A behavioral approach to strategy—what's the alternative?

The strategy field has generally been viewed as somewhat fragmented with the primary ‘fault line’ stemming from the divide between economic and behavioral approaches. It is argued here that this is a false divide as any but the most trivial problems require a behavioral act of representation prior to invoking a deductive, ‘rational’ approach. In this sense, all approaches are behavioral. Once we recognize rationality as a process, then the pragmatic question becomes which among the imperfect mechanisms to guide choice and behavior may be more or less preferred. Such a viewpoint not only serves to help span the chasm of behavioral and economic approaches, but it may also connect the applied normative frameworks and approaches within the field to more theoretically grounded approaches. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pay and Working Time: Towards Organization-based Systems?

The decentralization of pay and working-time determination has widely been seen as marking a shift to organization-based arrangements. Empirical investigation has been limited, however. This paper examines the process and outcomes of pay and working time through a survey of over three hundred workplaces in four important sectors: printing, engineering, retail and health. It finds that a strong sector effect is demonstrated whether or not there are national arrangements in place, and that employers tend to move like ships in a convoy when managing change. It is argued that the convergence and durability of existing arrangements is associated first with the structural boundaries provided by markets, technology and labour; second with the increased importance of legitimacy in a context of growing uncertainty; and third as a result of shared information sources and networks. The strength of the sectoral reference raises significant questions for much of current organizational research, notably its focus on levels of pay and the relevance of the analytical distinction between the internal and external labour markets. The research also has a number of important policy implications, drawing attention to the pros as well as cons of co-ordination in pay and working-time.     

The prevention of major leaks—better inspection after construction?

“On the 26th September (1850) we were able to fix the first column in its place. From this time I took the general management of the building under my charge, and spent my time on the works–feeling that, unless the same person who made the drawings was always present to assign each part to its proper place in the structure, it would have been impossible to finish the building in time for the opening on the 1st of May.” Charles Fox, builder of the Crystal Palace, quoted by L. T. C. Rolt in “Victorian Engineering,” Penguin Books, 1970, p. 153.     

Speculative chemical research—how many eggs in a basket?

It is pointed out that the initial, speculative, phase of new product chemical research to a large extent consists of a search amongst a large number of formulations for potential new products. A probabilistic model of this process is described. The use of this model to suggest appropriate allocations of effort to individual projects, and a reasonable over-all spread of risk, is discussed and illustrated.     

Innovations—Doomed to Fail? Investigating Strategies to Overcome Passive Innovation Resistance

The constant and successful market introduction of new products is of major concern to companies throughout all industries. However, empirical research points to high failure rates of innovations, indicating that most new products fail as they are rejected by consumers due to their resistance to innovation. Several studies have confirmed the importance of passive innovation resistance as a dominant barrier, which has to be overcome before new product adoption can start. However, empirical evidence on how to overcome passive innovation resistance is still lacking. This study intends to address this gap by evaluating the effectiveness of marketing instruments (i.e., mental simulation and benefit comparison) to reduce negative effects of passive innovation resistance on new product adoption. The results of a scenario‐based experiment (n = 679) confirm high effectiveness for both instruments. However, the effectiveness varied with the type of passive innovation resistance present. More specifically, mental simulation was found to be the most effective instrument in the case of cognitive passive resistance, whereas benefit comparison was found to be most effective in the case of situational passive resistance. Thereby, the effect of both marketing instruments was stronger the more radical the new product was perceived. Hence, companies should assess the type of passive innovation resistance that is predominant in their target market, and align their choice of marketing instruments that accompany a new product launch to most effectively overcome passive innovation resistance. Employing such new product launch tactics should decrease initial market resistance and thus help companies in reducing innovation failure rates.     

CHINT>正泰?

