Platform competition: Strategic trade‐offs in platform markets

Because the literature on platform competition emphasizes the role of network effects, it prescribes rapidly expanding a network of platform users and complementary applications to capture entire markets. We challenge the unconditional logic of a winner‐take‐all (WTA) approach by empirically analyzing the dominant strategies used to build and position platform systems in the U.S. video game industry. We show that when platform firms pursue two popular WTA strategies concurrently and with equal intensity (growing the number and variety of applications while also securing a larger fraction of those applications with exclusivity agreements), it diminishes the benefits of each strategy to the point that it lowers platform performance. We also show that a differentiation strategy based on distinctive positioning improves a platform's performance only when a platform system is highly distinctive relative to its rivals. Our results suggest that platform competition is shaped by important strategic trade‐offs and that the WTA approach will not be universally successful. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

组织支持感与组织承诺——基于职业成长与组织公平的研究

本文以25个省份400名员工为样本,从员工感知角度评价组织支持对组织承诺的影响,并引入职业成长和组织公平作为中介变量和调节变量构建研究模型。实证结果表明：组织支持感直接对组织承诺产生显著正向影响;职业成长在组织支持感与组织承诺之间起到部分中介作用。深入研究显示,组织公平在组织支持感与职业成长及组织支持感与组织承诺之间均发挥调节效应,且在组织支持感与职业成长之间的调节效应更显著。研究结论对提高组织支持有效性、促进员工职业成长、维持员工内心公平有重要意义。     

The impact of participative leadership behavior on psychological empowerment and organizational commitment in Chinese state-owned enterprises: the moderating role of organizational tenure

We investigated whether participative leadership behavior can produce psychological empowerment, which in turn, leads to organizational commitment for employees of Chinese state-owned enterprises. Based on the data collected from 173 employees in two state-owned enterprises, we found that participative leadership behavior was associated with organizational commitment, but not with all four dimensions of psychological empowerment, namely, meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. Our findings also showed that while participative leadership behavior tended to make short-tenure employees feel competent and thus, more committed to an organization, such leadership behavior did not have a significant impact on competence as well as organizational commitment for long-tenure employees.     

The impact of time on the strategy-performance relationship: Implications for managers

This study examined the influence of cycle time and the application of strategic information technology (SIT) on the relationship between business strategies identified during the course of the research (i.e., marketing differentiation, innovation differentiation and overall low cost) and firm performance (i.e., ROA, ROS). Data from a cross-industry sample of 116 executives in manufacturing and service businesses were collected using a web-based survey, conducted in cooperation with InformationWeek, a leading information technology industry magazine. Results of a path analysis indicated a significant, positive relationship of a market differentiation strategy to SIT to cycle time to performance. Strong positive direct relationships were evident for SIT to cycle time and for cycle time to performance. No other significant relationships were observed.     

中国企业战略执行力维度结构及测量

企业战略执行力对企业赢取竞争有举足轻重的作用,国内外学术界对企业战略执行力的研究也方兴未艾,但到目前为止学术界对企业战略执行力维度结构的探讨仍然很匮乏,对企业战略执行力的认识依然模糊不清。本研究通过文献回顾,概括出企业战略执行力的维度结构,并在质化研究基础上,利用两套独立样本数据分别进行探索性和验证性因素分析。结果表明,企业战略执行力由3大维度、10项影响因素构成,验证了本研究提出的理论框架。同时,我们还通过质化研究与量表提炼技术,开发出一套信度、效度良好的企业战略执行力测量量表,为理论界提供可操作化基础,也为企业界了解和提升自身企业战略执行力提供理论依据与指导。     

Management Buyouts and Human Resource Management

This paper reports the findings from a survey of the effects of management buyouts on human resource management (HRM). Buyouts resulted in increased employment, the adoption of new reward systems, and expanded employee involvement. These developments support the resource‐based view that buyouts develop internal assets over agency theory predictions that managers will adopt a cost reduction approach. The type of buyout influences the subsequent development of HRM. Buyouts report more commitment‐orientated employment policies where employees own shares, and where the buyout pursues a ‘buy and build’ corporate strategy and adopts a business strategy of enhancing customer service and developing markets.     

