The value of formal planning for strategic decisions: Reply

In Armstrong (1982a), I examined alternative explanations to the empirical findings that supported the use of formal planning. In considering the possibility that researcher bias might lead to such results, I used Terpstra's (1981) evaluation scheme. Based on this test, poor methodology did not seem responsible for the conclusions on the value of formal planning.     

Managing the search for new product concepts: a strategic approach

Abstract
The authors point out that there is little in the academic literature about the way ideas for new products emerge and how the emergence is managed. They have identified the main top management problem as the strategic one of achieving the right balance between resources put into new product search and those put into current business operations. To obtain more information on good and bad practice in this area they have investigated how a specially selected sample of small to medium-sized Canadian technological companies actually carry out new product search.
The research method was to ascertain how far corporate goals, organization structures and corporate values affected the effectiveness of new product search. Unstructured interviews were conducted with senior staff in the companies, during which information was sought about company goals, innovation strategy, internal relationships and how these impinged on the genesis of 35 projects.
The authors found an important corporate goal spurring innovation was growth (or survival), to be achieved by using new products to dominate their markets. R&D was oriented to achieving a technical edge, though not necessarily a radical breakthrough in market driven ways. Few had effective formal strategic plans for new product search. On the whole, top managements emphasized the importance of individual initiative and commitment to get results and the necessity of open communication throughout the organization.
Overall, this research reveals once more that any organization that wishes to pursue a strategy of product innovation has to build a climate which explicitly favours that strategy. Corporate strategy, itself, has a major influence on that climate. New product search requires resources and a place in the strategic plan but the extent to which it can be formalized is limited. It must be possible for new ideas, wherever generated, to emerge and gather momentum informally.     

开拓创新服务大局推动水利技术监督工作迈上新台阶——在全国水利技术监督工作会议上的工作报告

经过各方努力,全国水利技术监督工作会议今天召开了.刚才,胡四一副部长做了重要讲话,充分肯定了水利技术监督工作取得的重要成绩,全面分析了面临的新形势,并对今后工作提出了明确要求.我们要认真学习,深刻领会,贯彻落实.     

Planning for dominance: a strategic perspective on the emergence of a dominant design

Researchers in technology and innovation, organization research, and product standardization in economics have noted that innovations may become the dominant designs in their product classes for reasons that may have little to do with design. The emergence process for dominant designs has typically been viewed as a black box process involving a sophisticated interaction of technological and non-technological factors. This paper shifts the discussion to a strategic perspective. It argues that firms can frame the emergence process and can systematically manage elements of it in the pursuit of competitive advantage from innovation. An analytical framework is developed and discussed, with particular emphasis on the roles of certain external conditions, non-technological forces, and complementary assets, as well as the implications for R&D strategists and for future research. Four distinctive examples illustrate different aspects of the framework's utility.     

The selection of delphi panels for strategic planning purposes

Despite the popularity of the Delphi technique little scientific literature exists to help guide the strategic planner in its proper application. In an effort to fill part of that void a comparative test was conducted using both intracompany and intercompany Delphi panels to forecast future events in the socio-political environment of business. The intent was to determine whether the two groups produced similar or different forecasts under virtually identical test conditions. Analysis of the data showed similarities in both the forecast estimates and the degree of consensus achieved across groups. Since strong similarities were demonstrated, the intracompany panel type is recommended to strategic planners based on its unique advantages.     