一家企业英文商标的内涵会大于其中文商标?听起来有些超乎常理吧!但是在正泰的海外经销商眼中,这没准儿是个事实。南存辉站在正泰第四届国际营销大会的讲台上,环顾着台下将近200位来自世界各地的经销商代表们,他的心中应当充满了收获的喜悦,因为就在刚刚过去的前9个月里,正泰集团销售同比增长40%,出口同比增长100%以上,其中低压电器产业实现年均增长51.2%。早在两年前,IBM曾经发布过一个名为《中国企业国际化》的白皮书,在其中以苛刻的眼光选出了中国60家可以成功国际化的企业,虽然诸如中石油、中石化、中移动等国企巨头赫然排名在前,但是正泰却也     

Does a Mandatory Reduction of Standard Working Hours Improve Employees' Health Status?

Most of the empirical evidence regarding the impact of reductions of standard working hours analyzes its effects on employment outcomes, family life balance, and social networks, but there is no empirical evidence of its effects on health outcomes. This study uses panel data for France and Portugal and exploits the exogenous variation of working hours coming from labor regulation and estimates its impact on health outcomes (from 39 to 35 hours a week and from 44 to 40 hours a week, respectively). Results suggest that the mandatory reduction of standard working hours decreased the working hours of treated individuals (and not the hours of individuals in the control group). Results also suggest that the fact of being treated generated a negative (positive) effect on young males’ (females’) health in France. No effects on health outcomes were found for Portugal.     

2014年化工行业关注什么?

1月16日,中国石油和化学工业联合会公布了《2013年全国石油和化工行业形势分析及2014年展望》报告,为2013年我国石油化工行业的发展把脉问诊,并对2014年的趋势作出分析。那么,我国石化行业在过去一年的发展中,存在哪些问题？在接下来的一年中,又有哪些热点值得我们关注？为此,记者采访了中国石油和化学工业联合会常务副会长李寿生、中国石油和化学工业联合会信息与市场部主任赵志平、中国石油和化学工业联合会信息与市场部副主任祝昉。     

Who needs experts most? Board industry expertise and strategic change—a contingency perspective

Research summary: We analyze the effects of board industry expertise on corporate strategic change and the moderating role of institutional quality. We suggest that country‐level contingency factors mitigate the effect of experienced boards on strategy formation by providing alternative sources of information and control in strategic matters. We develop institutional quality as institutional information provision and institutional control provision to test our hypotheses on a sample of firms from MSCI Europe and the S&P 500. Our findings confirm that industry expertise is a salient driver of strategic change across countries. The strength of the effect, however, depends on the institutional quality. We submit that weak institutions require greater board industry expertise as an alternative channel of information and control. Management summary: This study provides new empirical evidence that experience in the firms' industries enables directors to increase strategic change. Our findings show that this effect is even stronger in countries with weak regulatory environments. We hereby provide guidance for multiple stakeholders. First, shareholders seeking a more active adjustment of their firms' strategies may want to compose boards that leverage such experienced directors. Second, directors can use their industry experience to control and to challenge managers better to move beyond the status quo. Third, managers lacking access to information on potential strategic change can use such experienced directors for strategic advice and as a source of information. Overall, we add to the understanding of the corporate board's role in shaping strategy and the influence of weak regulations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Howzat’—how do artefacts without matter,matter? The case of decision review systems in professional cricket

It has been argued that the social and material worlds are increasingly entangled as they become mediated by and experienced through virtual representations of live events. Virtual decision review systems in professional sport provide an albeit unusual case study example of such developments where virtual (re‐)representations of events are increasingly used in match play to inform adjudicator decisions concerning ‘what really happened’. This has prompted an ongoing debate in many sports over both the accuracy and appropriateness of these technologies for representing events which are often fast moving and difficult to judge with the human eye. We explore these issues using a sociomaterial practice lens and indicate the broader relevance of the case for basing judgements and decisions on virtual views of reality.     

