The Survival of Unique Corporate Cultures

In this paper we identify two situations that can lead a firm to hire an executive who supports a corporate culture that differs from the firm's current culture. In the first case, there is a similarity between the firm's culture and that of the candidate, and in the second case, executives who support the firm's culture constitute a minority of the available candidates. In both cases the firm prefers to hire an available candidate, rather than risk a prolonged vacancy. We show how these scenarios can lead to the eradication of unique cultures and to the perpetuation of more common cultures. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unplanned executive transitions and the dance of the subidentities

This is a study of a non-routine transition in an academic setting. After studying the processes of executive succession, succession planning, and executive development for many years, I found myself serving as Acting Dean of a school of management following the sudden resignation of the dean. This article is an account of my personal journey through that process, using subidentity theory as a way of understanding the experience. This article compares my own transition experiences with the theories of subidentity change and executive succession. It also identifies implications for future research based upon the differences observed, such as the perceived or virtual permanence of the acting administration. The conclusion offers recommendations for practice, such as the need for clarity of role expectations, strong leadership, and clear strategic direction; the value of a long hand-off process; and the utility of planned transition events. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Executive compensation and firm risk after successful mergers and acquisitions in Africa

This paper examines the impact of various executive compensation types on the postmerger risk taking by firm's executives. We find that executive pay influences firm risk differently depending on compensation type and risk measure. Specifically, we find that rewarding executives with cash compensation reduces the total postmerger risk of acquirers. However, managers are motivated to increase systematic risk when they are rewarded with stock‐based incentives. Besides, based on the argument that managerial compensation portfolio might impact systematic and unsystematic risks differently, our findings show no evidence of the impact of executive pay on unsystematic risk.     

Executive career advancement in career moves across employers: the role of organization-level predictors

This paper examines the career moves of executives between different organizations and looks at the characteristics of executives employing organizations as a predictor of the outcome of the moves. The paper uses a retained executive search firm's proprietary data set that contains information on the career paths of executives in the financial services industry. The results show that the perceived operational excellence of executives employing organization has a significant signalling power for other employers and strongly impacts the success of executives' moves across different organizations. The data also reveal that executives may use their employment spell at large-sized organizations that are perceived as excellent as a conscious career-building mechanism and accept smaller promotions to join such organizations.     

The role of cultural values on a firm's strategic human resource management development: a comparative case study of Spanish firms in China

This paper attempts to better understand the role of cultural values as a human resource contributor to a firm's strategic development. Comparative case studies of two Spanish subsidiaries in China were made using on-site, in-depth qualitative research in both Spain and China. We then examine how this difference in management affects the firm's overall strategic development and, hence, its performance. The results of the study suggest that cultural values, as a human resource contributor, do indeed affect a firm's overall strategic development and, hence, the firm's resulting success or failure. Throughout the paper, the management by values (MBV) framework is used as a lens to further examine and better understand this process.     

Human resource involvement,job-related factors,and their relation with firm performance: experiences from Greece

A great deal of debate exists regarding the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and firm performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between HR involvement in firm's strategic planning, job-related constructs (job characteristics, workplace characteristics, and satisfaction), and their impact on firm performance. A new research model is proposed exploring the above-mentioned relationships. The validity of this model is tested using data from 106 chief executive officers (CEOs), top managers, and managing directors of Greek small medium enterprises (SMEs)), using the structural equation modeling approach. The results indicate that job characteristics and workplace characteristics directly affect satisfaction and firm performance, while HR involvement has a direct impact on job characteristics and workplace characteristics and an indirect effect on satisfaction and firm performance. It is suggested that managers should emphasize on the HR involvement in the process of strategic planning which actually affects the job-related constructs, in order to improve employees' satisfaction and achieve higher firm performance levels.     

Philanthropy,social capital or strategic alliance? The involvement of senior UK business executives with the voluntary sector and implications for corporate fundraising