Collaboration and technology linkages: a strategic supplier typology

This study uses frameworks from the strategic management and operations strategy literatures to explore the relationships among collaboration, technology, and innovation in small and medium‐sized manufacturers. Statistical analysis of the responses of 200 New Hampshire manufacturing companies in four SIC code industries (fabricated metals, industrial equipment, electrical and electronic equipment, and instruments) leads to the development of a strategic supplier typology which is useful in explaining the differences in the composition and performance of various types of suppliers. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mapping moral philosophies: strategic implications for multinational firms

Strategic managers appear increasingly under pressure from stakeholder concerns regarding social and ethical issues. Partially in response, the supply of ethical decision‐making models has grown rapidly. Business ethics scholars have broadened their scope to incorporate moral philosophies into their research endeavors. Despite these positive trends, the international focus of business ethics research has been slow to evolve. Yet, diverse moral philosophies, often most apparent across international borders, have important strategic implications for multinational firms. The ethical norms pursued by cross‐cultural alliance partners, distributors, suppliers, customers, financiers, and foreign government agencies can create public relations disasters, foster shareholder unrest, lead to consumer boycotts, and impact organizational outcomes. We seek to rectify the deficiency in international business ethics scholarship with two distinct contributions. First, we develop a new cross‐cultural, macro‐level model of societal ethics. Second, we map moral philosophies onto an established framework for assessing socioeconomic environments. These theoretical tools should assist managers of multinational organizations, international policy‐makers, and researchers to recognize and prepare for the ethical consequences of international strategic decisions. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Achieving success in technology alliances: The Rover-Honda strategic collaboration

Dynamic changes within global markets are creating a need for different strategies for firms in the pursuit of competitive advantage. International technology alliances are one mode of organising the acquisition of competitive technologies which is especially important in technology-intensive industries. However, managers have an especially difficult challenge when trying to deal with problems of high technical risk, frequent changes in technologies, different cultural and managerial styles and perspectives. This article addresses these issues as it examines the planning and implementation of the international technology alliance between Rover and Honda, during the past fourteen years. By most criteria used, this alliance was highly successful, and the article discusses not only the areas of successful technical impact which the alliance had on these companies, but also the insights learned by Rover from the management process of the alliance. It also develops a framework of issues which managers can use to implement and manage international technology alliances.     

Learning: The interface of quality management and strategic alliances

In this paper, we investigate the practice of quality management in strategic alliances. By employing a relational view of inter-organizational competitive advantage, the paper addresses the concept of quality management in strategic alliances and networks. We argue that institutional/network relationships influence the practice of quality within a network. In that regard, firms that have adopted quality management practices are more effective in managing and coordinating their interactions with other firms in the network, which results in their enhanced learning capability within the alliance.The proposed framework recognizes the role of trust and cooperative learning as critical factors that affect the success of strategic alliances. It has been argued that firms within an alliance need to achieve the paradox of control and learning. We examine the role of trust as a control mechanism in strategic alliances and address the importance of cooperative learning within alliances. Several hypotheses have been proposed and future research has been outlined.     

How to build a strategic network: A practitioner-oriented process model for the ICT sector

One critical success factor for the future will be the ability to build and develop strategic networks. This ability is especially vital in the dynamic information and communication technology (ICT) sector, where the development of competitive offerings often requires a coalition of platform and service providers. However, the academic literature has yet to propose a systematic managerial tool for the strategic network building process. Our distinctive contribution is the development of a practitioner-oriented process model for building a strategic network, which is linked to the resource-based view and the value creation system approach. Moreover, we suggest that instead of being a sequential stage-wise process, the construction of a strategic network can be divided into parallel, although not necessarily simultaneous, sub-processes based on the required value activities in the entire business concept. The resulting network-building model is used to provide managerial suggestions for the efficient construction of strategic business networks.     

Success is not enough: The spectacular rise and fall of a strategic alliance between two multinationals

This article analyzes a strategic alliance between two multinational companies from the same geographical region. Originating in the same industrial culture and with technically advanced, complementary products, they formed a strategic alliance for international growth in 1947. Despite significant changes in the market over the years, the companies remained market leaders and icons of a successful alliance until 1988, when the alliance suddenly collapsed. The study describes the alliance process from a long-term perspective using a theoretical framework based on motives, resources, competitive advantage, trust and performance. Although the alliance is no more, it is found to have made a substantial contribution to the collaborating firms with respect to their growth and expansion in the world market. Both partners achieved what they expected from the alliance. They also have developed well as competitive companies thereafter. The sudden end to the collaboration can therefore not be seen as a failure. However, it is argued that the separation process, as the process of alliance formation, needs to be taken seriously, and managers must give sufficient time and effort to ensure that the break-up becomes non-dramatic and less painful.     

