the pharmaceutical industry: upgrading along the value chain, outsourcing to contract service providers, expansion of geographical scope and diversification of product portfolio. The findings allow concrete managerial implications to be derived for decision makers of Western pharmaceutical firms operating in China. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Taming Trojan Horses: Identifying and Mitigating Corporate Social Responsibility Risks

Organizations are exposed to increasing pressures from their constituents to integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles into their ongoing business practices. But accepting new and potentially open-ended commitments is not a harmless exercise, and companies may well expose themselves to serious risks when embracing such principles. To identify these risks, we conducted two naturalistic studies: one exploratory, the other corroborative. The results show that CSR adoption is associated with at least seven different business risks, ranging from failing strategy implementation to legitimacy destruction. To alleviate these risks, we discuss a set of managerial mitigation strategies that have the potential to realign companies’ CSR activities with their strategic objectives. Pursey Heugens is an Associate Professor of Organization Theory in the Department of Business-Society Management at RSM Erasmus University. He received his PhD from the same school. His research interests span positive and normative theories of organizaton, including bureaucracy theory, neo-institutional theory, contractualist business ethics, and virtue ethics. Nikolay Dentchev is an independent research fellow at Ghent University, Belgium, and a project coordinator at the corporate venturing department of Fortis Group (Fortis Venturing). He holds a Ph.D. in business economics from Ghent University. His current research is related to entrepreneurship, instrumental stakeholder theory, and management challenges of corporate social responsibility     

Environmental Costs and Responsibilities Resulting from Oil Exploitation in Developing Countries: The Case of the Niger Delta of Nigeria

Interest shown on the environmental impact of operations of multinational enterprises in developing countries has grown significantly recently, and has fuelled a heated public policy debate. In particular, there has been interest in the environmental degradation of host communities and nations resulting from the operations of multinational oil companies in developing countries. This article examines the issue of environmental costs and responsibilities resulting from oil exploitation and production in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The case study is based, in part, upon series of interviews with key stakeholders in the Nigerian oil industry. The article further examines the implications of the current practice and policies of multinational oil companies with respect to environmental impact of oil exploitation. The study’s findings illustrates that it is becoming increasingly apparent to oil companies that pollution prevention pays while pollution does not and under pressure from stakeholder groups, oil companies now routinely incorporate environmental impact assessments into their corporate strategy.Dr Gabriel Eweje is a lecturer in Management and International Business at College of Business, Massey University, Auckland Campus, New Zealand. Previously, he worked as a Research Fellow at the United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU/IAS), Tokyo, Japan, and taught at Royal Holloway University of London, England. His PhD from University of London focused on Corporate Social Responsibility and Activities of Multinational Oil and Mining companies in Developing Countries. He also worked as a Research Fellow with International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London on a project on how mining and minerals can contribute to sustainable development (MMSD). His research interest lies around the issues of business ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability related disciplines.     

Haight,William. Retail Advertising: Management and Technique. Morristown,N. J.: General Learning Press, 1976

Abstract

Corporate sponsorship is growing in importance as an element of the communications mix. The number of companies participating in sponsorship, as well as corporate expenditures for sponsoring events, is on the rise as organizations seek new ways to reach audiences and enhance their image. The importance of corporate sponsorship is now generally acknowledged, but little research has been done to understand its value and effectiveness. An exploratory study was conducted to examine the relationship between sponsorship and corporate image. The results suggest that corporate sponsorship can improve corporate image, but its effects differ among companies. Moreover, sponsorship is only one of the information sources consumers use to form their impressions of an organization. Under certain circumstances, corporate sponsorship can damage, rather than enhance, the image of a company.     

The Governance of Corporate Sustainability: Empirical Insights into the Development,Leadership and Implementation of Responsible Business Strategy

This article explores how corporate governance processes and structures are being used in large Australian companies to develop, lead and implement corporate responsibility strategies. It presents an empirical analysis of the governance of sustainability in fifty large listed companies based on each company’s disclosures in annual and sustainability reports. We find that significant progress is being made by large listed Australian companies towards integrating sustainability into core business operations. There is evidence of leadership structures being put in place to ensure that board and senior management are involved in sustainability strategy development and are then incentivised to monitor and ensure implementation of that strategy through financial rewards. There is evidence of a willingness to engage and communicate clearly the results of these strategies to interested stakeholders. Overall, there appears to be a developing acceptance amongst large corporations that efforts towards improved corporate sustainability are not only expected but are of value to the business. We suggest that this is evidence of a managerial shift away from an orthodox shareholder primacy understanding of the corporation towards a more enlightened shareholder value approach, often encompassing a stakeholder-orientated view of business strategy. However, strong underlying tensions remain due to the insistent market emphasis on shareholder value.     