Although corporate fundraising is popular there has been very little discussion in the voluntary sector literature of its context. Using questionnaire data from senior executives representing one‐third of the FTSE350 companies, and in‐depth interviews with a number of top level business men, this paper reports the first UK survey of the personal involvement of senior executives with charities, voluntary and community organisations,[Walker, C. and Pharoah, C. (2000) ‘Making time for charity: A survey of top business leaders' involvement with voluntary organisations’, Charities Aid Foundation, Kent.] and pinpoints messages about corporate involvement which may help fundraisers develop corporate fundraising strategies. The data give the first indications of how many of the UK's top business executives give time to charity, how much time they give and what they do. It also addresses what there is to gain for and from the charity, the senior executive and their company. The results present a picture of widespread and enthusiastic involvement of senior executives with the voluntary sector; a picture of both a deep personal commitment and of a strong sense of corporate benefit. The survey also raises several important issues and implications for corporate fundraising: should charities be doing more to attract top executives into an active relationship with them? How can they do this? What are the pros and cons of an alliance between corporate figureheads and charitable organisations; how might this relationship be viewed by the public; and how might it best be managed? This paper draws on the results of the survey to illustrate and discuss these issues. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications     

On becoming a strategic partner: The role of human resources in gaining competitive advantage

Although managers cite human resources as a firm's most important asset, many organizational decisions do not reflect this belief. This article uses the value, rareness, imitability, and organization (VRIO) framework to examine the role that the human resource (HR) function plays in developing a sustainable competitive advantage. Why some popularly cited sources of sustainable competitive advantage are not, and what aspects of a firm's human resources can provide a source of sustainable competitive advantage are discussed. The role of the HR executive as a strategic partner in developing and maintaining competitive advantage within the firm is also examined. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

STRATEGIC CONSEQUENCES OF EXECUTIVE SUCCESSION WITHIN DIVERSIFIED FIRMS

Systematic investigation of leaders and their influence on organizations has been a major area of research interest. In examining the upper echelon-organizational outcome linkage, researchers have come to focus on the issue of executive succession. This focus has been due in large part to an emerging theoretical perspective that managerial differences may explain much of the variance in organizational outcomes. The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether or not top management succession affects subsequent corporate strategy. This article extends previous research efforts by longitudinally examining the linkage between executive succession and the extent of corporate strategic change across a sample of Fortune 1000 diversified firms. The findings confirm that the nature of executive succession has substantial consequences for corporate strategy. Firms have a greater likelihood of experiencing significant changes in strategy when they choose successors from outside the organization; firms that select their key executives by promoting from within are more likely to experience significantly less change in their corporate strategy. The results of this longitudinal investigation of the strategic outcomes of succession have significant implications for those in a position to select successors to the executive ranks.     

STRATEGIC CHOICE: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS

The problem of which organization structure is most appropriate for current business conditions has perplexed managers for decades. Several management theorists have proposed that modifications of the firm's structural design were in response to changes in the organization's context. Recently, Child² suggested that senior executives in the firm may have the discretion to strongly influence their organization unit's structure. This paper discusses the development of a contingency theory of structural determination which incorporates strengths of past theories, managerial discretion, fourteen dimensions of structure, and organizational effectiveness. It also reports on preliminary research which supports the importance of managerial discretion in the structural determination process.     

TOP MANAGEMENT TURNOVER AND CEO SUCCESSION: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF TURNOVER ON PERFORMANCE

One strategic action which is often taken by firms in need of a turnaround is to bring in a new chief executive officer (CEO). Many observers argue, however, that having done this the new CEO must replace large numbers of top managers in order to effect a change in the firm's interactions and subsequent performance. Critics of this perspective insist that just the opposite is true. Substantial levels of turnover may only serve to further disrupt the organization decreasing performance still more. This controversy is addressed in the following study using a sample of 84 firms all of which experienced CEO succession during the year 1980. Analyses rely on a three-year-period pre-succession and three-year period post-succession. Three hypotheses are proposed. First, poor performance prior to CEO succession leads to greater turnover afterward. Second, that turnover is curvilinearly related to performance after the succession. And, finally, that successor type (i.e. whether the CEO was an inside or outside candidate) is related to the level of turnover in upper level management positions in the post-succession period. the results from tests of these hypotheses are presented, and the implications of these findings are discussed.     

Chief executive officer compensation,firm performance,and strategic coopetition: A seemingly unrelated regression approach

Coopetition denotes the simultaneous cooperation and competition in a business relationship and is broader in depth and width than competition. This pioneering comparative study employs a seemingly unrelated regression system to investigate the impact of peer-pay bias and pay-for-relative performance upon the highly controversial chief executive officer (CEO) pay. The analysis of the 21 Dow–Jones firms from 1992 to 2013 shows that the pay-for-performance relationship is contingent on the fit between CEO's strategic decisions and firm's core competency. The CEO pay is driven by the intensification of firm coopetition. We contribute to executive compensation, corporate strategy, and econometric methods.     

