The economic modeling of strategy process: ‘clean models’ and ‘dirty hands’

We argue that our model of learning in alliances ( Khanna, Gulati and Nohria, 1998 ) is an economic model of strategy process. We discuss implications of this view for the strategy process vs. content debate, for the appropriate testing of models of strategy process, and for the role of economics in helping understand strategy process. We propose that the ‘clean models’ from economics and ‘dirty hands’ of traditional process inquiries offer research designs that are complementary rather than incompatible ( Hirsch, Michaels and Friedman, 1987 ). Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The ‘Flexible Firm’: Strategy and Segmentation

This paper draws together and provides further analysis of two research projects commissioned by the Department of Employment, with a focus on employers' labour use strategies in Britain. It seeks to place on a firmer statistical basis arguments about the presence and growth of the ‘flexible firm’, and it draws also on case-study data to explore some of the issues relating to flexibility and strategy. Our conclusions are that there has been a marked absence of strategy in this area, and reasons for this are explored, as are the implications for gender and segmentation in the labour market.     

Perceptions of Industrial Design: The “Means” and the “Ends”

It is widely accepted that industrial design can play an important role in the development of innovative products, but integrating design‐thinking into new product development (NPD) is a challenge. This is because industrial designers have very different perspectives and goals than the other members of the NPD team, and this can lead to tensions. It has been postulated that the communications between NPD managers and industrial designers are made more difficult because each group uses very different language. This research made the first empirical investigation of the language used by designers and managers in describing “good” and “poor” industrial design. In‐depth interviews were conducted with a sample of 19 managers and industrial designers at five leading companies. Multiple sources of data were utilized, including the repertory grid technique to elicit the key attributes of design, from the perspective of managers and designers. Using a robust, systematic coding approach to maximize the validity and reliability of qualitative data analysis, it was established that managers and industrial designers do not use a completely different vocabulary as previously supposed. Rather, it was found that managers and industrial designers use some common terms augmented by additional terms that are specific to each group: managers are commercially orientated in the “ends” they want to achieve and designers perceive more antecedents (“means”) necessary to achieve their “ends”—iconic design. This research led to a grounded conceptual model of the role of design, as perceived by managers and industrial designers. The implications of the results achieved are wide: they indicate how managers and designers can interact more productively during NPD; they highlight the need for more research on the language of designers and managers; and they point to issues that need to be covered in the education of industrial designers. Finally, this work suggests how managers and designers can engage in a more fruitful dialogue that will help to make NPD more productive.     

Demanding Work — The Paradox of Job Quality in the Affluent Economy – Francis Green

Books reviewed: Demanding Work — The Paradox of Job Quality in the Affluent Economy by Francis Green. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2006, xiii + 225 pp., ISBN 0 6911 17128, £26.95.     

‘The Magnificent 7[am]?’ Work‐life articulation beyond the 9[am] to 5[pm] ‘norm’

This article focuses on the work‐life ‘balance’ challenges of those who work in organisations that operate beyond standard hours. The concept of work‐life articulation is utilised to examine the experiences and practicalities of attempting to reconcile the, often competing, demands of employment and family life. Qualitative research was conducted in two private sector businesses and one‐third sector organisation in the UK during the onset of the 2008 financial crisis. The findings reveal increasing competitive pressures, efficiency drives and work intensification. ‘Business needs’ are prioritised over care responsibilities, and in the private sector organisations there is declining flexible working with a reassertion of the management prerogative. This article contributes to current debates over work‐life ‘balance’ and highlights variable, changeable and unpredictable working time arrangements that permeate non‐standard hours, which creates additional complexities and challenges for family time schedules and routines.     

“Am I Getting It or Not?” The Practices Involved in “Trying to Consume” a New Technology

In recent years, high rates of failure of technology‐based products have spurred interest in understanding the psychological and sociological barriers to consumer learning of technological innovations. The main focus of this research was to examine the learning process and consumers’ coping mechanisms when they encounter technological innovations. A study was designed to understand the learning process in real time as consumers engaged in a set of activities associated with the novel interface. The goal was to investigate how consumers cope with high levels of complexity during their initial interactions with a technology‐based product and how their coping strategies may hinder the learning process. Verbal protocol measures were used in order to understand the consumer's learning process as he or she interacts with a technology‐based product in real time. They were told that they would have to think aloud while performing certain tasks and that their thoughts would be recorded for further analysis. The personal digital assistant (PDA) with handwriting recognition as its interface was chosen for this study. The main task for the participants was to learn how to use Graffiti writing—i.e., the product's handwriting recognition software. We proceeded to a thematic analysis in which interpretations were generated by the researchers going back and forth between the transcribed texts, the developing interpretation, the new interface itself, and also the relevant literature. The results suggest that the new product's interface serves to structure the consumer's learning process even as he or she responds in relatively unstructured ways. The findings identify three basic factors that interfere with the learning process during consumers’ initial interactions with a technological innovation: interface and functionality practices, social influence, and causal attributions. Specifically, the results suggest that in designing technology‐based products there is a gap between the levels of know‐how between the manufacturer and the user. The challenge for manufacturers is to understand the consumer's learning experience and coping strategies and provide mechanisms that would make the transition easy and intuitive. This could be achieved by incorporating into the new interface some degree of flexibility that will allow consumers to modify tasks based on their preferences, or by including indicators that will provide feedback to the user. Furthermore, in the context of communication strategies, in order to minimize the negative impact that prior knowledge and social influence may have on learning, marketers could communicate specific steps describing how to use the new interface.     

The optimal degree of diversification in ‘high-tech’ firms*

The literature on innovation and investment contains two contradictory strands. One emphasizes investment diversification as a form of risk reduction. The other emphasizes specialization as a way to exploit economies of scale and learning effects. The literature is surveyed and a simple model of optimal specialization is developed to clarify the issue. Comparative static results are presented.     

‘When the Going Gets Tough’ . . . : Recession and the Resilience of Workplace Partnership

Drawing on longitudinal research in an engineering multinational corporation, this article considers the resilience of workplace partnership under conditions of retrenchment. In line with extant literature, the twin influences of trade union power and competitive strategy are seen to significantly shape the durability of partnership. Beyond these determinants, trust and managerial skill and political sensitivity are deemed important moderators. The findings nonetheless suggest that the favourable alignment of these factors may not represent a sufficient bulwark in those situations where the axis of partnership is local, within the context of otherwise centrally coordinated industrial relations.     

The Performance of US Corporations: 1981–1994

This study decomposes the performance of US public firms between 1981 and 1994 into year, industry, corporate-focus and firm effects. Performance is measured by Tobin’s q, accounting profitability, and a hybrid measure. The results show that firm effects were more important to performance than industry effects, although industry effects had a large permanent component. Corporate focus was not important. The stylized facts suggest that competitive advantages – that is, differences between direct competitors in the same industry – were at least as important as industry influences on performance. Industry influences were more predictable and sustainable than competitive advantages, however.     

‘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.