Differentiation strategies in ‘stalemate industries’

Empirical studies conducted at the Institut de Recherche de l'Entreprise (Lyon, France) show that, in ‘stalemate industries’ (cf. the BCG's typology, 1981), differentiation strategies are effective and profitable alternatives to the usual strategic recommendations. The knowledge of customers' behavior shows up several opportunities for differentiation, hidden by some kind of ‘strategic presbyopia’. Total quality or ‘zero default’ strategy (product quality regularity, punctuality of deliveries, quick response to unexpected orders, quick and correct answers to requests, short delivery times) is the major opportunity for differentiation. Such strategies are compatible with a low-cost position; excellent companies which succeeded in building this ‘total advantage’ (diferentiation + low cost) over their competitors enjoy the highest market share growth and profitability.     

Big splash,no waves? Cognitive mechanisms driving incumbent firms’ responses to low‐price market entry strategies

Research Summary: Low‐price market entries, aiming for rapid sales growth, tend to prompt strong competitive reactions. This research explores whether and how firms using low‐price entry strategies can mitigate retaliatory incumbent reactions. An experiment with 656 managers shows that entrants can attenuate the strength of incumbents’ responses by fostering perceptions of high aggressiveness or low commitment. Entrants may be able to accomplish this by adjusting their entry strategy to embed (subtle) cues of aggressiveness and (lack of) commitment. A replication experiment with university students reinforces our overall theoretical argument. However, the results also indicate that the interpretation of cues embedded in the entry strategy may be affected by the experience of incumbent firm managers. Overall, these results clarify the cognitive foundations of competitive responses to market entry. Managerial Summary: What drives incumbents to respond strongly to market entries, and what can the entrant, if anything, do to mitigate those responses? This research offers empirical evidence and theoretical insights for managers faced with these questions by shedding light on the thinking processes preceding competitive responses. The study shows that while managers are motivated to respond strongly to market entries that appear to be highly consequential to their business, these responses may be mitigated if the entrant manages to foster perceptions of high aggressiveness or low commitment to the market. Managers form these perceptions in part on the basis of the entrant’s behavior, creating an opportunity for entrants to adjust their entry strategies in a manner that demotivates strong competitive responses.     

Strategic HR functions and firm performance: The moderating effects of high-involvement work practices

Although the strategic human resource management literature has emphasized the value of the integration of human resource management into strategic management, the mechanism through which the strategic integration of HR functions contributes to the improvement of firm performance is relatively unknown. Assuming that HR strategies cannot be successfully implemented without employee support for and commitment to these strategies, this research focuses on high-involvement work practices, which allow employees to participate in management decisions as potential moderators of the integration of HR functions in strategic management and firm performance. Using a sample of 203 unionized Korean firms, this research found that the effects of a strategic HR function on firm performance were moderated by high-involvement work practices such as a pay-for-performance program, a career-development program, union participation in company strategy, and temporary worker benefits. The results suggest that a strategic HR function will not be successful without institutional mechanisms that foster employee involvement.     

The fit between product market strategy and business model: implications for firm performance

We examine the fit between a firm's product market strategy and its business model. We develop a formal model in order to analyze the contingent effects of product market strategy and business model choices on firm performance. We investigate a unique, manually collected dataset, and find that novelty‐centered business models—coupled with product market strategies that emphasize differentiation, cost leadership, or early market entry—can enhance firm performance. Our data suggest that business model and product market strategy are complements, not substitutes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Taking industry structuring seriously: A strategic perspective on product differentiation

Given legal impediments to consolidation and collusion, firms often resort to product differentiation to attain market power. This paper provides a formal analysis of product differentiation as a tool for such industry structuring at both the firm and industry level. We examine: how industry structure differs when firms collaborate on their differentiation decisions, and when the profitability of such collaboration is greatest; how an individual firm's differentiation decisions affect subsequent market outcomes under price competition, such as margin, market share, and profit; how mere differentiation differs from a ‘differentiation advantage’; and how changing a firm's differentiation affects its rivals through both positive externalities (by restraining rivalry) and negative externalities (by shifting competitive advantage). Our results have implications for empirical research, strategy theory, and pedagogy.     

