Top executive commitment to the status quo: Some tests of its determinants

Some top executives are more committed to the status quo—particularly to their organization's current strategy and leadership profile—than are others. Most empirical research on upper echelons treats psychological phenomena as a ‘black box’—the unobserved intervening mechanisms—that causes associations between more observable executive characteristics and organizational outcomes. In contrast, this paper attempts to directly examine the determinants of an important element of an executive's psychological orientation—commitment to the status quo (CSQ). We focus on a select set of variables which have been posited in prior research as determinants of executive CSQ, but which have not been directly tested for such a relationship. Based on a large-scale survey methodology, results suggest that an executive's tenure in an industry is a pronounced determinant of CSQ, and has significantly more impact than organizational tenure. As expected, the firm's current performance was found to be positively related to CSQ; this relationship was stronger in high-discretion than in low-discretion industries. Finally, the project reaffirms a well known human tendency: incumbent CEOs tend to believe that their eventual successors should be just like them.     

高层管理团队认知研究综述

自1984年Hambrick和Mason提出高层梯队理论以来,学术界掀起了对高层管理团队研究的热潮,近来对高层管理团队认知成为学者们研究的热点并取得了大量的研究成果。通过对这些成果进行综述,探讨认知派别、共享心智模型、社会认知等认知理论对企业战略决策进而对组织绩效的影响,分析已有研究中存在的局限并提出从人力资本的视角,将高层管理团队的认知特征与人力资本的产权与积累状况联系起来,明确高层管理团队认知特征与战略决策之间的作用机制。     

Strategic decision models: Integrating different perspectives

Different perspectives of strategic decision-making and outcomes have been advanced in the literature. Among those are the rational normative, external control, and strategic choice models. The current research examined hypothesized effects of factors associated with these three perspectives on strategic acquisition decisions. Strong support was found for the rational/analytical normative choice perspective with objective criteria explaining the greatest amount of total explained variance in evaluation of target firms. However, industry and executive characteristics also produced main effects on target firm evaluations. Furthermore, the strategic decision models were found to vary by industry and executive characteristics of age, educational degree type, amount and type of work experience, and level (CEO and below). The results suggest that strategic decision models are quite complex with significant implications for future research and for strategic decision-making.     

Mapping the perspectives of coopetition and technology-based strategic networks: A case of smartphones

The aim of this study is to introduce and rearrange various coopetition perspectives and consider their implications in the context of a technology-based case study example from the smartphone industry and especially with the state of strategic networks between smartphone producers and operating systems at one chosen moment (autumn 2012). The case study analysis is based on a strategic map of the (technical) coalitions of firms (cf. Näsi et al., 2001). The most important introduced coopetitive features are present in the studied case. This study emphasizes in the literature review the dichotomy between contextual and procedural coopetition. However, this dichotomy is not solid in practice according to the studied case: the same firm might simultaneously have both contextual and procedural features. The study reveals this overlapping and multidimensional character of coopetition generally and its technological dimension in practice, and the general need to continue to study these coopetitive features. The study shows that contemporary theoretical typologies and frameworks of coopetition require experiments in order to direct the coopetition discussions toward the practical phenomena of business.     

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.     

Consensus formation during strategic change

This paper offers a refined conceptualization of consensus formation and demonstrates in three organizations how this conceptualization enables us to uncover new patterns of consensus building. It describes a longitudinal study which investigated consensus formation in three organizations undergoing major strategic change. The study explored whether consensus building occurred during the strategic change and, if so, how. Initial participants of consensus were also investigated as well as changes in the scope of participants in consensus. Consensus building did occur, but contrary to some views less through an increase in the strength of consensus and more through an increase in the scope of consensus. Additionally, initial consensus was not located among members of the top management team, but more within an interest group whose members benefited from the given direction of the change. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attributive change in top management teams as a driver of strategic change

This study examines the role of top management team (TMT) member succession in breaking organizational inertia. We compare the impact of two types of change in TMTs—in member number and demographic heterogeneity—on subsequent strategic reorientation using data on the diversification activities of firms in the Japanese textile industry. Our findings suggest that executive succession does not trigger strategic change unless succession entails change in the values and interests of executives embedded in their demographic traits.

浅析监理工程师对工程变更的管理

监理工程师在监理过程中,经常会遇到工程变更。现在经常用简单的、生硬的行政手段处理,成为监理工程师在监理过程的焦点之一。我国已进入WTO,应从目前的规定开始,向国际通用的处理模式转变。本阐述工程变更的重要性、范围、性质,以及变更件的编制,变更价款的确定等管理模式。     

The intersection of strategic management and supply chain management

Strategic management and supply chain management (SCM) have overlapping interests, yet there has been little exchange between them. We examine areas of overlap and suggest how insights from each field can complement and support the other. Specifically, several of strategic management's theories and its emphasis on explaining firm profits should be useful to SCM. SCM offers to strategic management a new level of analysis and possibly a new type of organization. Overall, we argue that increased interaction between these important areas will benefit knowledge development in both and thereby enhance organizations' ability to meet their goals.     

COMPETING IN THE NEW ECONOMY: MANAGING OUT OF BOUNDS

This commentary was distributed at the Mexico City meeting of the Strategic Management Society, and forms the basis for the Call for Papers made for the 1996 SMS meeting to be held in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, November 10–13, 1996 at The Pointe Hilton Resort. The Editors of the SMJ thought it worth drawing to our readers' attention and offer it here as an interesting perspective on our field, the issues it now faces, and by implication, what research and practice must confront over the years ahead.