Insurance coverage with Aon after September 11, 2001

Today it is important for hospital organizations to understand the implications of insurance dealings. After September 11, 2001 the insurance industry had an impact on hospitals and health care organizations. This article looks at Aon Insurance and how they handled this situation.     

TO CHANGE OR NOT TO CHANGE: HOW MOTOR CARRIERS RESPONDED FOLLOWING 9/11

What happens when firms are confronted by a strategic surprise—defined as “sudden, urgent, unfamiliar change” (Ansoff 1975, p. 22)—such as the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001? Numerous studies have examined how strategic change, in the aftermath of a significant environmental event, contributes to organizational survival and success. But, is strategic change the appropriate response to unexpected and disruptive environmental change? And is there a preferred trajectory for change, such that certain strategies are better suited than others to the post‐surprise environment? This exploratory research examines whether or not strategic change is an appropriate response to strategic surprise affecting the firms in the trucking industry by considering the actions of motor carriers in the aftermath of 9/11. The data evidences significant disruption to the trucking industry following the event: among the sample, mean operating ratios declined by more than 50%. While nearly 40% of the carriers studied changed strategies in the post‐9/11 environment, this did not guarantee better performance. All carriers fared worse following the attacks, but those carriers that changed strategies actually performed significantly worse than those that persisted with pre‐9/11 strategies.     

Hypercompetition and the future of global management in the twenty‐first century

In today's hypercompetitive landscape, organizations are moving from being multinational to being global in the strategic intent. There are a number of “drivers” of this globalization process, but it would be difficult to argue that globalization is not going to be an enduring phenomena. The consequences of this modification in the strategic orientation of organizations have implications for most every element in an organization. To gain an insight into the future of global organizations in the twenty‐first century, a market‐based perspective is utilized. In addition, the importance of organizational boundary spanners is also explored as a means to effectively compete in the global competitive arena. Inpatriation is viewed as a means to gain tacit knowledge at the headquarters level to ensure adaptation of corporate standard operating policies to effectively compete as a global network, yet with the flexibility to meet local competitor strategies and consumer demands. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

COVID-19 and business renewal: Lessons and insights from the global airline industry

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the fortunes of multiple companies around the globe. Accordingly, questions are increasingly being asked about how organizations can revitalize during and after a crisis. Yet, we have limited understanding of how organizations renew themselves during crises over time. We explore this question through the lens and examination of two South-Asian airlines: Pakistan International Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines. The cases offer important insights into the reasons behind underperformance of state-controlled enterprises and renewal activities. We shed light on strategic renewal (SR) in the wake of increasing liberalization and deregulations in the global airline industry. To this end, we propose a four-stage approach towards renewing such underperforming organizations to respond effectively to black swan events and external shocks.     

Fitting strategic resources with product-market strategy: Performance implications

Resources, strategy, and performance inter-relationships are central to strategic marketing theory. Strategic resources are key inputs to product-market strategy that form the basis of superior firm performance. However, these inter-relationships are subject to ‘fit’ requirements. This article examines the hypothesis that greater fit between the strategic resources of marketing organizations and product-market strategy encourages superior financial and customer-market performance. This fit is most important to marketing organizations exhibiting either a Defender or Analyzer strategic orientation. No significant relationship is found for fit among Prospectors.     

Communication and marketing of services by religious organizations in India

Marketing communication is a vital strategic tool for religious organizations to achieve competitive differentiation. The study uses media richness theory with competitive response to develop hypotheses about the use of personal and non-personal channels by religious organizations. The study uses unique primary survey data on 568 Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Jain organizations spread over 7 states in India, collected between 2006 and 2008, to investigate the marketing communication strategy of religious organizations in response to their competitors' use of non-personal communication channels and provision of non-religious services. The findings suggest that if a competitor uses higher non-personal communication channels, then this evokes a retaliatory reaction with the incumbent, increasing their personal communication channels. Second, an incumbent who is more responsive to a competitor increasing their non-religious service provision will respond by increasing their non-personal communication channels and by decreasing their personal channels. The findings have implications for managers who need to select the richness of the media for their communications' strategy in the context of competitive response.     

Exploring the determinants of organizational emergence: A legitimacy perspective

In an attempt to explain why some nascent organizations become new organizations while others do not, we contend that the process of organizational emergence can be understood and predicted by viewing it as a quest for legitimacy. We subsequently find empirical evidence to suggest that the actions a nascent organization takes (or strategic legitimacy) may be more important than its characteristics (or conforming legitimacy) in explaining organizational emergence. Such a conclusion is important in that it provides a theoretical framework with which to understand organizational emergence and in so doing advances our knowledge of this important process.     