Manufacturing strategy implementation and cost management systems effectiveness

The fit between manufacturing strategy and the use of cost management systems that could effectively support a firm's information needs in strategic and operational decision-making is prerequisite for a firm's ability to attain desired objectives in its value chain. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the use of just-in-time and electronic data interchange systems, as an important dimension of a firm's manufacturing strategy, and the perceptions of top financial officers about the effectiveness of cost management systems in supporting strategic and operational decision needs. The results for the research hypothesis, which was examined using a sample of 604 manufacturing organizations in the USA, provided some support for the argument that perceptions of effectiveness of a firm's CMS can be a valid indicator of how well is the CMS designed to support strategic and operational decision needs that are necessary for the implementation of a firm's manufacturing strategy.     

Developing Strategic Compensation Plans

Successful introduction of strategically-oriented compensation plans depends on their “fit” with the firm's overall approach to strategic planning. Proposed approaches to designing management compensation systems are examined in terms of their potential fit with three different mental models of strategy and the strategic planning process to develop a parallel typology of compensation plans.     

Complexity, Identity and the Value of Knowledge-intensive Exchanges

ABSTRACT Researchers studying the structural embeddedness of firms in networks have focused on its effects on economic behaviour, strategic action and competitive behaviour, but network embeddedness as a source of firm value per se has been largely overlooked. I argue that neglecting the network context in which firms are embedded leads to an incomplete understanding of the value of the firm. I seek to understand how a focal firm's structural embeddedness network characteristics function as mechanisms that elucidate the value of its knowledge‐intensive exchanges. This paper presents a framework that identifies two processes of knowing exchange value, namely knowing through a learning bandwagon and knowing through a fad bandwagon. I argue that knowing value as a learning bandwagon is enabled by the normative and cognitive proximity of exchange partners, and that this is facilitated by the embeddedness of the focal firm in dense network structures. Knowing value as a fad bandwagon is based on a positional construction of the focal firm's status, which is determined by the centrality of the focal firm's network partners in their corresponding networks. This is a ranking system based on positional network data, whose efficacy stems from the inability of firms to manipulate their network positions.     

Firm-strategic behavior with industry-demand externalities

This paper investigates the effects of industry-demand externalities on the firm's strategic decision making, with an industry-demand externality being defined as a change in industry demand resulting from the efforts of a particular firm to develop, advertise or price a particular product. Profit-maximization models of the firm's strategic behavior that incorporate industry-demand externalities created by a particular firm and the competitive responses of its rivals reveal that the presence of such an externality serves as an incentive for the firm to engage in the form of strategic behavior that generates the externality.     

Strategic groups: Untested assertions and research proposals

Strategic group theory has become a popular tool for analyzing competitive structure of industries. Indeed, testing for the existence of strategic groups, and the impact of strategic groups on a firm's performance, has become one of the dominant areas of empirical research in the strategic management literature. Unfortunately, the impact of this stream of research will be limited until some fundamental assertions in strategic groups theory are tested. Two of these assertions are: (1) that strategic groups exist and (2) that a firm's performance depends upon strategic group membership. These key assertions in strategic group theory remain untested for a variety of theoretical and empirical reasons. What needs to be done to test these assertions is discussed. Until these tests are complete, the contribution of the strategic groups concept will be unclear. If these tests do not build credibility for the concept of strategic groups, it may be necessary to abandon this concept and develop models where the strategically relevant attributes of firms are those that are idiosyncratic.     

CEO继任模式与战略变革研究评述

CEO作为公司战略决策制定和执行的核心人物,其继任模式对战略变革的影响一直是学术界关注的热点课题。本文回顾CEO继任研究发展及CEO继任模式与战略变革关系的研究。     

央企管理者来源对企业绩效的影响效果研究

本文将央企集团的高管作为研究对象,实证检验央企高管来源对集团绩效的影响,拟为央企集团经理人选聘的作用机制提供经验证据。研究发现:总经理岗位轮换与集团绩效的关系因继任情景不同,产生不同的结果。一方面,来自内部晋升的董事长会过度干预执行层的工作而导致企业绩效下降,这种情况在总经理岗位轮换的时候更为严重;另一方面,高管团队的稳定性对岗位轮换的总经理产生重要影响。因此,实施董事长轮岗制度,同时保证经理层的稳定性更有利于企业的发展。本文研究有助于深化认识央企高管晋升机制、高管变更的经济后果,并为国有企业高管聘任机制改革提供经验启示。