Non-coercive influence: Scale development and validation based on resource and relational paradigms

To overcome competition in an increasingly network dependent market, retailers are required to influence upstream channel partners while sustaining relationships. However, the contemporary supply chain literature has not sufficiently leveraged the resource and relational paradigms to examine influence. Grounded on resource dependency theory and commitment-trust theory paradigms, this study describes conceptualization and operationalization of a 12-item scale for measuring non-coercive influence on upstream channel partners in retail supply chain management (R-SCM) context. The study is based on responses from 547 retail professionals in India obtained over four successive surveys. Psychometric properties were assessed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The proposed scale demonstrates construct validity. Invariance-testing carried out over 4-levels of increasingly demanding equivalence confirmed cross-validation. Nomological validity of the scale was tested by evaluating association with suppliers’ intention to cooperate. The results indicate existence of three dimensions of non-coercive influence: collaborative intent, market intelligence dissemination, and operational support. Retailers can use the scale to assess their personnel's non-coercive influence behavior over suppliers.     

The combined impact of managerial and relational capabilities on innovation in firms

In this paper, a survey of more than 1600 firms in the five largest city regions of Norway is described in order to examine how a firm's innovative capacity is affected by three types of factors: factors related to the manager, the structure of the firm and the broader geographical location. By combining perspectives from the fields of management and economic geography in a logistic regression analysis, we find that the two key drivers of firm-level innovation in Norway are the presence of open-minded managers and evidence of collaboration with international partners. Moreover, these two factors are mutually reinforcing, as firms with open-minded managers also tend to engage more with international partners and vice versa.     

Managing campus entrepreneurship: Dynamic capabilities and university leadership

Much has been written about university–industry partnerships, but relatively little research has focused on the effects of such collaboration on conflict among university departments or on broader types of entrepreneurial behavior involving local, regional, and even global initiatives. This broader perspective, which we call “campus entrepreneurship,” offers more avenues for universities to establish a foundation for long-term success at a time when public support for higher education appears to be in decline. The dynamic capabilities framework and leadership theory developed in the fields of strategic management and organizational behavior, respectively, are applied herein to provide guidance to university leaders seeking to embrace a comprehensive multifaceted entrepreneurial approach to campus priorities and activities.     

Scale development and validation of Transaction Cost Economics typology for contracts: A systems thinking approach

A variety of contract typologies that exist in the literature are helpful in the exploration of different approaches in contractual relations, but only when measured with the right instruments. Although Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) has a distinct, high-level, and abstract typology for contracts, it still lacks a measurement scale. In this paper, a measurement scale for the TCE contract typology (classical, neo-classical, and relational contracts) was developed and validated, using systems thinking approach and experimental design to contribute to the empirical tests of TCE within the contracting realm. First, the antecedents of contract selection within the TCE literature were analyzed using the systemigram technique to visualize and parse out complex relationships that lead to contract selection. The analysis of the TCE Systemigram helped the development of the scale and revealed the need to revisit the risk neutrality assumption embedded in TCE. Second, a measurement scale for the TCE contract typology (classical, neo-classical, and relational contracts) was developed adhering to the original texts of seminal papers and reviews from the TCE literature. Third, the 14-item measurement scale was validated using a series of three vignette-based experimental studies.Key messageThis research explores the antecedents of the TCE contract typology and develops a measurement scale for essential characteristics of classical, neo-classical, and relational contracts, as defined in TCE, using systems thinking approach and a novel vignette-based experimental design.     

Dynamic capabilities through continuous improvement infrastructure

We examine the content of continuous improvement strategies and identify infrastructure decision areas that are important for continuous improvement initiatives. We present a framework of infrastructure based on the idea that continuous improvement can serve as a dynamic capability when it includes a comprehensive organizational context. Further, we study continuous improvement initiatives in five companies to investigate the practices used by them in each of the decision areas of our framework. This research adds to the conceptual understanding of continuous improvement and results in grounded propositions about critical areas of infrastructure for continuous improvement.     