Organizational Learning in China: The Role of Returners

ABSTRACT

The Chinese authorities have launched a range of policies and incentives at the national and regional level to attract citizens who have studied and worked abroad to return in order to contribute to upgrading the competitiveness of the Chinese economy, particularly in light of China's entrance to the World Trade Organization. In other words, the returners are expected to stimulate organizational learning in existing organizations and in new companies. This article provides an overview of what has been done to date and points out that simply increasing the number of returners is not enough to achieve organizational learning. Drawing on research findings about the barriers to organizational learning from returned expatriate managers in international companies, the article develops recommendations for government policies, corporate strategies, and Chinese returners.     

Creating a global mindset

Why are some companies highly successful in spotting and exploiting global opportunities, while others mismanage them or miss them entirely? The answer could lie in the company's mindset, a topical subject currently doing the rounds at numerous executive education seminars. The term corporate mindset refers to how the company sees the world and how this affects its actions. For companies operating on a global scale, developing a global corporate mindset presents a formidable managerial challenge. The corporate mindset determines to what extent management encourages and values cultural diversity, while simultaneously maintaining a certain degree of strategic cohesion. Developing a global corporate mindset and a group of global managers as its main flag bearers has become a key prerequisite for successfully competing and growing in worldwide markets. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Corporate social responsibility and employee attitudes: The moderating role of employee age

This study examines the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee engagement and job satisfaction. Using 322 responses from employees of selected companies in Ghana, and employing hierarchical regression analysis, the study examines the direct impact of economic, legal, ethical and discretionary CSR practices on employee satisfaction and engagement in organisations. The study further explores the moderating role of employee age on the relationship between CSR and employee engagement and satisfaction. The results provide evidence that economic, legal, ethical and discretionary CSR practices influence higher employee engagement and satisfaction levels at work. However, the study finds no evidence of employee age moderating the association between each of the four CSR dimensions and employee job attitudes (engagement and satisfaction). These findings are insightful and provide a response to calls for research on these issues. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that ethical CSR practices strongly influence employees' satisfaction and engagement levels; legal and discretionary CSR activities also have an influence, though to a lesser extent; and the economic dimension of CSR activities has the least impact. The managerial, practical and further research implications of these findings are discussed.     

The erosion of stable shareholder practice in Japan (“Anteikabunushi Kosaku”)

This study reviews the academic literature to explain internationalisation, mode of entry choice and strategic momentum theory. In this research, we ask whether DiMaggio's theory of isomorphism can be applied to Japan, given the country's Anteikabunushi Kosaku practices and the evidence cited in the literature that suggests that national culture influences managerial work values and Japanese entry mode strategies.We suggest that Japanese management attitudes towards entry mode strategy are changing due to a change in corporate governance policy and competition. In response, we argue that Japan's stable shareholder practice is eroding and that as a result of this erosion, the change observed in institutional behaviour is isomorphic.     

中国式融资融券与企业金融化——基于分批扩容的准自然实验

本文聚焦于中国经济“脱实向虚”背景下非金融企业金融化问题,将分批次放开融资融券限制作为准自然实验,构造双重差分模型,探究融资融券机制对企业金融化行为的影响。研究发现,融资融券机制的实施总体上会显著地促进企业金融化。这种促进作用主要源于实际交易中占主导地位的融资机制。虽然融券机制对企业金融化有一定的抑制作用,但在融资交易与融券交易高度不对称的情形下,活跃的融资交易加剧了企业配置金融资产的短期投机套利行为。金融资产与经营资产的收益率差距和股价下跌风险是企业调整投资策略的两个关键因素。进一步研究发现,融资融券对企业金融化的影响只存在于管理层持股和机构持股比例较高、产品市场竞争较弱和处于牛市行情等情形中。本文有助于理解中国式融资融券的经济后果,也从制度环境层面为厘清非金融企业“脱实向虚”的内在机制提供了一个新视角。     

Chaffee,Steven H., and Petrick,Michael J. Using the Mass Media: Communication Problems in American Society. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974

Abstract

In recent years, a number of internal and external forces have urged companies to pay increased attention to the role that corporate advertising plays in marketing communications strategy. Despite this increased importance, a comprehensive view of current corporate advertising practices does not exist. This study reports the practices of the 500 largest manufacturing and the 300 largest non-manufacturing firms in the U.S. and makes observations on several key management issues, including the definition of corporate advertising, objectives and measurement, funding, and future directions.     

Strategizing corporate social responsibility: evidence from an Italian medium-sized, family-owned company

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming a mainstream issue as both researchers and managers are realizing its importance, but knowledge gaps persist. In particular, the processes underlying the adoption of responsible managerial practices and the effects associated with them are still at the centre of intense debate. Not surprisingly, managers expect formalized procedures that might influence corporate managerial processes and especially corporate strategies. Given the growing emphasis on the integration of CSR into corporate strategy, the purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the antecedents of this process and the dynamics underlying it. We focus on a medium-sized, family-owned Italian company, SABAF SpA. We find that: the beliefs and value systems of entrepreneurs play a fundamental role in shaping a sustainable corporate strategy; the importance of the relationship between social performance and financial performance depends to some extent on the kind of competitive strategy that a company has selected; and people need to be aware of it – that is, CSR strategies must be explicit and codified into specific managerial procedures.