Strategic reference points in family firms

Family firms are classically seen as risk averse organizations, and this is evident in their generally lower R&D investments compared to non-family firms. Recent research, however, challenges this predominant view and suggests that family firms can embrace higher strategic risk when faced with threats to their family-centered goals. Still, the internal and external conditions that drive variations in the strategic risk taking behaviors of family firms are little known and understood. This article adds to this literature by developing and testing a conceptual model of strategic risk taking that incorporates behavioral theory, family business literature, and the logic of the strategic reference point theory. With recognition that the interplay between family and economic goals determines heterogeneity in strategic actions of family firms, this model suggests that family managers respond differentially to the feedback information regarding internal and external reference points, and consequently identifies key drivers of variation in the R&D investment behavior of family firms. By examining the pattern in R&D investments of 437 Spanish private manufacturing firms from 2000 to 2006, this study shows how strategic inputs, strategic outputs, and external benchmarks produce variations in strategic decisions about R&D investments in family and non-family firms. The findings offer insights into how internal and external reference points are considered in family firms’ decision making, thereby contributing a deeper understanding into the circumstances under which family goals cope or collide with the economic goals of the firm, and how this influences strategic risk decisions in family firms.     

Strategic decisions in turbulent times: Lessons from the energy industry

Most of the firms currently in the S&P 500 probably will not be there in 15 years. In times of great uncertainty, managers are called upon to make the right strategic choices, preserve core businesses, and prepare their organizations for the future. How can managers make these choices when the industry is under transformation? In this article, we explore how the popular VUCA framework can help to make sense of turbulent contexts and drive the decision making of managers. We study the case of the energy industry, in which traditional business models eroded quickly and dominant players lost their positions. Based on personal interviews with the CEOs of RWE (Germany) and NRG Energy (U.S.), we analyze how these executives led transformation of their organizations. We get immersed in their decision-making processes and depict how the VUCA framework helps them to identify, map, and prepare their organizations to respond to the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity in their industry. We propose a guide for executive managers to navigate through VUCA contexts, taking into account the necessity to introduce short- and long-term responses that prepare organizations and stakeholders for an uncertain future.     

Impact of national traumatic events on consumer purchasing

The purpose of this research is to evaluate differences in consumer perception before and after national traumatic events such as the terrorist attacks that took place on 11 September 2001. The authors found a significant difference in consumer ethnocentrism, patriotism, time management, attitude towards regulation of business and product quality following the terrorist attacks. These differences impact consumer purchase decision processes and become important to businesses that are targeting these consumers with their product offerings. In addition, marketing managers' understanding of change in consumer perceptions and attitude should impact how consumer products are marketed.     

Strategic alignment and performance: Brazilian companies in the medical diagnostics sector

A gap has been identified in the literature on the diagnosis and monitoring of the degree of strategic alignment. The main objective of this article is to diagnose and analyze the strategic alignment profile using the alignment diagnostic profile (ADP) tool, which enables organizations to show visually their degree of strategic alignment. The methodological approach adopted is multiple-case studies, which were conducted at five organizations in the medical diagnostics sector. The results indicate that the ADP enables organizations to understand the steps required to improve their level of alignment and to identify and locate gaps and conflicts.     

Sustainability of nonprofit organizations: An empirical investigation

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) contribute to society through their social value creation. They operate in an increasingly turbulent context where building sustainable organizations has emerged as a critical need. Past authors have discussed this important issue in a fragmented manner. Using multiple case studies of socially entrepreneurial NPOs, this paper examines how the need for building a sustainable organization has impacted on the strategy focus of the nonprofit organization. The findings suggest that in response to an increased competitive environment, NPOs have been forced to adopt an organizational sustainability focus in both strategic and operational levels of management. The study makes a strong contribution to current debate in social entrepreneurship and to a broader agenda concerned with developing sustainable organizations. Whilst the findings have important implications for theory and current practice, the paper concludes with suggestions for future research at the interstices of these areas.     

Feasibility Frontier—A Method for Aligning Competitive Strategy with the Choice of IT Architectures

This article introduces an approach that addresses the challenge of aligning choices about IT architecture with the strategic goals of a corporation. This takes the form of a framework that captures how managers make IT architecture choices and how those choices impact an organization's competitive position. Based on microeconomic theory, the framework provides a set of conceptualizations for understanding alignment, plus some recommendations on how organizations should approach IT architecture adoption in a way that assures optimal alignment with strategic goals. The most important facilitating factor for the framework is the commitment to complete, accurate, and unbiased cost and quality assessment of business processes and their supporting IT infrastructure.     