Dynamic capabilities for orchestrating digital innovation ecosystems: Conceptual integration and research opportunities

While most previous research on orchestration of digital innovation ecosystems has examined governance structures, our knowledge of relevant dynamic capabilities remains abstract and lacks conceptual integration. This imbalance limits current knowledge to the extent that digital innovation ecosystem orchestration is mainly considered a structural issue. Based on a synthesis of related literature, we present a novel dynamic capabilities framework that builds on sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring capabilities for digital innovation ecosystem orchestration. We differentiate two major challenges addressed in orchestrating such ecosystems: component challenges and complement challenges. We propose six concrete routines that collectively help address these challenges. These include co-creating architectural knowledge, cultivating boundary objects, renegotiating system integration, screening complementors, co-specializing interfaces, and restructuring complementarities. We illustrate each of these routines with examples from the automotive sector. In addition, we sketch trajectories for future research both at the level of the individual routines and at the level of the overall framework.     

Problems in the development and use of managerial financial models

In this paper the author identifies two related problems in financial modelling. First, the problem of implementing financial decision theory in practical decision situations and, second, the need to develop existing managerial financial models. A discussion of organization decision processes indicates possible reasons for the relative failure of management science and financial theory based models in practice and the predominance of accounting based models. This analysis of strategic decision processes suggests key design features for the implementation of financial models. Finally, research orientated models designed using these guidelines are seen as appropriate media for the transfer of knowledge between financial decision theory and financial practice. This is seen as providing a tentative basis for the development of managerial financial models. Throughout the paper the author uses examples from his own experience in model building in instalment credit, and leasing financial intermediaries, i.e. “Finance Houses”.     

HRM practices for human and social capital development: effects on innovation capabilities

This paper analyzes the effect of systems of human resource management (HRM) practices on a company's innovation capabilities. To date, few studies have analyzed the way a firm may be more innovative by using specific sets of high-performance HRM practices from an intellectual capital-based view of the firm. From an extensive literature review, a model was established and tested through structural equation modelling, using the statistical technique of partial least squares. The study was applied to a sample of technological firms in Spain and the results show that high-profile personal HRM practices positively influence human capital while collaborative HRM practices influence social capital, which, in turn, affect innovation capabilities by means of, respectively, total and partial mediating effects. Managerial and HRM implications of these results are drawn by the authors, highlighting the idea of paying increased attention to managing firms with a focus on strategic intangible assets in order to gain competitive advantages based on innovation.     

Dealing with rough times: a capabilities development approach to surviving and thriving

Leaders during a deep and prolonged downturn should introduce organizational practices that build capability in the organization, not only to withstand the uncertainties of rough times better, but also to emerge stronger for the future. We present a set of organization design changes that can create closer connections to the marketplace and better use knowledge in the organization to introduce new ways to deliver value while consuming fewer resources. During rapid change and extreme threats, steering the ship is not sufficient. Leaders must introduce approaches that tap employees' energies throughout the organization. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Dismantling the myths about managerial (in)capabilities in micro-firms. SEAM intervention-research to develop management practices

Extant literature on SMEs currently offers an incomplete and deterministic characterisation of micro-firms (M-Fs) that are not growth-oriented start-ups, so very little is known about the actual functioning and internal challenges that hinder the adoption of management practices of these companies, and how to facilitate their management development. Using the Socio-Economic Approach to Management (SEAM) as theoretical lens and SEAM intervention-research as methodology, the study uncovers myths in the managerial characterisation of micro-firms and suitable patterns of change management practices for them. Our research contributes to the study of M-Fs by being the first study specifically devoted to mature M-Fs, and by proposing a theoretical framework that shows the dynamic nature of the characteristics associated with M-Fs.     

A resource-based view of human resource management and organizational capabilities development

The aim of this research work was to analyse the role of human resource management in the development of organizational capabilities and its influence on the firm's performance from a resource-based view. Our results, from empirical research on a nation-wide sample of Spanish savings banks, suggest that human resource decisions, integrated in a human resource system, have an important influence on the development of organizational capabilities and on the firm's performance.     

The development of strategic manufacturing capabilities in emerging and developed markets

The purpose of this exploratory paper is to find differences in the occurrence of and the relationships between strategic capabilities for manufacturing firms in developed and emerging markets. To this end, a longitudinal approach is taken, and developments of capability structures in the two types of markets over time are analysed. By concentrating on strategic capabilities, this paper adds to the sparse literature on operations’ globalisation taking a resource-based, internal perspective.     

Bargaining over managerial contracts in delegation games: managerial power,contract disclosure and cartel behavior

Modern corporate governance codes include clauses requiring the disclosure of managerial compensation. Such codes have been installed to protect shareholders' interests. In this paper, we explore the impact of such disclosure on consumer welfare. We consider two‐stage delegation games in which owner‐shareholders negotiate about compensation with their managers in the game's first stage. At the end of the first stage, the managerial compensation contract outcomes of the bargaining process are publicly announced. In the second stage, Cournot competition evolves. We prove that sales delegation generates equilibria radically different from relative performance delegation. Using classical Cournot as the benchmark, contractual bargaining over sales compensation gives tougher product market competition—and hence higher consumer surplus. The opposite holds true for relative performance delegation. Then, cartel behavior is promoted, reducing consumer surplus. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Technological capabilities,resilience capabilities and organizational effectiveness

Abstract

Previous research has defined resilience as a desirable characteristic for an organization and its members to possess when circumstances adversely change. Resilience is analysed through different perspectives as organizational responses to external threats, organizational reliability or employee strengths. However, the role of resilience in enhancing organizational effectiveness is not fully understood. Grounded in organizational ambidexterity, the current research tests the value of resilience capabilities developed through specific Human Resource Practices (HRPs) in the context of ever-changing market conditions. This paper argues that as well as technological capabilities, HRPs that build resilience within an organization are needed to successfully implement technological change. Resilience capabilities are a mediating factor between technological capabilities and organizational effectiveness, whilst environment dynamism and competitive intensity are moderators of this relationship. Using a primary sample of 205 manufacturing firms, a model is presented and tested using Structural Equation Modelling. The results reinforce the importance of HRPs in building resilience which helps firms to continuously adjust to change and subsequently enhance their organizational effectiveness.     

Dynamic research environments: a development model

The paper outlines a model for the development of dynamic and innovative research environments in national innovation systems. The development model is based on an in-depth study and analysis of fifteen research environments selected by the Danish Council for Research Policy as examples of dynamic and innovative public research environments. According to the model, research environments follow certain stages with respect to epistemological, organizational and socio-cultural development that either enable them to advance from one stage to the next in the model or impede this advance. The consequence of the latter is either a static state or dissolution. In the long run only dynamic and innovative research environments survive. The analysis of the cases studied identifies several preconditions that have to be present in such research environments in order for them to emerge, develop and finally reach excellence. The results presented here may well be a valid tool for policy-makers, particularly in Europe where the framework conditions for public R&D are comparable to the Danish.     

Competition and managerial autonomy

I formalize and challenge the idea that competition forces managers to make better choices, thus favoring managerial autonomy in decision making. If managers care about keeping their position or avoiding interference, and they can make strategic choices that affect both expected firm profits and their riskiness, even if competition at first pushes the manager towards profit maximization, further increases in competition might lead him to take excessive risks. To curb this possibility, the principal owner optimally reduces the degree of autonomy granted to the manager. Hence, higher levels of managerial autonomy are more likely for intermediate levels of competition.     

Firm's resilience to supply chain disruptions: Scale development and empirical examination

This paper expands our understanding of factors that contribute to development of firm resilience to supply chain disruptions. In doing so, we operationalize firm resilience to understand how supply chain disruption orientated firms can develop resilience to supply chain disruptions. We find that supply chain disruption orientation alone is not enough for a firm to develop resilience. Supply chain disruption oriented firms require the ability to reconfigure resources or have a risk management resource infrastructure to develop resilience. The way in which supply chain disruption oriented firms develop resilience through resource reconfiguration or risk management infrastructure depends on the context of the disruption as high impact or low impact. In a high impact disruption context, resource reconfiguration fully mediates the relationship between supply chain disruption orientation and firm resilience. In a low impact disruption context, supply chain disruption orientation and risk management infrastructure have a synergistic effect on developing firm resilience.