Strategic automation and decision-making authority

This paper studies how automation impacts the structure of decision-making in organizations. We develop a theoretical model of a firm, where a principal makes a decision about how much to prioritize the new product development division when the division is led by a manager who holds private information specific to this division and has misaligned preferences with the principal. The principal chooses whether to decentralize this decision by delegating it to the manager, resulting in more informed but unbiased decision. In this setting, we investigate how automation which reduces operational variability may alter this choice of organizational structure. The findings from our analysis show that firms deploy automation resources differently depending on their organizational structure: centralized firms choose to automate divisions that face more uncertainty, while decentralized firms do the opposite. Moreover, increasing access to automation results in higher centralization of decision-making in firms. In the extensions, we show that the strategic use of automation reduces the informativeness of intrafirm communication, and also, that automation can be a strategic substitute to monetary contracts.     

Do norms of decision-making styles,organizational design and management affect performance of Japanese firms? an exploratory study of medium and large firms

The success and resilience of Japanese firms have led many scholars and practitioners to theorize and speculate about the impact of what they have termed the 'Japanese management style' upon performance. There have been few studies that have attempted to explore empirically the links between the way Japanese firms organize, manage and decide, and their performance. This paper investigates the association between norms of decision-making style, organizational design and management, and some measures of firm performance. The empirical pattern of norms was assessed on the basis of responses of a random sample (N = 349) of Japanese managers. The study demonstrates that while there appears to be no support for the proposition that certain norms universally affect performance, in some sectors the impacts of norms on decision-making style, organizational design and management may be significant. The study concludes with the implications for theory building of this empirical exploration.     

Venture capital: Investor and investee perspectives

The venture capitalist plays a crucial role in, the startup and growth phases of entrepreneurial firms. Yet, the burgeoning but still relatively modest venture capital research literature continues to be characterized by isolated studies of how venture capitalists raise capital and select investments; little effort has been made to consolidate and integrate these findings. In particular, little is known about the impact of the venture capitalist's decision upon the entrepreneurial process.This paper has two objectives: The first is to review the available material and literature on venture capital decision-making and its impact on entrepreneurship. The second objective is to elucidate a research methodology which involves three different units of analysis as they relate to venture capital decision-making: the venture capitalist, the deal which was funded, and the proposal which was denied. Results from these three inter-related studies by the authors are reported.     

企业数字化转型与高管薪酬契约有效性

以2008—2020年沪深A股非金融类上市公司为研究对象,实证检验企业数字化转型对高管薪酬契约有效性的影响。结果显示,企业数字化转型显著降低了高管薪酬-业绩敏感性,并增加了企业高管的超额薪酬。机制检验发现,企业数字化转型赋予了管理层集中的决策自主权,弱化了外部对管理层经营管理行为的监督力度,增强了管理层利用其高度集中的权力影响董事会薪酬契约制定的能力,获得了更多与企业业绩不匹配的私有收益,从而降低了高管薪酬契约有效性。异质性分析发现,在内部控制质量或信息披露质量较高的企业,企业进行数字化转型对高管薪酬契约有效性的负面效应会得到抑制。研究结论为全面认识企业数字化转型的经济后果提供了经验证据,同时也为数字化转型公司高管薪酬契约的制定提供了一定的参考。     

Re-visiting collaborative behavior in supply networks – structural embeddedness and the influence of contextual changes and sanctions

This study considers decision making beyond a dyadic buyer-supplier context to the network context. Decisions made by firms are shaped by behavioral norms within the supply network as perceived by the decision makers. Firms can perceive themselves to be part of a collaborative regime or one in which the potential for non-cooperation is high. Further, the ability to put sanctions on non-cooperating firms could shape the overall behavioral patterns in the network. To gain further insights into these aspects and their interactive effects on firm behavior, our study investigates decision-making in supply network by means of behavioral experiments. By organizing practicing managers in a supply network, the study investigates the role of structural embeddedness, incentive structure, and sanctioning mechanisms on the level of collaboration. The results of this study confirm that while sanctions are detrimental for collaborative behavior in a supply network, they play an important role when the underlying norms of governance of such a network are perturbed. The results show that structural embeddedness provides a context that aids adaptive collaborative behavior by firms that are part of the supply network. Once the incentive structure is altered such that there is a higher payoff from defection, the adaptive collaborative behavior is replaced by a behavior in which firms try to maximize their returns and forego collaborative decision-making behavior.     