The Social Network?: Nonprofit Constituent Engagement Through Social Media

Social media has become an important part of public relations for nonprofit organizations. Social media has the potential to engage stakeholders and constituents of nonprofit organizations. However, little scholarly attention has been focused on how users react to social media posts by nonprofit organizations. To enhance understanding of how organizational social media activity affects users’ engagement, this study examines Facebook and Twitter utilization and user response of nonprofit advocacy groups. The analysis reveals that users respond differently to stimuli across platforms.     

Contrasting Strategic Response to Economic Recession in Start‐Up versus Established Software Firms*

Economic recessions represent a period of greatly reduced environmental munificence that threatens the survival of all firms. This is especially the case for smaller, start‐up firms, which have been shown to fail at a much higher rate compared with their larger, more established peers. This study surveyed 137 software executives regarding their strategic response to the most recent economic downturn (2001–2003). I draw upon Hofer's framework for turnaround strategies to develop hypotheses to explore how smaller, start‐up firms adjust their strategies in response to economic recession. The results suggest that start‐up organizations are much more inclined to pursue revenue‐generating strategies as a means to weathering recession rather than cost reductions, which tended to be the preferred strategy of larger firms.     

Social responsibility in youth service organizations: Hong Kong evidence

The paper attempts to investigate the key factors affecting the social responsibility development in social welfare organizations. The study also measures how social welfare organizations are performing towards the social responsibility objectives. This paper focuses on a study undertaken among a number of youth service organizations in Hong Kong. The results showed that youth service organizations perceive they have supportive organizational culture and the management has been showing strong willingness in promoting social responsibility. The people from a senior level see that the motivating factors are more important than the junior people, but they perceive the ‘social pressure’ is less important than the junior people. The big contrast implies that the management people do not take ‘social pressure’ into serious consideration. The study reveals a significant influence from the management on the adoption and implementation of social responsibility activities. This further confirms the importance on promoting social responsibility at the operational level, with the top management providing clear strategic direction, and supportive resources and environment.     

Exploration of firms' strategic control mechanisms in Australia and the United States: Implications for global governance structures

How much ownership is enough to exert strategic control over partners in the global marketplace? Top management frequently will attempt to have strategic influence over partners when it comes to the strategic direction of the organization. The question becomes, “what gives one partner control over another, and where does that power come from in the relationship?” This research examines the issue of strategic control in organizations in Australia and the United States to determine how to control global relationships. The research found that: (1) ownership is positively related to the degree of strategic control; (2) directness of ownership is positively related to the degree of strategic control; (3) dispersion is negatively related to the degree of strategic control; (4) board membership is positively related to the degree of strategic control; and (5) strategic control between U.S. and Australian organizations/relationships is different. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

MNE—Government relations: Strategic networks and foreign direct investment in the United States in the automotive industry

The purpose of this article is to present the outlines of a new theoretical perspective on MNE—government relations within the context of foreign direct investment in the United States. The theoretical perspective is based on the concept of transorganizational strategic networks. The perspective is a microlevel perspective that treats business and government organizations in a disaggregated manner; it further treats those organizations as being involved in complex relationships that include both conflicting and convergent interests. The organizations and the subunits within them are thus assumed to be both adversaries and partners in strategic networks that constantly change and that cut across conventionally conceived organizational boundaries.     

Strategic Alignment,Performance, and Value

ABSTRACT

The paper discusses the reaching of superior value based on strategic alignment and the adoption of performance measurement systematics, which are based on multiple and integrated perspectives, using primary data obtained through the survey of companies of high complexity and impact in the Brazilian economy. The operationalization was developed from the adoption of multivariate analysis, which revealed the existence of correlations between the variables studied, reinforcing assumptions about reaching superior value based on the improvement of the mechanisms that support the strategic management dimensions with the backdrop of performance management practices based on the principles of Kaplan and Norton (2001 Kaplan , R. S. , and Norton , D. P. (2001). Organização Orientada para a Estratégia . Rio de Janeiro : Campus. [Google Scholar]) for organizations focused on strategy and the Balanced Scorecard approach. The findings confirm the importance of the association among strategic alignment vectors to reach a superior value and the existence of different clusters of organizations dedicated to reach and support value, mainly through combining the organization's relational capabilities (Soft Skills). The study deepens the discussion on strategic alignment of organizations through the introduction and testing of the Institutional Steering, Performance Maturity, and Balanced Performance constructs.     

Managing the evolution of the strategic planning process

Most strategic planning processes do not facilitate the self-reflective learning that is necessary for organizations to adapt to changing competitive conditions. Instead, they become self-perpetuating bureaucratic mechanisms that limit strategic vision. This article presents guidelines for managing the evolution of the strategic planning process.