Correction to: Assessing the belt and road initiative as a narrative: Implications for institutional change and international firm strategy

Asia Pacific Journal of Management - A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-021-09766-w     

The creation of momentum for change through the process of strategic issue diagnosis

This paper presents a model of how decision-makers interpret stategic issues. The model of strategic issue diagnosis identifies three critical events: activation, assessments of urgency and assessments of feasibility. The relationship of each of these interpretive assessments to the creation of momentum for change allows one to predict if and how organizations will respond to a changed decision environment. The paper further links strategic issue diagnosis to organizational responses by highlighting the systematic effect of two contextual variables—the organization's belief structure and its resources—upon the assessments in diagnosis. In this way, the model of issue diagnosis provides a framework for understanding how and why organizations respond differently to strategic issues.     

On tailoring a strategic planning system to its context: Some empirical evidence

Based on a survey of 111 senior executives this study finds that tailoring a firm's strategic planning system to its context is not a popular practice, despite its presumed importance. Moreover, the lack of fit between a firm's strategic planning system and its context appears to be inconsequential to how managers rate their planning systems. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

The psychological context of strategic decisions: A model and convergent experimental findings

Strategic decision-makers typically are involved in a series of incremental decisions, each affected by a variety of contextual factors. This papers develops a model of the psychological context of strategic decisions and reports two experiments. First, students made reinvestment decisions faced with success or failure feedback on a past decision, high or low perceived organizational slack, and decisions framed to depict a positive or negative future outlook. All three variables had main and interactive effects. Second, managers made similar decisions in a related experimental design. Results confirmed and extended the initial findings. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

The strategic management of a large scale IT project in the financial services sector

This article explores theoretical and empirical work on IT strategy formulation. While the managerialist focus upon a structured rational text-book model is common in the literature, it is not supported by empirical research on IT projects in the financial services sector.     

情景分析:能源市场展望和战略规划的重要工具

油价预测尽管经常犯错,但这项工作对决策来说仍必不可少.大能源企业在20世纪70年代开始在战略规划中引入情景分析.情景分析是基于对未来世界发展有逻辑的陈述.IHS的全球能源情景是世界众多企业在做长期战略规划时应用的一个工具,三个能源情景源于有关未来政治、经济和能源行业发展的三个重大问题,即地区和能源产品间的竞争—一“对抗”(RivaLy)情景、各国对本国资源开发成功与否和分散式能源供给系统的成熟——“自主”(Autonomy)情景、世界经济和金融体系的大幅波动及其对投资信心的影响——“眩晕”(Vertigo)情景.在“对抗”情景下,2016年国际油价跌至2003年以来的最低点,全年布伦特原油均价仅为38.5美元/桶;到2020年,油价恢复到平均80美元/桶的水平,但是回升的道路非常曲折.美国的致密油的机动性是价格回升的主要动力,但也是价格难以大幅上涨至100美元/桶的主要阻力.     

Managing knowledge leakage in strategic alliances: The effects of trust and formal contracts

Although strategic alliances offer opportunities for knowledge sharing and leveraging, they also carry the risk of knowledge leakage to partner firms. In this study, we conceptualize the notion of knowledge leakage as a multidimensional construct and formalize its measurement. We examine the effects of two dominant governance mechanisms—trust (goodwill trust and competence trust) and formal contracts on knowledge leakage. A survey of 205 partnering firms in China indicates that goodwill trust has a U-shaped relationship with knowledge leakage, whereas competence trust has a negative impact. Moreover, goodwill trust and competence trust interact differently with formal contracts on knowledge leakage. This study offers important theoretical and managerial insights for firms to manage knowledge leakage in strategic alliances.