Working more or working less? Contingent allocation of reseller effort in distribution channels

Because resellers in business markets typically represent multiple suppliers, a key variable in the study of channels of distribution is reseller allocation of effort, which involves understanding how much time and resources a reseller devotes to a supplier to help the supplier support its products. While allocation of effort is of vital importance to channel practitioners, it has been under studied in the academic literature. We propose a conceptual model based on the competing values framework, which suggests that firms balance different, changing, and incompatible challenges, making high performance outcomes difficult to attain. We suggest that these stressors, or channel concerns can be identified as an economic concern, a stability concern, a harmony concern, and an adaptation concern. Such concerns affect the allocation of reseller effort through two moderating conditions of the environment: territory volatility and territory stagnancy. An exploratory study featuring 26 semi-structured depth interviews and 162 responses from a survey of distributors in the brewing industry provide data for hypothesis testing. In general, good support is found for our model. Reseller allocation of effort is affected by the interaction of four channel concerns and two types of territory difficulties. Actionable managerial recommendations are provided.     

The Introduction of Works Councils in German Establishments — Rent Seeking or Rent Protection?

Some recent empirical studies seem to suggest that German works councils engage in rent-seeking activities rather than in the creation of joint establishment surplus. However, those cross-sectional studies do not address the issue of causation. We address this issue by investigating the factors that influence the employees' decision to introduce a works council in their establishment. Councils are more likely to be adopted in establishments with a very poor sales situation and poor employment growth. They are also more likely to be adopted in establishments where management does not pursue an expansive market strategy. Altogether, our results support the hypothesis that employees introduce works councils to protect the quasi-rents they have created by their efforts and human capital investments.     

Health Effects of Risky Lifestyles and Adverse Working Conditions: Are Older Individuals More Penalized?

Using unusually rich panel data from Denmark, we investigate differences by age in the health implications of risky lifestyles and adverse working conditions. Accounting for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity, overall, we find no health penalties for older workers (55 and over) compared to younger ones (18–34; 35–54). However, the former suffer more from the health consequences of risky lifestyles — especially the lack of consumption of fruit and vegetables and physical inactivity. Working conditions negatively relate with health, but fewer differences across age groups exist. Selection bias, namely the healthy worker effect, does not alter our results.     

Does experience help or hinder top managers? Working with different types of resources in Hollywood

Research summary: Research on the resource‐based view has begun to place more emphasis on the ability of managers to extract better performance from the resources that are available to them. In this paper, we show that prior experience can both help and hinder their ability to generate performance from various categories of resources. Further, we argue that the fungibility of each resource influences the opportunities managers have to use their experiences in order to find the best method to deploy them. We test our hypotheses by examining the ability of Hollywood film producers to generate results from financial, brand, and human resources. Our findings show that experienced producers can generate better performance from more fungible resources, but they actually achieve weaker results with less fungible resources. Managerial summary: Do more experienced top managers get better results from their resources? We examine this question for Hollywood film producers. Our results show that experience can really help when producers work with resources such as cash (budgets) and brand resources (such as film sequels). However, such experiences actually reduce performance when they work with some human resources, such as highly talented directors. We argue that experience can be most helpful when managers work with more fungible resources, which can be used in a variety of different ways but can actually hurt when they work with resources that are more constrained in how they can be deployed. Under ideal circumstances, we find that experienced producers can generate nearly 40 percent more revenue with the right mix of resources. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Employee Stock Purchase Plans — Gift and Incentive? Evidence from a Multinational Corporation

Employee share purchase plans (ESPPs) give free or discounted shares of stock to workers who buy shares in the hope that the greater share ownership will retain workers, build loyalty and raise productivity, as in gift exchange models. Using measures of workers’ organizational loyalty and sense of ownership in a multinational firm that puts the ESPP at the heart of its compensation policy, we find that workers who join the ESPP have lower turnover intentions and do less on‐the‐job search than others, motivated in part by gift exchange reciprocity, and also respond to the group incentive of ownership with greater work effort, longer hours, and lower absence rates. Workers in workplaces with high perceived rates of ESPP participation are more likely to intervene against shirkers. The results appear robust to the selectivity of who joins the ESPP. The mix of gifting shares to workers who buy shares and the group incentive of ownership makes ESPPs a unique dual form of compensation.