The role of inward foreign direct investment on entrepreneurship

This paper investigates whether foreign firms had a positive impact on entrepreneurial activity measured by the net creation of firms. Using firm-level panel data for the Portuguese manufacturing and service industries over the period 1986 to 2000, we test whether the impact of foreign firms on firms’ entry depends on the number and size of previous foreign entrants. Overall, the results cast some doubts on the influence of foreign firms in assisting entrepreneurial activity. The impact of a first foreign investment is, in general, positive but the marginal impact of additional investments appears to be negative.     

SUCCESS IN DECISION MAKING: DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS, DIFFERING REASONS FOR SUCCESS

In an attempt to elucidate some possible conditions for success in managerial decision making, data were analysed from 53 cases of decisions in eight British organizations, five business firms and three non-business organizations (two universities and a District of the National Health Service). No clear relationships between features of the processes of making the decisions, and their successfulness were found until the business firms and the non-business organizations were separated. Clear differences then showed up, relatively speaking, in the conditions conductive to success. In the business firms, a successful decision was more likely to result from a decision-making process in which resources were available. In other words, in business a successful decision is most likely when sufficient information and sufficient means of implementation are to hand. By contrast, in the universities and the Health District, a successful decision was associated more with the social qualities of the decision-making process itself. In other words, in non-business organizations a successful decision is most likely when the right people participate and the people at the very top do not interfere too much.     

Evaluating the operational performance of knowledge-based industries: the perspective of intellectual capital

Performance evaluation is more than a quantitative concept but should also take industrial characteristics into account in order to form an accurate evaluation. In the past, evaluations of the operational performance of knowledge-based industries have missed out a significant factor, which is intellectual capital (IC). By adopting data envelopment analysis (DEA), a multiple-objective decision making method, this study aims to construct an efficiency evaluation model for the Taiwanese digital content industry based on the perspective of IC. The empirical results suggest that the scale of the digital content companies does play an important role in influencing the operating efficiency. The firms have a small amount of capital can still attain optimal efficiency, from the perspective of IC. In addition, human resource capital and customer capital are the most significant influential factors that deserve digital content firms’ attention. It is suggested that enterprises in the digital content industries should focus more on managing their IC. DEA can provide the semiconductor firms’ operations with insights into resource allocation and competitive advantage as well as help with strategic decision-making.     

再造成本不确定性对再造投资的效应分析

本文在一定假设条件下,对进行产品制造和再造混合生产的垄断制造商建立两期模型,研究再造成本的不确定性对制造商再造投资和最优决策的影响效应。研究表明,在某些条件下,再造成本不确定性对再造投资具有一定促进作用。制造商可以根据自身条件,适当选择再造投资,文章也为其再造投资决策提供了依据。     

DECISION-MAKING IN CONDITIONS OF EXTREME UNCERTAINTY

In the last few years management has been forced to take decisions in conditions of extreme uncertainty. One consequence of this has been an increase in the use of formal methods of analysis in major decision problems. This paper describes some observations on how companies were handling decision-making under uncertainty, made during a S.S.R.C. sponsored research project on the influence of computer methods in planning and decision-making, viz.

