Globalization frustrated: The case of white goods

This paper challenges the common view that mature industries are always ripe for global strategies. Based on data from the European Domestic Appliance industry, this paper shows how changing economic conditions can diminish the value of global strategies. Critical in these shifts were simultaneous rises in demand for variety (that eroded the benefits of scale and continental market share) and decreases in manufacturing scale (that permitted new supply options), which reduced the extent of the strategic market to national dimensions. They added complexity that decreased the profitability of the global players and increased that of national strategies. The fluctuating fortunes of leading firms are shown to have been caused primarily by choices of strategy, not by national factor costs.     

Market-shaping strategies: A conceptual framework for generating market outcomes

We identify four market-shaping strategies and their related activities that enable a focal market actor to work towards specific market outcomes. The conceptual framework provides firms with a tool for choosing specific market-shaping strategies depending on their market-shaping intention (offensive/defensive) and perception of a market's stability (stable/unstable). Accordingly, and in line with market-shaping literature, the four market-shaping strategies enable a firm to widen, reduce, maintain, or disrupt a market. Whereas previous market-strategy conceptualizations emphasized firm-level outcomes, the four identified market-shaping strategies focus on market outcomes and encompass a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of a firm's strategic actions on a market. Thereby, this study offers new perspectives on the implementation of market strategies in the context of markets as complex adaptive systems. By exemplifying the four market-shaping strategies using four industry cases, we illustrate how market-shaping strategies can appear in practice and demonstrate how firms can strategically leverage and steer market processes to their advantage.     

Real Options Analysis for “Green Trading”: The Case of Greenhouse Gases

To address the issue of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, organizations are involved with emergent markets for trading emission permits. Investment in equipment that reduces emissions may generate emission credits for sale in the market. This article applies real options analysis to actual case study information from British Petroleum-Amoco of a particular project that would generate emissions credits. We conclude that unless permits have a faster price rise than is generally anticipated, certain projects are not economically feasible. The policy implication is that planners may need to set more stringent regulations to bring about their desired result. Additionally, real options analysis in this market based regulatory policy is an especially important tool for the energy industry, which is disproportionately impacted by greenhouse gases policies.     

Nested identities as cognitive drivers of strategy

Research Summary: Organizations face tensions to conform to industry norms for legitimacy yet differentiate for competitive advantage when implementing strategies. We suggest this tension is due to and resolved through organizations’ cognitive negotiations of multiple levels of identity. Through an inductive study in the recreational vehicle industry, we find that organizations concurrently draw on identities at the organizational, industry, and strategic group levels to formulate and enact specific competitive actions. Specifically, we find that organizational identity relates to decisions on product offerings; industry identity relates to downstream strategy; and strategic group identity relates to upstream strategy, firm boundaries, and expansion mode. Our findings highlight the importance of strategic group identity and inform a grounded model describing how organizations draw upon different levels of identity to influence strategy. Managerial Summary: Many managers experience tensions of differentiating their firms’ competitive actions from rivals, while conforming with industry norms and practices. In this article, we argue that a manager can navigate these tensions by understanding their firm, strategic group, and industry identities and how these identities interrelate. Through a qualitative case study of the U.S. recreational vehicle industry, we show that each level of identity influences different competitive actions, with firm identity connected to product offerings, industry identity related to managing downstream distribution, and strategic group identity related to firm boundary and acquisition strategies. Overall, strategic group identity is the most critical for managers as this level filters how they view competitors and provides the rules of competition.     

Bargaining Structure and Wage Outcomes in the British Coal Industry

The arguments below use case study and time series data to investigate the relationship between bargaining structure and wage settlements in the British coal industry. Consideration of the different bargaining structures in this industry suggests that bargaining power and wage outcomes are very sensitive to market conditions when the negotiating structure is decentralized; when negotiations are centralized in industry-wide bargaining, power and wage outcomes are quite insensitive to market conditions. These conclusions may help in understanding recent events in this industry and perhaps can be generalized to other cases where bargaining structures are undergoing change.     

Industrial R & D and the British economic problem

Britain's poor industrial and economic performance over at least the past fifteen years is closely related to a national pattern of R & D activities that—by comparison with our main competitors—has been insufficient in volume, heavily concentrated in sectors of relatively minor industrial significance, and inadequately coupled to the problems and possibilities of production and the market. Reversing what in the 1970s was a strongly downward trend in British R & D and other innovative activities will require, amongst other things, more professionalism and skills in British engineering and management, and deliberate long-term strategies in industry and government to develop products, processes and markets that enable British industry to compete on the basis of quality and skills rather than low wages.     