Different recipes for success in business relationships

Companies need to manage business relationships successfully in order to stay competitive. Drawing on configurational logic, this study shows that companies can improve their relationship performance through leveraging the structure of their business relationships. However, relationship structures must align with the company's business strategy. To date, research has focused on individual characteristics of business relationships, but little is known about relational configurations, namely the interplay between different business relationship characteristics on the one hand, and the firm's underlying business strategy on the other. We apply Hoffmann's (2007) strategy typology, namely shaping, adapting, and stabilization strategy types, to operationalize different business strategies. Drawing on a sample of 658 business service companies and employing fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), this study confirms the existence of different recipes for success, that is, multiple equifinal configurations leading to relationship performance. For each of the three business strategies, different combinations of relationship characteristics are successful, each encompassing a distinct configuration of core and periphery conditions. While firms following an adapting strategy should stress behavioral commitment above all other relationship characteristics, the two remaining business strategies instead rely predominantly on different factors such as trust and communication. This study contributes to business marketing theory and practice by highlighting different ways to develop business relationships successfully.     

Context matters: Diversity's short‐ and long‐term effects in fortune's “best companies to work for”

Research summary: Previous research has examined the racial diversity‐productivity relationship in corporations with an evident high commitment to minority programs, Fortune's “Best Companies for Minorities.” To assess generalizability, we replicate this research using a different context of high organizational‐employee value congruence, Fortune's “Best Companies to Work For.” We are not able to find evidence for the curvilinear relationships previously found, but do uncover a linear negative relationship between racial diversity and short‐run performance. Managerial summary: Using Fortune's “Best Companies for Minorities,” previous research found that racial diversity affected both firm productivity and Tobin's q. To see if we could find these results in a different group of firms, we replicate this research using a sample drawn from Fortune's “Best Companies to Work For.” The former sample is distinguished by high commitment to minority programs, while the one used here stresses high congruence of values between the organization and all its employees. We are unable to replicate the relationships previously found, however, but do find that increasing racial diversity had a negative effect on firm productivity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

平衡计分卡在房地产开发企业战略执行中应用

战略执行是战略管理中比较重要的环节，通过将平衡计分卡应用于房地产开发企业的战略分解及战略执行中，将战略分解为4个方面的衡量指标并加以跟踪考核，可以促进房地产开发企业的战略执行能力。     

A Longitudinal Study of the Impact of R&D,Patents, and Product Innovation on Firm Performance

Because of increasing levels of competition and decreasing product life cycles, a firm's ability to generate a continuous stream of innovations may be more important than ever in allowing a firm to improve profitability and maintain competitive advantage This paper investigates several issues that are central to an examination of the innovation productivity in a firm. First, the relationship between a firm's commitment to research and development and its innovative outcomes is examined. Two innovative outcomes are analyzed: (1) invention, which focuses on the development of new ideas; and (2) innovation, the development of commercially viable products or services from creative ideas. Invention is measured by the number of patents granted, and innovation is assessed by the number of new product announcements. Second, because many inventions ultimately result in marketable innovations and because patents may provide protection for new products, the relationship between patents and product announcements is also investigated. Finally, the ability of a firm to benefit from its inventions and innovations is studied by examining their separate effects on firm performance, measured as return on assets (ROA) and sales growth. Drawing from a sample of 272 firms in 35 industries over 19 years, the results from a model of simultaneous equations provided support for some of the hypotheses, but several other surprising findings were found. As expected, R&D spending was positively related to patents. This finding is consistent with others who argue that internal research capabilities, particularly those with a strong basic research component, is key to enabling a firm to generate creative outputs. More surprising was the finding of increasing returns to scale to R&D spending. While this contradicts much of the existing research, it is consistent with economic arguments for the advantages of scale in innovation. Also interesting is the finding that, while a significant curvilinear relationship exists between R&D spending and product announcements, it is not the predicted inverse‐U but instead a U‐shaped relationship. Consistent with previous work, product announcements were found to be positively related to both performance measures. A negative relationship was found between patents and both ROA and sales growth. While these findings were unexpected, they are intriguing and call into question the value of patents as protection mechanisms. In addition, these results may be resulting from the rise of strategic patenting, where an increasing number of firms are using patents as strategic weapons. As expected, a positive relationship was found between patents and new product announcements.     