• 1 Managers were consciously handling uncertainty by evaluating their major decisions in the light of several possible alternative forecasts.
• 2 Statistical decision theory was not used because, though in theory it was ideally suited for this situation, in practice management had the following objections to the use of this technique: (a) It assumed an accuracy of subjective probability estimates which was unrealistic in real life. (b) It required the use of artificial criteria of choice which were totally unacceptable to senior management. (c) It over-simplified the decision-making process.
• 3 In the thirty-two companies visited, management was using a systems analysis approach to decision-making involving the use of decision trees to structure the decision. Thereafter, instead of carrying out a probalistic analysis, a full evaluation to determine the quantitative and qualitative results would be carried out for each feasible path though the tree. This would be followed by an iterative elimination process.
• 4 Management were also endeavouring to cope with uncertainty by being more adaptive and flexible in their decision-making and are developing contingency or ‘fall-back’ strategies. Plans were not looked on as rigid blue-prints, but more as loosely linked frameworks of decision trees with the actual path through the decision tree dependent on future events.

     

Managing Technological,Sociopolitical, and Institutional Change in the New Normal

A New Normal environment for business has emerged in the years after the 2008 financial crisis based on numerous changes in the world's economic, technological, demographic, and sociopolitical factors. This combination of changes has created a New Normal environment for firms with major implications for managers, strategists, and entrepreneurs alike. It has resulted in an environment with new challenges and opportunities that are considerably different from what firms had to contend with in the years previous. In this paper, we present the main changes that characterize the current New Normal business environment and highlight some key implications for strategy and management. Then, we present the nine articles in this special issue dealing with different dimensions of this new environment for firms. Subsequently, we outline some future research questions that could help to advance our knowledge of the New Normal environment and its implications for firms and management theories. In examining the New Normal, it is important to be reminded that the world is indeed round and even small actions on one side of the globe can have a major impact on organizations on the other side of the globe.     

Real Options, International Entry Mode Choice and Performance

abstract    Recent scholarship suggests that combining insights from real option theory with transaction cost economics may improve decision-making models. In response to this suggestion we develop and test a model of international entry mode choice that draws from both perspectives. Examining samples of Dutch and Greek firms entering Central and Eastern European markets, we found that adding real option variables to a transaction cost model significantly improved its explanatory power. Additionally, firms that used the combined real option/transaction cost predicted choices had significantly higher levels of subsidiary performance satisfaction than firms that did not. Our results suggest that effective managerial decision-making may involve more than mere transaction cost minimization considerations; real option value creation insights also appear to influence the success of decision outcomes.     

Impact of trade liberalization on firm's labour demand by skill: The case of Tunisian manufacturing

This paper investigates the impact of the trade liberalization process in Tunisia on employment by distinguishing different skills and different types of firms using micro level data covering the period of 1983–1994. There is considerable disagreement among analysts on the impact of recent trade reforms upon labour. Our contribution to these debates in this paper is essentially an empirical issue. The analysis of a Tunisian firm's data may be viewed as an attempt to apprehend how employment in Tunisia, a developing country, adjusted to the trade reforms. Using micro-level detail on individual firms, we are able to trace the relationship between changes in trade policies and manufacturing employment at firm level and by skill. Although trade reforms are generally implemented at the sector level, their effects may vary significantly across firm characteristics such as output orientation. We measure the effects of trade policy on employment according to different types of firms. We also associate changes in employment directly with a measure of change in trade protection, rather than linking them to changes in imports and exports which would be more common. The results suggest that the impact of trade liberalization on labour demand depends on a firm's characteristics. In particular, the estimates obtained suggest that trade liberalization has beneficial effects on employment for exporting-firms. Conversely, trade liberalization has negative and disciplinary effects on employment for domestically oriented firms. The reduction in tariff levels conducted in this first phase of liberalization in Tunisia seems to have had effects with different intensity on unskilled labour and on skilled labour; this justifies the examination of these two skills.     