The Relationships between Resource Configurations and Launch Strategies in Taiwan's IC Design Industry: An Exploratory Study

Within the last decade, the link between launch strategies and new product performance has been widely investigated. However, the relationship between resource configurations and launch strategies has received little attention. This study endeavors to fill that void by examining the relationships between resource configurations and launch strategy selections. In addition, this study investigates the moderating effects of market growth and competitiveness on the relationship between resources and launch strategies. Drawing on contingency theory and strategic studies, this study proposes that resource contingencies affect changes in launch strategies. This study also suggests that market characteristics play a contingent role in the relationships between the configurations of resources and launch strategy choices. Based on extensive studies reporting on market characteristics and their links to strategies, this study proposes that two market characteristics—market growth and competitiveness—are relevant for launch strategy decision making. Taiwan's integrated circuit (IC) design industry has been used as the analytical sample, as it has been identified as a promising sector for new product development. Based on the result of investigating 90 firms, four resource configurations are identified: (1) strategic and organizational abilities; (2) technological capabilities; (3) societal assets and goodwill; and (4) physical assets. Furthermore, two different launch strategies—innovative and product advantage and cost oriented—also are discovered. The results from a seemingly unrelated regression model reveal that technological capabilities and societal assets and goodwill contribute to the variation in the firms' choices of launch strategies. This study further conducted the simple slope analysis to observe the effect of the technological capabilities on the innovative and product advantage strategy under different levels of the market growth rate. The results interestingly showed that firms with technological capabilities demonstrated different degree of tendencies in employing this strategy in alignment with various market growth rates. The finding sheds some lights on the moderating role market characteristics play on the relationships between resource configurations and launch strategy selections. Academic implications and suggestions for practitioners also are provided.     

Strategic groups as reference groups: Theory,modeling and empirical examination of industry and competitive strategy

Previous studies on strategic groups have mainly focused on their static characteristics in order to test the theory of strategic groups and intraindustry performance differences (Porter, 1979; Cool and Schendel, 1988; Fiegenbaum and Thomas, 1990). In contrast, this study takes a longitudinal, dynamic perspective and describes the forces driving strategic group membership and structural evolution. It proposes that a strategic group acts as a reference point for group members in formulating competitive strategy. A partial adjustment model of strategic mobility is then developed which incorporates the idea of a strategic group as a reference group. It models strategic change in an industry both within and across strategic groups. The model is tested in the context of an in-depth industry analysis of the more significant firms in the insurance industry over the 1970-84 time period. The results suggest that strategic groups act as reference points for firm strategies and that predictions of future firm strategies and industry/group structures may also be successfully derived.     

Strategic Responses to Regulatory Policies: What Lessons Can Be Learned from the U.K. Contract Gas Market?

The gas industry was first privatisedin 1986, and the regulator, Ofgas, identified thecontract gas market as a possibility for introducinginitial competition into the industry. Nevertheless,competing shippers were slow in entering the market.Subsequently, Ofgas introduced a series ofpro-competitive policies. It, however, invoked aseries of strategic behaviour by the incumbentshipper, British Gas. The effectiveness of thesemeasures are analysed here with respect to theevolving competitive process. The issues it raised,especially when formulating future regulatory policiesand theories, are also considered.     

The effects of perceived industry competitive intensity and marketing-related capabilities: Drivers of superior brand performance

Since the early 1990s the theoretical and practical issues associated with organizational capabilities have been a major research focus in marketing. However, there has been little focus simultaneously on industry environment and internal competitive capability development. A manager's perception of his/her industry environment has the potential to impact the firm's marketing-related capability development through their strategic responses to their perception of the environment. This paper advocates that managers (i.e., firms) perceiving their industry environment as turbulent will develop superior market learning and marketing capabilities. Market learning will assist in the process of building superior marketing capabilities. Both capabilities lead to higher brand performance. To explore these issues a study was designed to measure perceived industry competitive intensity, market learning and marketing capabilities. Data were gathered from senior managers of commercial firms and the results largely support the hypothesized theoretical relationship that industry competitive intensity influences market learning activity and marketing capability development. Interestingly, the study findings suggest that market learning impacts brand performance through marketing capability. The findings significantly contribute to the debate on the influence of the competitive environment on a firm's internal capability development which suggests the need for further research to examine the industry competitive intensity-internal capabilities-firm performance relationship.     

Real options reasoning and a new look at the R&D investment strategies of pharmaceutical firms

Real options reasoning (ROR) is a conceptual approach to strategic investment that takes into account the value of preserving the right to make future choices under uncertain conditions. In this study, we explore firms' motivations to invest in a new option. We find, based on an analysis of a large sample of patents by firms active in the pharmaceutical industry, that their investments in R&D are consistent with the logic of ROR. We identify three constructs—scope of opportunity, prior experience, and competitive effects—which have an influence on firms' propensity to invest in new R&D options and which could usefully be incorporated in a strategic theory of investment. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of multichannel integration in customer relationship management

This paper reviews the strategic role of multichannel integration in customer relationship management (CRM) with the objective proposing a structured approach to the development of an integrated multichannel strategy. Alternative perspectives of CRM are reviewed and it is concluded that adoption of a strategic perspective is essential for success. Multichannel integration is posited as one of the key cross-functional processes in CRM strategy development. The nature of industry channel structure and channel participants, channel options, and alternative channel strategies are reviewed. The customer experience is explored both within and across channels. Analytical tools, such as market structure maps, the customer relationship life cycle, and demand chain analysis, are described. Key steps in building an integrated multichannel strategy are examined. Major challenges faced by enterprises in their adoption of an integrated multichannel approach and areas for future research are discussed.     

基于期权博弈的企业价值边界均衡演化分析

本文应用期权博弈理论,对企业在面对市场环境不确定和竞争者行为不确定情况下企业价值边界的动态均衡演化过程做了深入分析。结果表明,企业价值边界确定在企业等待的期权价值与抢先的战略价值相均衡之处。企业抢先行动或等待都会引起不确定因素的变化,从而引起上述两类价值曲线的位移或曲率变化,并使得企业价值边界表现出动态均衡变化。而不同的不确定状况又决定了企业不同的策略行动,即是变得强硬而抢先,还是变得温和而等待,从而企业可以通过相机抉择保持可持续竞争优势,实现企业价值最大化。     

Research notes and communications management and organizational change: A note on the railroad industry

Hypotheses which relate top-level managers' age, years of company and industry service, and education to strategic change are studied with a sample of 855 managers from 27 railroads. Results generally support hypotheses that younger managers and those with less experience are more likely to alter their strategies with changing environmental conditions.     

Launch Strategy, Launch Tactics, and Demand Outcomes

In a typical new product development process, the role of the launch stage is to maximize the chances of profitably achieving acceptance in the target market. A launch plan can include strategic decisions (such as relative innovativeness, mass versus niche targeting, and lead versus follow) as well as tactical decisions (including the types of communication and distribution activities to emphasize, introductory pricing, branding, and when to announce new items and delete old ones). Unfortunately, the existing literature offers limited decision-making guidance to managers on how to prioritize and integrate the various strategic and tactical options. This article presents a conceptual framework that suggests that the strategic and tactical challenges posed in various product launch situations depend in large measure on the specific type of buying behavior to be influenced. Depending on the degree of product innovativeness, managers may establish one of three types of desired demand outcomes: (1) trial and repurchase, (2) customer migration, or (3) innovation adoption and diffusion. The degree to which the desired demand outcome is realized is shown to be dependent on buyers' perceptions of the new product's relative advantage and of its compatibility with buyers' values and experiences. Perceptions of the product on these two characteristics are initially influenced by the launch strategy. Given an understanding of these perceptions, managers can then select launch tactics designed to clarify or leverage relative advantages or to demonstrate or enhance compatibility to the target market. The framework also demonstrates how the linkages among launch strategy, launch tactics, and the demand outcomes are impacted by the product-market environment, the technological dynamics of the industry, and the firm's resources and capabilities. The author argues that, by examining a given launch situation in the context of this framework, managers will be able to think more systematically about the strategy and tactics required for market acceptance.     

Protection, promotion and cooperation in the European semiconductor industry

EC Member States' national champion policies of the 1970s were not successful in developing firms that led in their home markets, and the corresponding EC policies of the 1980s (many of which encouraged inter-European strategic alliances) were not successful in developing firms that led in the European market. Using strategies that involve world-wide cooperation, European firms are beginning to carve out secure places for themselves in what is now a world market. Joint ventures have been critical in bringing European firms up to world performance levels, but extra-European as well as intra-European cooperation has been essential.     

英国电信产业的放松管制和对主导运营商BT的再管制

自 1 980年起 ,英国电信产业先后实施了邮政、电信分离 ,建立独立的管制机构 ,对开放市场准入和私有化以后仍然居于主导地位的运营商———英国电信公司 (BT)实施包括价格上限管制在内的一系列管制 ,促进了英国电信产业向竞争性结构的转化。目前 ,我国电信产业同样面临着放松管制以及放松管制以后如何重组和再管制主导运营商的棘手难题。本文拟对英国电信产业 2 0余年的改革经验进行比较系统的回顾和评析 ,以期对我国电信产业的下一步改革有所启示。     

Organizational performance in a regulated environment: The role of strategic orientation

This study explores the influence of governmental regulation on organizational strategies and performance outcomes. Drawing on literature in strategic management, we provide a longitudinal empirical analysis of viable strategies in the U.S. domestic airline industry during a 6-year period (1965-70) when it was regulated by the Civil Aeronautics Board. Results indicate that air carriers were indeed able to articulate coherent strategic postures despite regulatory constraints, and were thus able to influence profitability.