A Two–Tier Wage Structure in a Nonunion Firm

This study examines the perceptions of nonunion workers in a permanent two–tier wage structure. Consistent with the predictions of equity and justice theories, low–tier employees are found to be more likely to perceive the wage structure as unfair, have lower pay satisfaction and organizational commitment, and report poorer worker–management relations than high– tier employees. These attitudes may make nonunion firms more vulnerable to certification campaigns since they are the same factors that have been repeatedly linked to employee intentions to vote for a union.     

Compensation strategy: does business strategy influence compensation in high‐technology firms?

Drawing on the strategic employee group concept, this study empirically examines whether a firm's innovation strategy influences compensation systems for strategic employee groups in the high‐technology industry. We focus on compensation packages for R&D employees who play a critical role in successful implementations of innovation strategy. Using compensation data for middle‐level managers and professional employees from 237 firms in the high‐technology industry, we found that a firm's strategic intention to pursue innovation has a significant influence on the relative pay level, compensation time horizon, and stock option vesting period lengths of this strategic employee group. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Formula for Success? Training,Reward and Commitment in a Chemicals Plant

Managerial strategies designed to elicit greater employee commitment in production have received much attention in recent industrial relations reseach. Training is seen to form a core component of such strategies, yielding such beneficial outcomes as improved efficiency and employee motivation. Yet the connections between training strategy and performance outcomes have been treated in an overly simplistic fashion. This in turn reflects a lack of empirical inquiry at the level of the shop-floor currently to be found in the subject area. By integrating an investigation of the workplace into the analysis of management strategy and performance outcomes, it is possible to develop a deeper understanding of the linkages between training provision, commitment and systems of reward.     

Solutions for flexible container leasing contracts with options under capacity and order constraints

The container–shipping market becomes prosperous with the development of the global economy. As shipping networks become more complex and heterogeneous, container capacity planning becomes more difficult. This paper tackles the container planning problem from the carrier’s perspective in a two-echelon container shipping service chain (CSSC), which includes one carrier and one upstream rental company. A flexible contract with options is introduced into the one-period container planning mechanism. With the flexible options contract, the rental company requires the carrier to make a commitment or place an order in advance. Options give buyer the right to modify the initial orders to better match the supply with the demand. Based on the carrier’s decision tendency, i.e., aggressive or conservative, we analyze the application strategies of the unilateral options and the bidirectional options in different practical scenarios. In particular, for the applicability of the decision models, we further consider the shipping capacity and the minimum order constraints and formulate the carrier’s option policies with constrained nonlinear programs. Numerical examples show that the proposed decision strategies with option contract cannot only effectively increase the container trading quantity between the rental company and the carrier, but also significantly reduce the carrier’s container capacity risk while increasing its profit.     

Performance implications of the buyer-supplier market orientation fit

Extant research examining the link between market orientation and performance offers few insights into how the interplay between a firm's market orientation (MO) and its key supplier's MO influences the firm's performance. Using archival and survey dyadic data from 876 firms (438 firm-supplier dyads), we explore the impact of MO fit (i.e., fit between the focal firm's MO and its supplier's MO) on the focal firm's performance (ROA). The findings indicate a direct and positive relationship between MO fit and ROA. This highlights the need for firms to focus both on their own MO and their key supplier's MO as sources of competitive advantage in today's business environment. The strength of the relationship between MO fit and ROA increases when the exchanged business volume increases between the focal firm and its supplier and when the respective relationship progresses in age. Furthermore, firms with MO fit perform best, followed by firms with higher supplier MO misfit (firm's MO is lower than its key supplier's MO), while firms with lower supplier MO misfit (firm's MO is higher than its key supplier's MO) are the laggards.