Industry,management capabilities and firms' competitiveness: An empirical contribution

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of strategic factors that explain the competitive position reached by firms in their activity sector. We have used a survey carried out in 1999 on 287 executives that belong to the service sector in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. We have analysed the differential factors that distinguish the strategic performance of competitive vis‐à‐vis non‐competitive firms, by jointly assessing the variables representative of the sector (five competitive forces defined by Porter) and variables of an internal feature. Finally, we have moved the level of analysis from the industry to the firm; specifically, we have focused on managerial capabilities due to the significant role played by managers in the strategic decision‐making process. The use of cluster analysis to classify firms depending on their degree of competitiveness and the application of the See5 induction algorithm of rules and decision trees to determine the differential factors that distinguish competitive from non‐competitive firms, provide a methodological framework for the most significant contributions of this work. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decision-making in the two-act antitrust decision problem

This paper focuses on the antitrust decision-making process as it pertains to anti-merger policy as a special case of the more general two-act decision problem. We employ the Analytic Hierarchy Process to analyze some prominent antitrust merger decision. The analysis suggests that the courts have failed to give potential competition its due when it acts to dampen any alleged market power accruing to the market leader, which in turn suggests that the defendants would be well advised to reorient the weight that they give to potential competition in designing their defense.     

Disentangling Alliance Management Processes: Decision Making, Politicality, and Alliance Performance

abstract    Using a sample of 106 organizations engaged in strategic alliances, we develop and test a framework of alliance-related organizational decision-making processes and their impact on alliance performance. With regard to direct effects, our results show a negative impact of decision-making recursiveness and no significant relationship for openness and procedural rationality. Acknowledging the importance of the organization's micropolitical context in which these decision processes are embedded, we also test the moderating influence of politicality. Our findings provide support for our hypotheses that in a context of low politicality, the decision-making characteristics of openness and procedural rationality have a positive influence, whereas recursiveness negatively affects alliance performance. In a context of high politicality, however, openness and procedural rationality exert a negative influence, and the negative impact of recursiveness is aggravated. We suggest that alliance-related decision making cannot be adequately understood without explicitly considering the micropolitical context in organizations.     

企业集团投资决策方法的发展趋势

在针对决策方法选择对企业集团投资的重要性上,本文主要阐述了企业集团投资决策方法的发展趋势。企业集团投资决策过程中所遵循的决策准则表现为多元化和核心性,更加突出了决策方法的战略性要求;而未来的企业集团投资决策方法,其主流趋势仍旧是以项目评价为基础。不以现金流量为基础的评价方法完善了传统投资决策方法,而且定性与定量方法相结合的趋势将企业集团投资管理推向了更高的发展阶段,使投资决策方法逐渐地向模拟化发展。     

CEO自恋对创新绩效的影响研究 ——基于企业异质性的调节作用

从CEO心理特征视角出发,探究了CEO自恋与企业创新绩效之间的关系。以2011—2016年A股135家上市公司的纵向数据为样本,通过广义估计方程模型进行实证检验。研究发现:CEO自恋对企业创新绩效具有显著促进作用。进一步研究发现,CEO自恋对企业创新绩效的影响受到企业异质性的调节作用:相比小规模企业,大规模企业中CEO自恋对创新绩效的促进作用更显著;相比低财务杠杆企业,高财务杠杆企业中CEO自恋对创新绩效的促进作用更显著;相比非国有企业,国有企业中CEO自恋对创新绩效的促进作用更显著。     

The legislation of environmental disclosures in three Nordic countries—a comparison

This paper compares the legislation in Denmark, Norway and Sweden concerning what kind of environmental information firms must disclose. These three Nordic countries have great similarities regarding accounting legislation and standards. However, Denmark has chosen a different way to force firms to disclose their environmental performance compared with Norway and Sweden. Danish firms must deliver separate ‘green accounts’, while Norwegian and Swedish firms are bound to report on environmental issues in the administrative report. The Norwegian and Swedish firms' information mainly addresses the financial consequences of environmental impact and the Norwegian legislation is also found to be more extensive than the Swedish legislation. The information from the Danish firms addresses society in general. The comparison indicates some interesting topics for further analysis, e.g. how the extensive demands in Norway for information about products' impacts when discharged may be fulfilled. As a background for this comparison, an outline of the discussions about voluntary versus regulated environmental information is given as well as an overview of some international standards and recommendations concerning firms' environmental disclosures. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment.